Are your prioritizing your own health and wellbeing? All too many of us begin to neglect our basic needs and requirements as we get swept up in the responsibilities and commitments of day to day life. It’s easy to see why we fall into habits that aren’t exactly meeting our body’s needs, our minds needs and our emotional needs. Many of us have hectic work schedules. We’re hounded for deadlines, project completion and so much more. We spend hours commuting each week. We exert ourselves and find ourselves feeling drained when we get back home. From a social perspective, many of us feel that we need to meet a routine of consistent catch ups and favors for our nearest and dearest. If you have children, most of your free time will be tied up in school runs, after school clubs, hobbies, meal prepping and more. But you really do need to take some time to carve a self care routine for yourself into your schedule. If you fail to do this, you will simply experience stress and, ultimately, burn out. Here’s some information with advice on how to take the best possible care of yourself regardless of all the demands that may be placed on you.

Relax and Recuperate

Don’t risk experiencing burnout. No matter how busy your schedule may be, or how many demands may be being placed on you, you need to know when to say no and make sure to create some time for yourself to simply relax and recuperate. Ensuring there’s space in your schedule to simply do nothing is essential. How you spend this time is entirely up to you and what you want to do. You could find that running a hot bath and soaking amongst the bubbles does the trick. It could be that you want to get into your pajamas and sit down in front of a nice film or TV show. Some people like to take a short nap to catch up on any lost sleep. You might like to practice a little mindfulness or meditation. Others will want to head out for a walk in nature, immersing themselves in the elements. Whatever appeals to you, you should definitely make time for it!

Catch Some Zzz’s

Never underestimate the importance of sleep. There’s a good reason that doctors recommend you get eight hours of sleep every night. That doesn’t mean eight hours here and there. It means consistently ensuring you have a bedtime routine that ensures you will get eight hours of rest before you need to ride the next morning. Create a schedule and stick to it. Unless something is an absolute emergency, it can wait until the morning. Do your best to stay away from drinking a lot of alcohol right before bed if you want to sleep well. It can disrupt your sleep and make it hard to fall into a deep sleep. If you believe you have a problem and can’t stop on your own then visit this website for help. You should also try to get ready for bed a good hour or so in advance of the time you need to be asleep by. This will give you time to clean your teeth, carry out any skincare routine you may have, get into your pajamas and wind down. It’s also recommended that you put away devices that emit blue light – such as phones – before you sleep.

Eat Well

We should all eat a healthy and balanced diet, we all know that. But all too many people still fail to tick this box on their wellness checklist. It is understandable how people get roped into eating junk food or fast food on a routine basis. It offers convenience. It doesn’t require cooking and, often, you don’t have to clean up after either. You simply throw the packaging away. The issue with this is that many fast foods and junk foods not only contain excess saturated fats, salts and sugar, but that they also don’t bring much nutritional value to the table either. Instead, start meal planning. Coming up with an idea of what meals you’re going to cook through the course of each week encourages you to buy the ingredients, meal prep and actually stick to the healthy meals you intended to eat.

Protect Yourself

Many people show concern about their own safety. Lone women, in particular, often have to think more about how to protect themselves from the bother and harassment of strangers. Knowing that you are prepared for any situation can often provide a sense of stability and comfort that you might otherwise feel stressed without. But what can you do to protect yourself? Whether you need to walk alone at night, visit a new place you’ve never been before or navigate your way through a number of other situations, a collection of Self defense tools can provide you with a sense of security and confidence in yourself that will help. You may also want to look into taking some self defense lessons too. Many martial arts and self defense classes can equip you with knowledge for emergency situations. See what’s available in your local area and sign up to a few classes.

Set Boundaries

Often, we find ourselves struggling because we fail to establish boundaries with others. We end up always putting our own needs last because we don’t want to upset or let others down. This can result in you spending huge amounts of your own time on things you don’t really want to be doing. Instead, you do need to learn to put yourself first occasionally and to set clear boundaries with others in your life. Whether that’s a partner, family, friends or anyone else. Setting boundaries makes it clear what you are comfortable with and what you are not. It may feel difficult to implement them at first, but you will get used to it. If you are struggling, you may want to speak to a therapist or counsellor who can help.

As you can see, there are a huge number of ways you can take better care of yourself. The ideas and options outlined above are just a few examples that could come in useful for you. Keep them in mind and be mindful. You should be in better physical, mental and emotional shape in next to  no time!