12 Self-Care Habits to Create a Better Life
Taking good care of ourselves is one of the most important parts of living a good life. Neglecting your health, be it either mental or physical, is a big mistake a lot of people make, and it only gets you burned out, unhappy, and may even make you anxious or depressed.
Though it may seem like there’s a never-ending list of chores and tasks that need to get done in a day, having time to unwind and relax, and putting in a bit of effort to take care of your own needs, is extremely crucial to live a good meaningful life.
If you’re looking to cultivate a better life and be happier, here are some ideas for ways to take better care of yourself so that you can feel more motivated, be more productive, and feel happier.
I already made a post about general habits you can implement to become happier, where I talk about the importance of eating healthy, sleep, and exercise, so I won’t be mentioning any of those tips in this article. You check out that post here.
I implement and use a lot of these habits myself and have found them to make a drastic difference in the way that I feel and function day to day.
Related post: Uncovering the Secret to Genuine Happiness
1. Unplug From Technology
In today’s day and age, it’s so easy to spend hours upon hours engrossed in technology, scrolling through various social media, watching videos mindlessly, looking all kinds of things up. While it may all seem harmless, I’ve noticed it can be a huge distraction preventing me from getting the things I want done.
I notice myself often feeling unmotivated and lacking energy when I spend too much time staring at my phone, engaged in unproductive activities for extended periods of time. When I turn my phone off and put it away, I’m forced to enter into the stage of boredom, which then usually follows by a spark of inspiration or a new idea to do something.
I believe allowing ourselves to feel boredom is such an important thing to do, so we may allow ourselves to get out of our comfort zones, to really dive deep into something that forces us to be in the present moment, rather than zoned out.
2. Eliminate Toxic People and Environments
One of the biggest energy-suckers is being in an environment surrounded by people who absorb your energy and leave you feeling drained. For the longest time in my life, I couldn’t understand why certain people seemed to energize me, and others left me feeling drained, for no seemingly apparent reason.
It’s so crucial to listen to your gut feelings and your intuition. If you feel less than after hanging out with a certain friend or group of people, it’s important to question why that is.
There’s often times we think we’re crazy, questioning why we’re feeling a certain way, when the interactions all seemed fine on the surface, yet something just felt off.
We, humans, have an innate ability to sense when someone is being genuine or fake, and when the character they are portraying doesn’t match their true energy. We must use this to our advantage, and let it help us decide who to let and keep in our lives.
3. Learn a New Skill
Learning is a life-long process. It begins the day we are born, and is something we should always seek to continue, no matter how old we become. There’s always more to learn, more skills to gain and work on, more knowledge to obtain.
I personally find that when I take the time to learn something new, I often get a lot of joy out of the process. It’s fun to learn something that interests you, whether that’s sewing, crocheting, cooking, learning to play an instrument, gardening, a new language, sport, or other type of skill.
4. Clean Your Space
Another big part of self-care is making sure your space is clean and tidy. Living in a home filled with clutter often makes it easy to feel disorganized, and can make it hard to find the motivation to get things done.
There’s nothing worse than deciding to finally gather up the energy to cook, and then you walk into your kitchen and see a disastrous mess. Or, you decide to invite some friends over, but your whole house is a nightmare.
I believe it’s so important to have a clean, organized home and work environment, for both mental clarity and physical health. A clean home means less germs and spreading of bacteria and viruses, as well as less of a headache when needing to get specific tasks or projects done.
5. Try a New Activity or Go on an Adventure
This one is similar to number three on the list. Trying a new activity often involves learning something new, so the two go hand in hand. I often hear old people’s biggest regrets being that they didn’t take the time to do everything that they wanted in life.
This can be the case due to fear, lack of energy or commitment, or maybe lack of time. But if something is important to you, it’s necessary to make the time for that activity.
Everyone has only 24 hours in a day, and only a certain number of years to live, so making each day memorable and exciting by filling it with something new will mean living a meaningful life you won’t regret.
6. Pay Attention to Your Inner Voice
Whether we may realize it or not, we all have an inner voice that guides us away from harm and towards a better path. Our intuition is one of the most essential things in our life, and it’s so imperative that we listen to it.
