It’s a new year, a fresh start!
Yaaaaayyyy!!
Is this new year exciting to you as well?
To be honest, it’s not exciting for me.
I mean even I am looking forward to having a fresh start, but I just feel that I am not ready to take out time to plan my fresh year.
I need time, like more time. To plan, spend time with myself, and then plan things to start on a fresh note.
And that has been the status of many others I connected with last month.
And in all this, how do we even take care of ourselves?
All the new plans made for the coming year, but I have a made a few plans for your self care routine that is going to stay.
The top 10 self care tips that can help you have a better 2025 and bring out a better version of you. So read along to know the top 10 self care tips you must follow this year.
What are self care practices?
There might be a well written definition for it, but I believe that all habits, ideas, and activities you practice to take care of yourself comes under the self care practice.
But the thing to keep in mind is that it should also benefit you in the long run and not just temporarily.
For eg, I had a girl who used to smoke considering it as a self care practice because it helped her feel better.
But any activity you do, you have to ask yourself whether it is just making me feel better now or is it going to make me feel good overall?
As per the World Health Organisation, “Self-care is the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote and maintain their own health, prevent disease, and to cope with illness – with or without the support of a health or care worker”
So practices like having a good sleep, starting your day mindfully, connecting with others, meditating, etc, are all good self care habits to form and keep practicing it for a better you.
Top 10 self care tips you should try this year
We all have a lot of tips and techniques saved, to be followed later.
There are traditions, rituals, and so many more origins that teach us the self care hacks to make life better.
But even if we all know everything, the problem comes in the implementation. And it’s not because you don’t want to, most of us can’t given the real life situations and the daily life commitments.
But there has to be a solution for this too right? Because we can’t just dream of a good life and keep dreaming!
So here are some practical life hacks to settle your mental health. To be precise the top 10 self care tips that you can easily practice in your daily life and at the end of the year we’ll discuss on how things went for you.
Use the “Mental Bin” technique to declutter your mind every night
As per the Help Guide, “An estimated 32.8 percent of adults do not get enough sleep, meaning about one-third of the adult population is sleep-deprived.” And our current sleeping habits are making us more vulnerable. The average sleeping time has gone to 12 am or later than that and that too after heavy eating and binge watching.
If I tell you I keep my device away by 9:30 and write a journal, read 5 pages, and meditate for 5 minutes before I lie down. And even then I can feel that the quality wasn’t the best one, I have experienced a better sleep than this.
So here’s one hack that helps me incredibly.
Throwing all my thoughts in the “mental bin” before sleeping.
It could be anything,
what happened in the office today,
a heavy traffic,
fight with one of your loved ones,
anything that your mind consumed today.
And it doesn’t just have to be a bad one. It can be a good one too.
Maybe someone made you feel happy today,
you made a new friend and you are excited of spending more time with them,
you got a promotion today or did exceptionally well.
The point is to remind yourself that
Whether it is a good thing or a bad day that went, it is over, and tomorrow will again be another day.
And whatever happened today should not impact tomorrow in any way, and ofcourse, wouldn’t even matter.
That’s the mental bin where you discard everything. All good consumed happily and then discarded, all bad learnt happily and discarded.
And if you think you become a robot doing this, then remember that even your body has a digestive system and robots don’t. And even your body works pretty much in the same way.
Use the power of 2 minute movement breaks
If you can take out time to exercise everyday, that’s awesome. More power to you.
But if you miss it someday or you cannot take out time given your commitment to roles and responsibilities in life, invest 2 minutes every hour in exercising. How?
If you are in your office, stretch your arms and do shoulder exercises. If you have a personal cabin, some situps will work well. And if possible use stairs, and not just forcefully climb, let your body move more while you jump through the stairs like you used to when you were a kid.
If you stay at home all the time, working from home in your laptop, then every 2 minutes in an hour walk around your room. Do skipping, lunges, or simple situps. The point is for your body to feel lighter and flexible.
If you still find it difficult to put it in the routine, you can reach out on my instagram, we can discuss your routine and find out a way for you.
