Are tired of working and taking care of your family? This ultimate guide to self-care will give you easy ways to self-care during the pandemic.

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Why Self-care is important during a pandemic?
Life has been flipped upside down and sideways for a lot of people and many have forgotten to attend to the most important person of all…themselves. Because when we take care of ourselves FIRST, everything else is much easier and we can better care for others.
What are the top benefits of Self-care that no one tells you about?
- It reduces your anxiety
- It reduces daily stress and overwhelms
- It curbs the emotional eating caused due to stress or overwhelms anxiety
- It also reduces your impulse spending habit
- It reduces the drama in life and helps you cultivate good relationships
- And most importantly it increases your self-esteem
What exactly is ultimate self-care?
Self-care is loving yourself or valuing yourself to take time for your own self. That can be taking a long bath, reading magazines, watching your favorite TV shows, painting your nails, or just having a good laugh and talking with your bestie.
Self-care is nothing but self-love.
If you feel good about doing something for yourself- that’s self-care. Now that doesn’t mean drinking or smoking because that just temporarily alleviates the feelings of stress but causes more long-term damage to your overall health.
What are examples of self-care?
We all do some forms of self-care every now and then. Taking enough restful sleep, having a healthy diet, going for a walk every day, and taking your dog to a walk after work is some of the common ways daily self-care ways. These are usual life events that everyone and their nana are doing. If you are still feeling stressed and overwhelmed especially during this time of social distancing, read on.
Having a dedicated day for self-care once a week is a good start. Selfcare Sunday is quite easy to follow for everyone. Every Sunday, take time to relax, unwind, do social media detox and do things that make you happy.
So how do you practice self-care during pandemic?
in times of stress and once in a decade Pandemic, we have to include 8 crucial areas of our life in order to embrace the tougher times and the changing environment like now. Some of us could handle the stresses of extra rules of social distancing, working remotely, homeschooling, caring for elderly parents, managing multiple projects, etc. But many of us are breaking down after year-long restrictions on our lives and the way we used to live. This is the biggest surprising change many of us have ever faced in our lifetimes.
Having a good close circle of trusted friends and family is essential for our happiness and boosting our overall health.
It builds a sense of belonging. If it’s not possible for whatever reason, having a creative outlet every day is the best form of self-care. Creativity can be doodling, painting, making your food, decluttering, decorating, or writing. No, you do not need an art degree or any education. We all are creative.
What are the 8 steps to the Ultimate Self-care Routine during pandemic?
During this time, self-care in the 8 most important areas of our lives is essential.
1. Emotional self-care
It is about having healthy coping skills to deal with uncomfortable emotions like anger, anxiety, sadness, and guilt. This is true for understanding others’ emotions as well and not taking them personally- a safe way to express your emotions on a regular basis.
So how do you care for your emotions?
- Talk to someone you trust- Sharing our emotions safely allows us to process them well. Sometimes, we tend to react to simple things that people say or do without realizing that we do not need to react to them. Just responding helps. When I talk to my best friend about my emotions, she shares her perspective from a different angle that I never even thought about before having an emotional outburst.
- Write your emotions in the journal- When talking to someone is not possible or comfortable, writing your emotions in your journal is easy. You can always write whatever you want and discard it once the high emotions run their course or keep your journals for memory in the future. It is refreshing to see how you grow emotionally over a period of time.
I personally love writing in this journal but when I’m not in the mood to even write at length, I just scribble on the Knock-knock self-care RX pads (Affiliate Link)
Check out their other pads, they are so funny- especially “All the feel” and “ Pep talks“. They go so well with the self-care RX notepad (#affiliate links).
- Learn to say no to excessive demands of others- This is the best self-care tip ever! Try it sometime. Say no to someone who always puts their responsibility on you and see how they react to it. Smile when they react and just free yourself for your own. It wins every single time for me when a certain someone in my friends calls me last minute for her errands to run!
- Guard your time and energy against overly critical and negative people. This includes negative people in your personal life and also on social media. One thing this pandemic has done to us is brought us online. Suddenly the critical people who we were ignored in our day-to-day lives are online and tend to criticize us from their virtual presence. Everyone has the right to choose their opinions about politics, health, religion, education, and schooling. Since when is it ok to offend others for choosing their favorite leaders or the way they school their children. You get the point right? Choose yourself first and quit social media cold turkey if it’s causing you high levels of emotional stress!
It certainly is LEGAL TO QUIT SOCIAL MEDIA.
I have to communicate it on Social media as you guys are spending your lives here and ignoring it to live it!
