Self-care is an excellent investment in your future productivity and success.

We’ve all been there. Overwhelmed with work, not being able to find time for ourselves, and feeling like you’re about to blow your top. And somehow, on days that feel the worst, responsibilities ‌kick in tenfold. 

At such times, it can be hard not to let yourself ‌neglect your health, mental and physical. This is why practicing self-care is much-needed! 

Self-care can be as simple as taking a walk to collect your thoughts or as elaborate as taking a few weeks (or months) long sabbaticals to recalibrate and relax. Anything that creates space and allows you to come back to yourself or just ‘be’ is self-care. Despite common misconceptions, self-care is an excellent investment in your future productivity and success. Taking time off allows our minds to process the small everyday stresses, but also enables us to build a deep resilience for the bigger, mountain-like priorities in life. 

Now, more than ever before, self-care feels like an imperative to cope and hopefully thrive in a modern world filled with pandemics, an ongoing climate crisis, and global political strife all around.

Most people have never been taught to prioritise, let alone know what to do, even when you know you need to take care of yourself. 
If you don’t know where to start, we have you covered with some small steps that will make a large impact on your life:

• Work Out: While it may sound counterintuitive to be more active when you are tired, working out actually helps to reduce your stress hormones, and increases the number of endorphins in the body (one of 4 ‘happy hormones’). Physical activity lowers your blood pressure and risk of chronic health issues by increasing your immunity. And of course, it helps you stay in shape, which is a plus!

• Prioritize Your Sleep: Studies have shown that getting a good 8 hours of sleep can do wonders for your mind and body, but getting a good night's rest takes practice. Here’s where creating a nighttime routine can make all the difference. We suggest washing off your day with a warm and soothing shower using lavender oil soap, eating light and nutritious dinners at least 3 hours before bedtime and then switching off screens at least an hour before you get into bed. These practices help to calm your nervous system and signal winding down. Once in bed, we love using a relaxing eye pillow to block out all light so our slumbers are deep and uninterrupted. Get this right and you’ll wake up feeling bright, fresh, and ready to take on another day! 

• Revamp Your Diet: In recent years, there have been a growing number of studies that show a connection between gut health and brain health. Having a healthy diet isn’t something we need to do just to stay thin, but it is necessary for a long, happy and healthy life. Eating nutrient-dense foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, and healthy fats like olives, avocado, and omega-3-rich fats like salmon or tuna actively reduce stress hormones and inflammation in our body, leading to a healthier body and mind.

• Go For a Massage:  Finally, a self-care routine that brings all the spa vibes we were hoping for! After all that working out, and eating healthy, we deserve a good massage. The world of massage therapies is wide and varied, but ultimately, they all help our muscles relax and our bodies to regulate better and release toxins.
  If going to a spa is out of reach, self-care massages are always available at your fingertips. We recommend using some aromatherapy products, such as pure essential oils during your massage to reap the several benefits they have to offer. 

• Make Time for Creativity: So far, we’ve been focused on creating more space for physical self-care in our day-to-day routine, but a happy life comes from a balance between the emotional and physical. When life gets too busy, we lose touch with the things that feed our souls and bring emotional satisfaction to our everyday life. Finding room to be creative in our day-to-day helps us to connect more deeply with who we are while allowing us to do something we enjoy. Creative activities can be anything from drawing, journaling, cooking, gardening, or playing an instrument. The goal is to do these things for the joy of it rather than to be ‘good’ at it. As long as you feel engaged and immersed in the activity, you are doing great! 

So the next time you are feeling drained from a long day at work or overwhelmed by everything around you, we hope you will try one (or more) of the above. As with most good things, the more you do it, the more effective it becomes. Share your self-care practices with us @breathearomatherapy.