Learn to reverse your to-do list
Everyone knows how to make a to-do list, and you might even follow it ritually every morning.
But have you ever reversed it?
You don’t write things you plan to accomplish throughout the day, you write things you did today. It’s like tracking your daily routine instead of going as per it.
It could be all the small or big things that you somehow did. Maybe helped your mom, decluttered your table, helped your friend out.
To-do lists were actually meant for people to track the use of their time and stay organized. Won’t you be doing the same?
Maintain your own pocket of joy
I am sure even you all go through a phase or time in the day when you feel tired, lost, and lonely.
Like you are happy and having a great life, yet that moment feels horrific.
It makes you feel like you have no one to go to, and no place to rely on.
So for those time this pocket of joy will come for help.
How do you create it?
All the good things you did, or people shared with you about them or you, or moments that made you feel better about yourself, keep all in one folder.
Maybe you can create a diary, a folder on your phone, an email thread. Anything that works for you.
Tidy Up Your Space from time to time
I spend one to two hours every sunday to tidy up everything around me. It could be anything to everything you use.
Your wardrobe, bathroom, kitchen, desk, clothes, fridge, etc.
Your thoughts, griefs, grudges, etc.
Your devices like laptop, phone, tablet, etc. Inside and outside too. Please don’t start washing it. 😛
What I mean is decluttering them by stopping unused notifications you found throughout the week, deleting stuffs that is no longer serving you. And even wiping the screens and the body with a damp cloth.
Protect your first 10 minutes in the morning at any cost
Every first is memorable and important. And so is your first thought in the morning.
Let your body wake up beautifully and in a way that it feels loved, rather than just rushing through the chores.
And learn to not think anything during that time. Neither good nor bad. Just feel the presence around.
Turn your routine boring tasks into mindful ones
There are many tasks that has to be done even though you don’t want to do it.
So whenever you do it, use that time to even sort yourself inside.
When you are bathing, thank each part of your body. You also carried gratitude along and not think of anything that would not matter in that time.
When you are washing clothes or utensils, clean your mindspace too. Some things that have been disturbing you and shouldn’t be thought again on. Learn to wash them too.
Practice airing out your emotions
If you have some unnecessary things in your room, do you not take an effort to take it out? Or do you forcefully fit it inside the cupboard or let be it wherever it is?
Do the same with your emotions. Whenever you feel sad, hurt, emotional, or simply low, track them on what’s bothering you or why is it happening.
If you are not able to answer, try talking it out to yourself, who better than you to tell you about you?
And still if something doesn’t get clear, I am here. You can connect to become a better you.
Take out one no list day in the whole month
No schedule, no tasks, no routine, nothing to follow that day. You are just you. Maybe sleeping till late in the morning, eating slowly and as per your want, not thinking throughout the day.
It could be anything.
It should be a day you live without any ambition in life.
And even though it sounds weird, it’s going to help. Trust me.
Borrow someone else’s happiness on your sad days
Even if after following all the above methods, a day seems lost and makes you feel vulnerable, look out to other people.
Know of their life, their happiness, and copy paste their moment of happiness to yours.
Be happy of their doings, their reasons, their perspectives.
You’ll know that life does not have to be about you all the time.
Try Living a Digital Sundown Phase if you can
This is beyond the top 10 self care tips that you should try. But something that you can try as a self care routine. Once the sun sets, you stop using your phone for entertainment.
Instead of directly shutting it down, make the task flexible as per you.
If it’s important, a call to connect, a friend to chat, or something that is serving a purpose, then you use it.
If not, no mindless scrolling. Enjoy your digital sundown phase freely.
I love trying new things here and there to make it a better day and a vibrant life overall.
If it helps you in any way, please do implement it. Would love to see your life shaping into something beautiful than it is now.
And if there’s anything not working right, let’s connect to a better you.
Just remember, east or west, you are the best.
And just keep getting better.
If anything comes up, you can reach out to yourdivinebuddy.com and we can solve your perspectives together.