- Listen to podcasts or watch movies that inspire you- No explanation is necessary here unless you do not know what a podcast is. In that case, just ignore it and watch inspiring movies instead. Not on Netflix- but on other platforms where they actually host inspiring movies! Netflix is getting really un-family and pro-violence these days. Check out Pure Flix. The best is they offer a FREE online homeschool curriculum. Just bring your homeschool lesson plans to life with engaging documentaries, movies, and series you can watch anywhere. Thank goodness for a better entertainment alternative for the whole family.
- Learn to anticipate problems before they arise- start your day by scanning it ahead of time for potential bumps. Do you anticipate potential emotional responses to kids’ demands, or spousal interactions, or even your colleague’s requests for help? Keep some time aside for these daily setbacks. If you know these setbacks beforehand, you allow yourself a breather to handle them well. Talya Miron- Shatz, Ph.D. and researcher at Cambridge University says- “moments that are intensely negative have a huge effect on your you experience your day, more so than positive moments”
2. Spiritual self-care
Spiritual self-care is not dependent on religion. It’s about cultivating the spirit. How do you do that?
- If you like praying, spend time with God’s word. You can also use a prayer journal to reflect on the Psalms and write down how you plan to implement the principles of Godly living in your day-to-day life. When you write things down, you find that things start unfolding in your life for the better. So comes the next tip.
- Journal daily on how your experiences are shaping your life.
- Meditate for a few minutes daily. It can be really hard at first but if it gets hard, take a rest, and don’t quit. Just follow simple meditation music and watch your thoughts come and go for a few minutes until you notice there are no more thoughts. Soon a time will come when you will not fight with your thoughts, but let them pass with ease. And find a few moments of complete silence. That is the time when you are completely relaxed.
- If you have a hard time meditating, do not give up. Try an adult coloring book.
This is a great way to quiet your mind and engage it in one activity- coloring your the images in front of you. When you put your stressful or worrying thoughts aside and get creative with colors, you find inner peace. And that is the same as spiritual care. It works for my family members who can’t quiet themselves for even 5 minutes. I loved this coloring book by New Seasons (Affiliate Link) because it comes with 31 images on one-sided perforated pages. This allows me to tear the pages once I complete the coloring and display them in the photo frames. Every time, I see my creation, I feel a sense of happiness that I can’t explain here in words. Try it yourself. They have different themes of images. I usually complete one coloring page in a few weeks. It is also excellent for gifting to friends and family. I personally love Country Gardens and Fresh Flowers for my friend who loves gardening. Ocean Treasures for hubby.
- Those of you who find it hard to pray or meditate, look into A Course in Miracles (Affiliate link)
It is a 365 days guide to find yourself and unite with the spirit within. First few weeks, you will be very confused like I was. But slowly, you will learn to see things for what they are and respond to them peacefully rather than reacting to them.
3. Mental self-care
It’s about what thoughts you nurture and what thoughts you let go of. It’s about doing things that keep your mind healthy, sharp, and intuitive- are you proactively taking time to stimulate your mind for health and wellness? Do you find yourself lonely while surfing the channels on TV? Unplug after dinner each night. Take a break from the TV instead of reading uplifting or happy fictional stories
- Practice Self- compassion and gratitude every day. Check out my one Good Thing a Day gratitude journal for documenting one thing or person or experience you are thankful about every day for 365 days.

- Self-love is not just a buzzword promoted by celebrities or spa owners. It is a conscious act of caring for your own unique personality. Simple positive self-love affirmations bring a lot of peace to our minds. My favorite affirmations are also available on YouTube. When I can’t think of affirmations, I also put on the calming nature sounds of music. IT helps me relax, unwind and sleep better. My favorite one is from this YouTube Channel. Another favorite of mine is 7.83 Hz Schumann resonance music. Check it out here
- Crafting- do things that challenge you and also help you stay creative. If you take money out of it, it’s a bonus. There are a ton of budget-friendly crafts available for each age group. Like I mentioned earlier, you do not need to be a crafter. Simple coloring activity is relaxing and calming to the mind. My favorite way is to color inspirational quotes from Bible. But you can find a ton of coloring books online or at Dollar Stores. Just a few strokes of colored pencils take away the anxiety, worries, or any emotions that do not serve you well.
- Putting up a 100 pieces puzzle is another of our favorite activities together as a family. When we gather together and focus on putting the giant floor puzzle together, we forget our worries, get creative, appreciate each other and most importantly allow our brains to fully engage in the puzzle. They have been great during this pandemic when we were stuck at home during the summer and Christmas holidays. I have already shared some cool ways to stay home during Holidays here.
