7 Tips For Creating A Self-Care Routine That Lasts
It’s week 3 of our self-love movement #ImDoingItForMe and this week it’s all about taking care of yourself mama. Self-love and self-care are super important for your mental health, but we often find it difficult to make time for ourselves and our needs, especially when that “mom-guilt” starts to creep in.
This week, we want you to focus on closing that Self-Love Ring on the Baby2Body app, so we’re sharing our 7 top tips for building a self-care routine that lasts.
Haven’t joined our self-love movement yet? That’s ok, there’s still time! Find out everything you need to know and Join Our Self-Love Movement #ImDoingItForMe.
1. Think about why you need to make time for self-care
We’ve talked about finding your motivation throughout this challenge and why it’s so vital to discover your motivation for building healthier habits. Here’s a quick recap:
Extrinsic (or external) motivators - like rewards or praise - can be great to set you on the right path to achieve short-term goals, but what happens when the reward has been given? There’s little incentive to carry on with the practices you learned whilst working towards your goal. Studies show that finding your intrinsic (or internal) motivation - things like feeling fulfilled or finding enjoyment - can increase persistence, improve psychological wellbeing, and enhance overall performance.
Whilst the theory of extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivation is often applied to sports psychology and physical activity, we can use the same logic when we’re thinking about our self-care routines or any healthy habits we are building into our lives. If we know why we need better self-care and the benefits it can give us, it will improve our ability to build and stick to routines.
Research shows that self-care can:
Relieve stress and anxiety by occupying your mind
Improve your cognitive abilities, especially self-care practices, like mindfulness
Provide alone-time, which in turn can spark creativity, and increase productivity and empathy
Increase energy
Try thinking about what you want from self-care and how it can benefit you. Fill in the blanks…
I'm Doing It For ______
I'm Doing It For ______
I'm Doing It For ______
#ImDoingItForMe
Share your motivation with us on Instagram so you can inspire others!
2. Let go of mom-guilt so you can enjoy your self-care time
One of the major things that can hold you back from self-care is “mom-guilt”. You’ve probably heard of mom-guilt and if you’ve already had children, you’ve probably experienced it too. Mom-guilt refers to the feeling of not doing enough for your children and fears of how your actions will impact their future. This could mean being worried about them having too much screen time or not having enough vegetables. These feelings can start to impact the time you have for self-love when you feel you shouldn’t be taking time for yourself.
But you can’t pour from an empty cup mama. Meaning, you can’t help others if you don’t help yourself (think putting your own oxygen mask on before you help those around you!). Creating time for yourself is vital and will actually make you a better parent in the long run. You’ll be more energized, more focused, and happier overall.
If you’re struggling to get into this mindset as your start your self-care routine, try using affirmations to remind yourself why your self-care is so important. Saying things like “I need to take care of myself so I can take care of others” or “I deserve self-care” can help alleviate feelings of guilt and shift you to a more positive mindset.
3. Choose self-care activities you enjoy
If you want to build a self-care routine that lasts, you need to choose activities that you enjoy. It sounds simple, but many mamas choose self-care tasks that they think are they should be doing, rather than what they enjoy doing.
If you don’t know what you enjoy doing yet, or maybe what you used to love isn’t quite working anymore, then spend a few weeks trying out different activities. On the Baby2Body app, we have guided breathing, mindful meditation, affirmations, and much more. If you need more tips on building your self-care routine, we have an amazing self-care toolkit from our wellbeing expert Lou Murray (check out the special sneak peek below!).
So have a go at these different activities this week to see what you enjoy, and if you do that you’ll also be working towards this week’s #ImDoingItForMe goal!
4. Start small and be realistic about your self-care routine
The next step to starting a self-care routine that sticks is knowing to start small and be realistic. If you try to go from zero to 100 then you’re going to burn out and the routine will probably only last a day or two. So try introducing any new self-care tasks to your routine one by one and step by step.
For example, you might want to take time for a more mindful skincare routine, which is great! But if you’ve never spent much time on your skincare before, start with a simple 3 step routine (try a cleanser, toner, and moisturizer) and if you want to, you can introduce more products over time.
5. Use anchor habits to build self-care into your daily routine
It can be difficult to carve out time for new routines and self-care practices. So try using anchor habits. This means anchoring your new self-care techniques to activities you already do every day, like brushing your teeth.
Let’s say you want to make time for journaling. It doesn’t have to be the same time every day but it should be in the same place in your routine - try journaling after you brush your teeth in the morning, or whilst you are having your morning coffee. Attaching these new habits to anchors during your day really helps to build a routine in a manageable and scalable way.
6. Remain flexible and don’t be hard on yourself
If you miss the time in your routine for self-care then be flexible and still try to get the task done later on. The most important thing is taking some time for yourself whenever you can fit it in - so don’t let a change in routine throw you off. It’s better late than never!
7. Check out Lou’s Self-Care Tool Kit On Baby2Body
The final step in building a self-care routine that lasts is following our amazing in-app self-care tool kit from expert Lou Murray. Lou will show you the tools you need for self-care and just how you can build these principles into your routine.
Here’s a sneak peek:
Get Baby2Body today and get 7 days of premium for free so you can start living happier and healthier with Lou and our global team of fitness, nutrition, and wellbeing experts.
Want to know more about self-care? Have any burning questions you want to ask us? Let us know in the comments and we’ll get back to you!