With all the chaos in the world, making it a point to prioritize self care is more important than ever! Read on for some tips to help you tackle the rest of the year!
Self-care has become an incredibly important tool to maintain and improve mental health. But for most people, it doesn’t always look like bubble baths, a glass of wine, and a sappy movie. In fact, self-care can be tough!
If you want to prioritize self-care for the rest of the year, here are a few ways to do just that.
Stay Hydrated
Drinking water every day might not seem like a form of self-care, but the truth is that staying hydrated is one of the best ways to take care of your physical health.
And it does have to be water.
Why? Well for starters, sports drinks that are supposedly hydrating can result in 1.5% enamel loss on your teeth. You need enamel to protect your teeth! But beyond that, staying hydrated with water is important for a number of other reasons, too.
First, it can help you prevent dry mouth. Not only can a dry mouth cause bad breath, but it can even promote cavities. Staying hydrated also promotes cardiovascular health and keeps your body cool. Up to 60% of the human body is made up of water, after all.
Water can also help keep your muscles and joints working smoothly. When you’re dehydrated, you may experience more muscle cramping, joint problems, and overall mobility issues. You might also feel lethargic and have a bit of “brain fog” if you’re dehydrated.
Make Time to Exercise
Exercise is an incredibly important part of self-care. But as you read above, self-care isn’t always easy. And exercise is proof of that!
While it’s important to rest your body, it’s equally as important to move it on a daily basis. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to go running for an hour every morning, but you should be moving your body for at least a little bit every day.
Whether that means attending a yoga class, going for a walk around your neighborhood, or doing a HIIT routine first thing in the morning is up to you. Move your body in a way that challenges you, but that also brings you joy. And don’t just do it for weight loss, either.
Exercise helps your body get stronger, too! And when almost 31 million injuries that require medical attention occur annually in the U.S., the better prepared you are to prevent injuries, the better. Exercise also helps improve your mood! When you exercise, your body releases endorphins which can help you feel more relaxed and even happier.
Using regular exercise as a strategy to prioritize self care is a win win!
Care For Your Appearance
When you love the way you look, you’re bound to feel better about a lot of things in your life. Caring for your appearance means so much more than putting makeup on, too.
Say you don’t like the look of your ears or nose. Whether you finally book that otoplasty or rhinoplasty consultation or you work to accept your body as it is, that all counts as self-care. If you don’t love the way your hair looks, cut it!
Taking care of your appearance means making sure you’re happy with your appearance, not that it appeases someone else. Whether that means doing your makeup every day or perfecting your skincare routine so you don’t need makeup at all is totally up to you.
But self-acceptance and self-love are both important parts of self-care, and appearance can play a big role in that.
When you think about self-care, it’s easy to picture bubble baths and chocolates. The reality of self-care is a little bit tougher than that, but with these three strategies, you should be well on your way to developing great self-care habits!
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