Since then, we discovered another great set of puzzles. It is by Cobble Hill 1000 Piece Puzzle – Country Diary. They have all 4 seasons puzzles. It is so much fun to put these together. We plan to complete our winter puzzle in a few days and once it’s ready, this time I want to frame it to display like an English Cottage.
4. Social self-care
We are meant to be social beings and live in close communities. For millennia, we have been fortunate enough to have this kind of self-care in place. We never really needed to think about it. But in recent decades, we seem to have forgotten about the importance of close communities for our wellbeing. We are more concerned about self-privacy and space all the time. Nothing wrong with that but if having company over for a few days makes you anxious, you know what I’m talking about right?
How frequently do you reach out to others to offer help or just have a happy dialogue or discussion around the topic that you are passionate about? We do most of our talking or catching up online these days and this stupid pandemic has made it all the harder to have in-person interactions. Nothing can replace in-person interactions. And no face-time or ZOOM is not a replacement for it- not for a long time. We must start going out and meeting people in person. Schools must open and workplaces must be open as well. Sure maintain whatever rules the local authorities put in place but do not compromise on this healthy way of reaching out to others in your community.
So here are a few ways to do that-
- Face-to-face interaction is the best as I mentioned 5 times now. do everything in your power to go out and meet people with your masks on if you have those rules. Offer to help friends and have them over at home. Most of us have big enough houses and yards to maintain social distancing. Switch off that idiot box in your living room and bedrooms. Go out-live a healthy community life.
- Help your neighbors and their elderly with random acts of kindness. It need not be time-consuming, just spending a few minutes talking to elderlies in your neighborhood brings smiles to their faces and you will learn a lot of life skills from them. They have weathered many storms in their lifetime. Learn how they handled the stress during those times. And offer your love and compassion to them. All they need is love.
The one thing we never get enough of is LOVE. And the one thing we never give enough is love- Henry Miller
5. Physical self-care
This is self-explanatory. Isn’t it?
But if you need me to write about it- I will. After all, I have already written more than 1000 words on self-care by now. Take enough sleep, rest, exercise, consume good whole foods, and breathe in the fresh air (Don’t overdo masking when you are alone walking by yourself and there is no one else around you within 50 miles for your own health’s sake). These are pretty common physical self-care things. What I will definitely add during this pandemic are activities that improve your natural immunity to fight common illnesses and bacteria. Believe the good doctors who say bacterias are not to be afraid of. You are made of them and they are more sacred of you!
- Do daily belly breathing( diaphragmic breathing) for 10-15 minutes. It is great for the relaxation and circulation of oxygen in every cell of your body. Learn how to do belly breathing by watching a short video here.
- Go out and get some sun every day ( let the light in the house and inside you). Vitamin D tablets are great but nothing beats our biggest source of Vitamin D. And don’t worry, it is perfectly safe to get vitamin D this way. Follow Dr. Mercola’s chart on the best times in your region to get Sun exposure. Scroll down to this page to get the map of vitamin D synthesis for every month. This is a massive effort from Dr. Mercola and other doctors. Share this resource with everyone in your friends and family.
- Put on a face mask every week. Do not forget your eyes. They need relaxation from looking at the computer and phone screens.
- Consider making your own healthy body scrub and immerse yourself in a relaxing bath. My friend Lisa has a ton of DIY healthy recipes for personal care. This salted caramel DIY body scrub is my favorite.
- Speaking of computers and mobiles, add regular massage for your neck and back.
A few years ago, we both learned whole-body therapeutic massage in a couple’s massage in a class organized by our local massage therapist. It was the best valentine’s gift ever. This class came in handy in the last 5 years. It was all the more important during this pandemic when all therapy clinics in our area were closed. There are many benefits of getting a regular massage. It reduces stress, boosts immunity, relieves stiffness, and increases blood circulation. Over a period of the last 5 years, we barely had to visit our doctor or a chiropractor. We had also invested in the massage table and a few massage tools over the last few years. Our favorite ones are-
- Whole-body massage roller.
- Cellulite reducing massager for deep tissue massage– This is good for those of you who want to reduce excess fat. Warning- Initial use may lead to bruises that do not hurt but over time they go away. Read the manufacturer’s instructions before purchasing.
- Wooden Lymphatic Drainage Tool for soft tissue massage.
I personally love this for neck and shoulder massage after working on my computer for a long time.
- For foot massage, while working on the desk, we both use this foot roller massager.
The best part of this foot roller is it relaxes the whole body and we do not feel the need to have our weekly massage so often. This is our best investment in self-care ever for its ROI. We have not visited our chiropractor for neck or back pain in the last 4 years and he is happy about it.
