04 - Self-Care - Doing what brings you joy while maintaining supportive routines
In a previous post, I talked about self-care and how sometimes we can become burnt out from it when it becomes a chore. However, in this post, I want to talk about how to maintain self-care routines while having fun this summer. Plus this does not only count for summer, this can also be applied to when you go on vacation or winter breaks.
Let's start by thinking about your daily routines. What does that consist of? I’ll go first, here is my morning routine.
Wake up and walk my dog
Eat breakfast and enjoy some morning sunlight
Review my schedule for the day and write out any to-dos
Workout (if it's a planned workout day)
Get ready for work or the day
This is my basic routine during my average work week. However, this would of course change if I were going away on a vacation this summer. What are we looking for when trying to maintain routines and plan trips or activities out of the usual?
Balance!
One thing I notice when clients come flooding back into my office around August is they are no longer feeling like themselves. They had a wonderful summer, but they feel tired, off balance, or even burnt out. This is often because they threw EVERYTHING they typically do to care for themself out the window. We can often get into a "treat yo' self" mentality but forget that sometimes keeping up with some of our basic routines or habits can be one of the best ways to care for ourselves.
To give an example of what it might look like to strike a balance between time off and following some of your routines I will use the example of my daily morning routine. I will explain how I might try to strike a balance of self-care while away on vacation. For fun, let’s say I'm going to Mexico to an all-inclusive resort (one of my personal favorites).
Wake-up time: First off, I am going to let my body wake up when it feels ready. This is already something I do, so I trust that I am not going to sleep in too much. I am happy to allow for a little more sleep if that is what my body is asking for.
Going on a Walk: I would not need to walk my dog as she would not be with me on this vacation, but some form of light movement, like walking, in the morning feels nice for me. So, I may take a longer stroll on my way to breakfast.
Breakfast: 100% I will be eating breakfast! What I will be looking for in this breakfast maybe something similar to what I typically eat. But I may throw in some special treats in there too. It's vacation!
Review schedule: I would be taking this out. There is no need to keep up with my to-do’s. Once again, I'm on vacation!
Working out: If where I am staying has a gym I would do some form of weight or resistance training. I am doing this not so that my body looks a certain way, but because I truly like how I feel when I do some form of workout during the week. If I typically work out 3-4 times a week. While on vacation I may only work out twice. But my goal would not be to increase strength but to simply move my body. If there is not a gym I may opt for a longer walk on the beach, a hike, or other physical activity.
Getting Ready: Lastly, I would not need to get all done up as I usually would to see clients, but I do think it’s important to dress in a way that makes you feel good. So would possibly return from breakfast or the gym and get myself ready to spend time at the beach and possibly come back to my room to change for a nice dinner or activities around the resort.
I hope this gives you an idea of ways you can shift and change your daily routines so that they work for you. We don’t need to be ridged in our lives, we need variety. But we also need to make sure we have balance so that we continue to remain in alignment with ourselves and what we want from the world.