The busier you are, the more you need me-time. Here’s how to start a self-care routine.
It’s been said that we should meditate for twenty minutes a day, unless we’re busy – in which case we should meditate for an hour. But who has any time at all to spare when we’re wrangling family, work, and a social life? Especially now, at the busiest time of year for many, it can feel near impossible to get that vital ‘me-time’. Yet that’s exactly what we need for our mental and emotional wellbeing.
Enter the ten-minute self-care routine. Taking just ten minutes a day for yourself can be life changing, and you’d be amazed at what can grow out of this simple habit.
What is self-care?
Self-care has been buzzing around in our vocabulary for a while now, but it’s important to understand it doesn’t necessarily mean a life of luxury massages and scented baths. The core of self-care is about nurturing your mind and body with love and respect. The importance of self-care lies in ensuring our ability to function optimally. When our own wellbeing slides down the scale of priorities, so too does our physical and mental health, along with our ability to work or care for others.
Physical self-care may involve choosing to eat fresh fruit and vegetables or drinking plenty of water. Maybe it involves settling down with a good book instead of mindlessly scrolling through social media, a walk along the beach with your bare feet in the sand, or getting a decent night’s sleep. The key is doing something you enjoy that also recharges your batteries.
From a practical perspective, self-care might mean catching up on chores that seem overwhelming. It can be incredibly stressful if your house is a mess or your plants are wilting, and self-care might mean prioritising these tasks over other activities. Alternatively, you might desperately need that social catchup to feel better, and to hell with the housework!
Creating healthy habits
Creating new habits is a challenge because they go against the grain of what your body recognises as familiar. The brain identifies your new behaviour as a danger to the status quo, and so quickly returns you to old habits – and therefore to familiar feelings – perceived as safe.
As most athletes would attest, the hardest part is starting. Getting up and out the door is more challenging than actually doing the run or the workout. When we’re busy, stressed, or tired, it’s even harder to do the things that we know are important for us to do.
As habits are a result of ongoing repetition, psychologist Clare Mann suggests committing to something small that, over time, will feel weird if you don’t do it. By introducing a new practice to your day in increments, your brain is less likely to sabotage you by ‘protecting’ you from what is new and different. Clare has been practising yoga for over forty years, and explains that her success is from committing to only five to ten minutes a day.
The ten-minute routine
With the rush of the impending holiday season, finding time for self-care can make your enjoyable activities feel like chores. Or, you may simply lack the time and focus to be able to do the things you really want (and need) to do. A ten-minute routine helps to slowly integrate self-care into your life. It’s specifically designed to be achievable and without overwhelm, helping you to develop important and sustainable habits.
Habits need motivation, and the repetition of ten minutes daily helps to build satisfaction from achievement, as well as ensuring you experience a crucial pick-me-up during your busy day. This tiny timeframe can be integrated into your day until it becomes a part of your regular routine and less of a chore. As your habit develops, you can expand on it as you see fit, and sometimes you’ll find you’re so in the zone that half an hour or more has elapsed.
The concept of a ten-minute routine might not appear sufficient for life-changing actions, but the idea isn’t to transform your life overnight. Rather, it’s to plant seeds of positive action from which you’ll reap the benefits over time.
10 minutes of me-time
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