- Back Massage Muscle Roller Tool Wooden Massager– This is an excellent option when you are alone and there is no one to help you with a back massage.
I personally have used something similar that I bought from a health and wellness event a few years ago. This gives me the ability to adjust the pressure and location of the massage on my back precisely.
This is more lightweight and handy for travel and camping time. I reach out for it during office hours in between meetings for a quick massage on my shoulder and hands. Shh.. don’t tell my colleagues.
- Glass cupping jars for severe back pain and sciatica- I personally vouch for the benefits of fire cupping for severe back pain.
This set has saved me at least 4 times in the last 7 years from terrible Sciatica pain that made it impossible for me to sit up, walk or do any movement at all. There is a bit of a learning curve in using this technique. But it is not rocket science and anyone can learn it. I learned it from my teacher in the acupressure institute. But if you don’t like fire cupping, a simple vacuum cupping is also excellent.
- Trade coffee with tea- and make the tea the traditional way. It’s a great relaxer to make tea this way.
- A quick 30 minutes circuit routine can meet your body’s daily needs to increase heart rate and increase happy hormones- serotonin, dopamine, etc.
6. Financial self-care
I’ve written a great deal on how to take care of our finances on this blog. The central theme of all those articles is cultivating healthy financial habits that in turn take care of you.
When you know where your income is coming from and where your money goes, it is one less thing to worry about.Having your basic emergency fund in place reduces a lot of stress for everyone. Check out good money-saving habits that are part of your financial self-care here. Everyone can practice financial self-care by never spending more than they earn and always saving at least 20% of their take-home pay in good high-paying investment options.
Learning about personal finance is the biggest form of self-care for everyone, irrespective of the status of the economy
7. Environmental self-care
- Play a soothing music
- Have low EMF levels inside your home and working space
- Bring nature inside your home with green plants that remove toxins from the air
- Lead a slow, plastic-free life. When we take care of our environment, we feel a sense of well-being knowing that we are going to leave this world in better shape for our future generations. There is a whole movement of zero-waste. You do not need to go crazy with the movement, but start practicing simple green replacements for common environmental pollutants like plastic and chemicals. Switch to glass containers and recyclables for your daily needs. Fun tip- taking care of our ball glass jars and wooden utensils is my favorite self-care routine in the house. It’s an almost Zen-like experience every week when I spend an hour cleaning and polishing our wooden utensils.
- Spend 10 minutes a day decluttering your surroundings. Clutter increases our cortisol levels- the stress hormone that causes many illnesses, clutter also reduces our creativity and focus and can even make us more sensitive to pain- says Baggett
8. Career/ professional self-care
Career self-care is all about keeping up with the most in-demand skills in the market, and upgrading your current skills so that you remain employable or hirable throughout your career. The times are changing so fast that if we are to earn from our skills, we need to ensure that we update our skills often, at least once every few years.
It is also about maintaining good working relationships with your team members, clients, and vendors. Always focus on building a good and trusted network of people who inspire you and keep you accountable. But, remember to keep your professional networking away from all political and religious views. In this pandemic, the world is already so divided. Do not bring your or others’ views about politics come in the way.
This classic book- Unwritten Laws of Engineering (affiliate link)written in 1944 still hold true in 2020. Although it is written for Engineers, do not let the title intimidate you. It came highly recommended by my father who built big dams and construction projects in the early 70s. Then he handed it over to me when I entered college. I did not pay attention to it until my second job. I wished I had read it before. But nevertheless, it has generational wisdom to work and thrive successfully in any industry. Remember we had no computers and digitization as we have now back in 1944. Follow the established genius rules and focus on your career self-care.
For those of you who are contemplating freelancing or a side gig while doing your full-time job, check out Nolo’s Working for yourself guide (affiliate link). It comes loaded with so much information and forms that will save you thousands of dollars from hiring professionals.
Check out if you are taking care of yourself well using this self-care assessment test.
This self-assessment sheet allows your clients to explore various aspects of their self-care, including physical, mental, emotional, social, and business/career.
But you will say, it’s all good to read and listen about. But it’s still harder for me to take care of myself. I hear you.
Why is self-care so hard?
Even when you know how important self-care is to your well-being, it isn’t always easy to incorporate it into your daily routine. With more responsibilities in a pandemic such as cooking all your meals at home, homeschooling kids, working remotely, managing the kid’s extracurricular activities and everything else that you do, taking time out for yourself seems impossible. In fact, did you know many people are at their wit’s end during this pandemic because of constant worry, news, and fear of the future?
Here, we’ll look at why people generally fail when it comes to self-care and the main things holding them back.
