Spring is the time when our thoughts turn to new beginnings, a fresh new start and spring cleaning our homes. But it can also be the ideal time when we decide to start practicing self-care on a regular basis. Because self-care is essential for our wellbeing.
Self-care means making a conscious effort to do things that help or support our own physical and emotional health. Self-care looks different to different people but it’s essentially just as it sounds – taking care of ourselves. And it most definitely isn’t selfish.
Taking care of ourselves helps us to be the best version of ourselves and also enables us to achieve more nourishing and rewarding relationships with our loved ones, friends, colleagues and peers.
So here’s our top self-care tips for this spring…
1. Invest in houseplants
Bringing the outside in helps to satisfy our innate need to connect with nature and life. In fact, there’s a word for this need, and it’s called biophilia. Houseplants helps to oxygenate the air and boost our mental wellbeing, plus the feeling of keeping something alive is a mood boost in itself. Opt for plants that are hardy, such as a peace lily or mother-in-law’s tongue if you’re not used to tending to plants.
2. Develop boundaries at work
With the new theme of working from home set to continue, it’s easy for the lines between work time and home time to become blurred. But setting a time when the lid on your laptop comes down no matter what will help you to define your boundaries and have a healthy separation.
3. Clean up your social media feed
Unfollow anyone or any account that doesn’t make you feel good, happy or secure. Eliminating negativity and nastiness from our daily feeds is a small but mighty step in caring for our own wellbeing.
4. Go for a walk
The classic self-care tip, you might think. But getting outside and taking in your surroundings not only adds to our daily moving minutes and step count, but boosts our mood too. Even if you live or work in an urban city, if you look around, you’ll still see Mother Nature doing her thing. Look for weeds growing in cracks and on rooftops. They’ve found a way to thrive and care for themselves, now that’s a message for you to do the same!
5. Keep a journal
It doesn’t have to be a lengthy one, or a “Dear Diary” type post every day. But at the end of each day, think of the things you’ve achieved, no matter how big or small, and write them down. It can be anything from avoiding the temptation to doom-scroll on social media at lunchtime and going for a walk instead, to tackling that work project you’d usually leave until the last minute. If you don’t fancy writing it all down, before you go to sleep, make mentally listing out your days achievements the last thing you think about.
