Self Care Sundays

We all know that feeling too well, it gets to be Sunday night (or whatever night your weekend ends and week begins) and you are starting off the week completely exhausted. Maybe you tried to cram way too much into your social calendar, maybe you drank way too much or overextended yourself, either way your starting off the week on empty. This is not a good feeling friends is it?

Within the last year I started incorporating a day of rest each week into my schedule. Some might call this Sabbath but I call it ‘Self Care Sunday’ (which has in recent months switched to ‘Self Care Monday’ as my work schedule has changed). Either way, I choose one day a week to unplug from social media, to ignore my work calendar and not clean the house. I usually prep the night before by making food for the next day so I don’t have to worry about meal prep and I usually clean the house also (unashamed neat freak here). I try to spend the bulk of the day doing all the things that nurture and feed my soul and help me to recharge. You guys, this very often means saying no to other things like social functions and even things on my to do list. That can be so difficult, but it is so important and it allows us to say yes to our self care. So enough about the why and what, let’s get into some ideas of things we can do on our self care day! Always remember to do what feels best for you and leaves you feeling energized and ready to conquer the week. These are simply some suggestions of things that I do on a self care day.

1. Weekend playlist. This playlist has been my go to for the past few weekends, it’s great background music for when I’m painting, redecorating the house or doing some afternoon yoga. You can listen to it here.
2. Paint or practice your favorite form of art. Take some time to be creative just for the fun of it, focus less on the end result and just enjoy the process.
3. Get moving. Do some yoga or kickboxing, take a spin class or go for a hike. If it’s nice outside, always try to spend at least some of your time outdoors. Sometimes I’ll take my yoga practice or painting outside or walk to the nearby park and just soak in the sun and sounds of nature. If your a little borderline hippy dippy, I also like to walk outside without shoes on because I believe it’s grounding and oh so good for the soul!
4. Read something inspiring. I try to read and journal daily, but on my self care day I might spend a little more time reading and I also love pulling inspirational quotes from whatever I’m reading and writing them on sticky note where I can see it the following week.
5. Physically rest. Take a nap or go to bed early that night. Something feels so luxurious about giving yourself permission to just sleep. But maybe I just feel that way because I’m a mom to 3 kids 3 and under? Either way, I think we all could use a little more sleep.

Bonus Points: Almost all of these forms of self care cost zero dollars! You are so worth loving and taking care of. I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to be WAY too hard on myself but practicing this simple form of self care has been really helpful for me and I hope you’ll start to make time for yourself too. Have a favorite form of self care? Please share in the comments as I would love to hear your ideas.

Have a great weekend and as always, stay fabulous!