3 Key Habits To Prioritize In Your Own Self Care
Do you often feel like a failure when it comes to self-care? Are you wondering how on earth to make time for your own self-care?
Self-care doesn’t come naturally to many of us, especially when our to-do lists are overflowing with requests from other people. You might not feel like you have the time or the energy to make it happen, so it falls to the bottom of your priority list.
A few years ago, I had to be honest with myself about the reasons why I wasn’t practicing self-care on a regular basis. It turned out that my lack of time and energy was essentially my own fault, and I was only creating excuses for myself. I realized that there were three key habits I was neglecting in my life which was negatively affecting my relationship with self-care.
In this post, I’m sharing the three self-care habits you need to make a priority. Keep reading so you can figure out what needs to change so you can make self-care easier for yourself!
I believe there are three key habits or behaviors that make a huge impact on your relationship with self-care. If you think you’re bad at self-care or you’ve fallen out of your usual habits, it could be that you’re neglecting one of these elements.
The three key habits are:
Boundaries
Self-discipline
Consistency
Let’s be real, working on these habits is NOT fun. Not once has someone said that boundaries, self-discipline, or consistency are fun. They’re not, and that’s why it’s so hard to practice them. But if you work on improving them, life becomes more fun because you can create more time and energy for the things that matter to you.
Setting boundaries with yourself and others is necessary for protecting your time, peace and energy. When you’re clear with your boundaries and make every effort to stick to them, you give yourself permission to focus on your own needs.
Discipline means that you don’t push aside the things you need on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level. It’s about sticking to your boundaries and not letting things slide. When you practice self-discipline, it’s a sign that you respect yourself.
When you’re consistent with your actions and habits, you can ingrain self-care practices into your routine. Rather than letting self-care become a random occurrence, consistency allows you to make it part of your lifestyle.
How To Cultivate These Habits
Now that you understand the importance of these self-care habits, here’s how to cultivate them:
1. Set Boundaries
To get a better sense of your boundaries in life, consider what kind of behavior you will and will not tolerate from other people. If late night email requests from your co-worker are causing you to lose sleep, you are in charge of setting (and communicating) a boundary to prevent this. No one else is going to do this for you.
Also think about your non-negotiables. These are the things you consider when making plans (for example, family, work, friends, wellness, etc.). Decide how much time you want to dedicate to these aspects of your life. If requests or invites from others can’t fit around these things, say no.
2. Practice Self-Discipline
Self-discipline is all about removing temptations. If you’re scrolling through Instagram late at night when you said you’d go to bed at a reasonable time (sleep is self-care, my friends!), you are not practicing self-discipline. Instead, put your phone across the room, turn it off, or delete Instagram.
Do whatever you can to reduce or remove temptations so you can prove to yourself that you are in control. If you want to get better at self-discipline, you have to remove the temptations and distractions that cause you to let your goals and intentions slide.
Related post: Girl, Unplug You Need A Break
3. Be Consistent
Consistency happens when you take small, incremental steps to make a certain action a habit. Instead of trying to change all of your habits at once, start by setting one self-care goal for yourself and work on sticking to it. For example, if your self-care goal is to workout for 30 minutes every day, start by building your self-discipline up in this area.
Set yourself up for success, remove temptations, and reward yourself so that you continue to make it a habit. Use a trigger such as ‘I will workout for 30 minutes after I get out of bed’ so that you know exactly when you’ll do it. Self-discipline plays a huge role in how consistent you are with your actions, so continue to work on building your self-discipline around your habits and priorities.
Which self-care habit do you struggle with?
I would love to know how boundaries, self-discipline, and consistency come into play in your life. Remember that making small tweaks to improve your habits and actions is the key to better self-care!
Photos by Christina Jones Photography