It’s like a compass that redirects us towards where we’re meant to go. If you’ve ever been in a situation where you’ve had a bad feeling about someone or something, and then found out you had a good reason for feeling that way, that’s your intuition guiding you.
Our intuition is better at picking up on energy and our surroundings than our other senses are, a lot of the time, which is why it’s invaluable.
7. Set Boundaries
A new skill that I’ve been finding the importance of, and also getting better at, is setting boundaries. This is something I’ve always struggled with in the past, and still do at times. But, it’s extremely critical that we learn the importance of setting boundaries and being able to say no.
In the past, I’ve had a very harsh and rude boss that I struggled to stand up to, as well as former friends and partners who I let push me around and pressure me into activities I either didn’t want to do or didn’t feel comfortable doing.
Rather than feeling the need to conform to others and give in to their demands to make them like you, it’s actually better to just be your genuine truest self, and it’s been shown that people like us more that way.
8. Learn to Say No, or Yes
This ties in with the previous point. Learning to be your truest self means feeling comfortable saying yes or no when you want to, to whomever you’d like, whenever you want.
Worrying about what others will think of us and whether they’ll be displeased with our decisions will only make us act less natural and seem less likeable than if we feel comfortable with doing what we truly want.
If someone doesn’t like the real you, then it’s clear that they’re not someone meant to be in your life. You should never have to prove yourself to anyone, or act different around them than who you actually are.
9. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
This one is similar to going on an adventure and trying something new. New activities often require you to leave your comfort zone, which is a great way to grow as a person and develop your character.
Related post: The Importance of Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone
I truly think a big reason why many people feel like their life is boring or dull is because they’re always living in their comfort zone. Finding the courage to leave your comfort zone is one of the best things you can do for your self-care and development as a person.
It’ll just about instantly turn a dull, boring life around and turn it into something more fun and exciting. However, you should try to avoid seeking a job that puts you at unhealthy stress levels or a dangerous activity just for the adrenaline rush.
While leaving your comfort zone often is important, like with most things though, there does need to be a balance.
10. Connect With a Higher Power
Studies show that people who are spiritual and religious people tend to be less depressed, less anxious, and happier overall than non-believers. Having a belief in an afterlife, as well as attending church services and being part of a strong community, are great factors that affect happiness.
It’s also shown that even just praying at home and taking the time to connect with God/a higher power can make it easier to deal with challenges and obstacles in life.
I’ve personally found that when I take the time to meditate, pray, and focus more on spirituality and immersing myself in learning and growing spiritually, I feel much happier.
11. Find Healthy Ways to Escape
Though the idea of escaping seems like a bad way to live life, it’s not always a bad thing to escape into another world and see life from a new perspective.
Those that are struggling and unhappy with their current situation may have a hard time seeing that life doesn’t have to always be all doom and gloom, and activities like reading fiction can help them to imagine a better reality and see how it can be possible for them too.
I find that reading books with interesting plots and storylines often makes me happier, and helps me to see another way I can live life and think about the situations that I find myself in.
I believe reading, or even watching TV shows, can shed a new light for us and allow us to see into someone else’s mind and world, which can give us more perspective and help us grow as individuals.
It’s also shown that people remember information better if it’s presented through stories than just facts and statistics, so it’s likely to be more impactful in the long run to learn from stories that we can read about or watch unfold.
12. Create Structure and Routine in Your Life
I’ve personally found that I function much better if my days have structure. The more clearly defined my daily routines are, the less guess work I have to do during the day, and the more I end up getting done.
Having a clear, focused plan for the day is such a crucial part of operating efficiently and being effective each day, and there’s no way I’d be able to get anything done if I didn’t have any sort of schedule in place for how to run my life.
Though, I will say there needs to be a balance with how much room there is for flexibility in our routines. I find that if I plan out every moment of my life, there’s no way I’ll be able to stick to it, so it’s enough for me to have a rough plan and general idea.
I typically will divide my day into three parts: Morning, afternoon, and night, and I’ll have a list of chores or tasks that I’d like to get done in each part of the day.
I find this to be more efficient than just blocking in my day by the hour, and if I do have specific appointments or times that I need to be somewhere, I can still mark those in within their designated part of the day.
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