Do you think that taking care of yourself is selfish? How do you feel about self-care and having your set of self care routines in your daily life?

If you are not sure about why is important to have a self-care routine, today we will be talking about that, about why having self care routines is not selfish but is a necessity if you want to do better, get the most out of your life and feel at your best.

We will talk about how implementing a self care routine can change your life, what type of self care routines you can include in your life so you can create your personalized plan and I’ll share with you my story about how my life changed when I started adding daily self care routines.

Since I was young, I was always curious about how to work in harmony with our body, and about the ability that the body has to heal itself, but I started getting more interested in self care, well being and performance when I was diagnosed with my second autoimmune disease years ago.

When the doctor’s first suggestion was to give in to the fact that I would just need to take a pill for the rest of my life, it didn’t resonate with me, and I decided to take charge. 

I overhauled my life. I did a full lifestyle change, starting with my nutrition, my sleeping habits, my stress management, the products I used, the way I exercised, I worked on my limiting beliefs, did mindset upgrades and plenty of personal development work.

I worked on addressing my primary body needs (sleep, nutrition, hydration), I worked on my mindset, and I started nourishing my spirit.

The journey became one of self-discovery and tremendous growth, and as I saw (and still see) the multiple physical, mental and spiritual improvements in my life.

I’ve personally experienced how one small change has ripple effects in all aspects of our lives and how those changes stack up on each other and become huge leaps over time. 

What I discovered in my journey was that taking care of my well-being first impacted everything else in my life. 

I had been walking around with a half-full tank. I didn’t know I had so much more in me to give until I allowed myself to explore, and supported my body, mind, and soul to become their best.

All the physical changes were amazing, I stopped having IBS, I stopped having frequent migraines, I stopped being bloated, and my energy stabilized, I stopped waking up groggy and with aches and pains….

But the truth is that they are just the tip of the iceberg, these changes caused me to change my way of thinking, my way of reacting to problems, my way of seeing life and this made me grow into this new better version of me and even helped me finally discovered what I wanted to do with my life.  

I developed the ability to deal with exhaustion and overwhelm and prevent burnout before it started. 

I improved my performance, my memory increased, my focus improved, my creativity flourished, I learned how to start maximizing life while managing stress and exhaustion.

I want all of that to happen for you too.

You deserve to life your life to the maximum, feeling energized and excited and feeling your best. Without pains and aches, without being exhausted, stressed and overwhelmed. 

You deserve to be focused and creative so you can flourish in your professional and personal life. 

I would say, start focusing on your self care is not selfish it should be a priority that if you take seriously will bring enormous results on everything else that you do. 

So what type of self care routines can you implement in your life to start maximizing your life and your well being?

There are plenty of ideas, but I’ll share with you some of the basic principles to include in your routine based on my personal experience, as well as on science and positive psychology basics.

If you want to maximize your life through self-care routines, it's essential to focus on a holistic approach that encompasses various aspects of well-being. You’ll want to focus not only in supporting your body but also your mind and soul.

When you plan for your ideal self care routine consider the following:

1. Include exercise regularly to maintain physical health and well-being. Think about what type of movement you enjoy doing, going to the gym, home workouts, stretching, yoga.. I started doing hot yoga when I changed my lifestyle and I felt in love with it. What do you like?

2. Ensure proper fuel intake through nutritious meals and/or fasting. Start your day with fuel, whether it's a healthy breakfast or a cup of coffee, what is going to set you up for success? What you want to look for in the morning is to have a meal that will keep your blood sugar stable for the rest of the day, include protein and healthy fats with your carbs.

3. Add practices like mindfulness and meditation for mental clarity and focus. You can try also journaling, or breathwork.

4. Ensure you cultivate social support and your connections for emotional well-being. Allow time during your days/weeks to connect with others. Who can you text and tell them that you are thinking about them? How about a weekly meet with your friends? How are you connecting with your family?

5. Engage in gratitude practices to foster a positive mindset. This doesn’t need to be a long practice, you can just write down three things that you are grateful for each night, or start with something simpler, like me and my husband do; every night, I ask the question, what are you grateful for today? And we both reflect and answer the question just before we go to sleep.

6. When you are looking into adding a self care routine to your life, think about the idea of surfing your biorhythms and adjusting your energy levels accordingly. Understand when you perform better. During the day, are you more creative in the morning, afternoon, at night? Are you a morning person or not? Work with your circadian rhythms to maximize your wellbeing.

7. Take necessary rests when your energy dips and focus intensely during peak energy moments. Ensure you allow time for rest and relaxation whenever planning for your self care. 

8. Prioritize active recovery to prevent burnout and maintain peak performance. Schedule active recovery sessions at different time intervals (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly) to recharge and rejuvenate. Include a mix of recovery activities like sauna sessions, massages, workouts, nature walks, and social connections.

9. Focus on protecting your sleep with a consistent routine and quality rest.

10. Manage cognitive load effectively and set boundaries on work hours. Organize tasks to minimize distractions and focus on deep work. Don’t bring your work to bed, it might help you to have a notepad by your side so if you have things roaming in your mind, you can write them down and download them from your brain into the paper.

11. Prioritize tasks based on importance and allocate dedicated time for busy work.

12. Think about how to simplify your life by focusing on one main pursuit and eliminating distractions.

You have a list of practices to pull from, how can you introduce some of these practices in your life?

Can you add some of them to your current morning routine? 

Remember that you can start small, you don’t need to add all of this at once!

For me, when I started my journey my first focus was nutrition and hydration. I started by changing my diet including my breakfast habits. I started having a full meal for breakfast with high protein, healthy fats and vegetables.

Then I started focusing on my sleep and ensuring I got at least 8 hours of sleep each night. 

Then I added meditation, and then hot yoga, and then I started adding activities that bring me joy like dancing.

I didn’t change all once. I did this over a few years. 

Slowly but surely you can layer and stack activities to maximize all the benefits and create your personalized self-care routine.

Incorporating these self-care routines into your daily life, you can optimize your well-being, performance, and overall quality of life. 

But, don’t forget to personalize these routines to suit your individual needs and goals for maximum effectiveness. 

Which of these ideas will you start implementing first?

Look at your calendar and see where you can start adding some of these ideas, based on your current lifestyle, what can you start doing to create your personalized self care plan?

Do you need to block 20 minutes each day just for you?

Do you need to stop doing something that doesn’t bring you joy?

What boundaries do you need to set to allow time for your self care?

Who can you enlist with this journey so you can both create your self care routines and check progress with each other?

Keep in mind, self care is not selfish, if you want to become your best you need to allow your body, mind and soul to be at their best and that means dedicating time to self care daily. 

What will you implement into your self care routine? Exercise, changes in your nutrition, mindfulness, active recovery, connection with others, boundary setting, gratitude practices? 

Go over these ideas, pick one, whichever resonates with you right now and include it in your life. 

I’d love to know what you pick! 

Now, I have a couple of things I’d like to ask you:

One, If you found this helpful, please share with others. I really appreciate that.

And two, if you have comments or a specific topic you’d like to talk about, let me know in the comments below.

I love hearing from you.

Until next one, take care.

Love!

Sofia