- You perceive self-care as selfish

It’s a total myth. The more you take care of yourself, the easier you’ll find it to take care of others. And believe me when I say- never feel guilty about taking time for yourself to focus on your happiness and your health. You are not a terrible parent if focus a little bit of time on yourself rather than giving all your energy to your children’s needs. In fact, it can help you to be a better parent, friend, spouse, and relative.
You’ll also show your children the importance of self-care.
Teaching your children to take care of their own needs is a crucial life skill that’s going to help them to grow up to be happier adults.
2. Self-care takes time and effort.
Well, you are right here. Taking care of yourself does take some level of effort in the beginning. This will happen if you aren’t used to making self-care a priority in the big to-do lists of your life. You’re going to need to make a small change to your current busy routine. Give yourself permission to take off or a break from business.
Once you give yourself permission, come up with a simple self-care plan. Remember it’s not another to-do list to overwhelm you. If anything, remove 2-3 other non-essential, non-urgent things from your to-do and just add ME-TIME in big bold letters in your to-do list. See how it makes you feel.
And at this point, you don’t even have any plan of self-care. So, enjoy this Me-time. Do nothing or take a nap. But if you must do something for yourself- read on.
Keep a self-care plan simple for you. Who says you have to go to the spa (you can’t really now thanks COVID-19) or meditate 20 minutes every day or exercise 30 minutes every day?
You do You…
Reduce the effort. That’s the whole intention. Focus on one thing that you always wanted to do. And just do it. Do you feel like you never get a chance to catch up on Gilmore Girls? Go watch a few episodes. Have fun. Laugh and cry with Lorelai Gilmore. Do you feel like you never get the chance to look through your family photos? Go ahead, take them out. Spend time reminiscing on old times. Find out if you remember all your friends and family members in those photographs. Better yet, catch up with some of them by saying hi. Don’t worry if it’s been a long time since you spoke with them. Initiate the conversation- They might have been as overwhelmed and busy as you have been for so long.
You got the idea, right?
When you start this self-care journey, remember to always start small.If you like to add self-improvement to the mix, you can add it too. But I will limit the self-improvement to personal goals. They may make you more serious. Our goal is to have fun. IF you do not agree with them, focus on one thing you want to improve at a time. Less is more. Perhaps you’d like to start working out more? Scheduling time to exercise as soon as you wake up, for example, can be a great start. Or, if you’re looking to drink more water, focus on that goal first. Just fill up 8 glasses of water in the big pitcher, put it on your desk or wherever you are for the most part of the day and pour yourself a glass of water every 2-3 hours.
If you break down your self-care tasks, it makes them much easier, reducing a lot of the effort involved.
3. Self-care is a luxury for me in this phase of my life. I have too many responsibilities already

I get it. In different seasons of life, we all tend to get so focused on the responsibilities and stresses of life, that self-care seems a big luxury. I see examples from busy women who once had an office routine, home routine, child care routine and after-school routine all mapped out. Now they all are struggling with homeschooling, making all meals at home, taking care of children’s activities, their mood swings, office work, and marital conflicts. But does that mean self-care should take a back seat?
No, in fact, this is the time ripe for making it a first priority.
Not convinced of the importance of self-care during this pandemic? Ok then, read on for more reasons to take care of yourself below.
Why is self-care so important for your health?
If you continue neglecting yourself and do not put yourself first, soon you will notice some obvious signs of an illness that is not clearly defined by medical doctors. They do not even consider these signs until you have confirmed anxiety or depression. Why wait for so long? Learn to understand the signs that you need more self-care in your life.
Some of the common signs to look out for are:
- You feel lost or stuck in life
- Your mood is consistently flat- You don’t have to feel depressed to make a change, simply feeling constantly flat is another indicator that your life isn’t satisfying.
- You suffer from poor self-esteem- There can be more reasons for poor self-esteem but if you tend to put yourself last for a long time, you may notice that Over time, poor self-esteem can lead you to feel like you don’t deserve good things in life. . This, in turn, can cause you to give up trying to be happy.
- You have very little energy- When you spend a lot of time doing things that don’t inspire you, it can zap your energy quickly. So, if you wake up feeling tired and drained consistently, take it as a sign you need more self-care in your life.
- You go through the motions of life rather than participating in it- You tend to say yes for everyone and everything that comes your way but do not feel like participating wholeheartedly in anything. Everything seems hard.
Self-care can really help to improve self-esteem, give you a sense of purpose and help to make you feel happier and more energized. So, if you want to make a change, recognize where your current issues lie and use self-care to eliminate them.
If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit
When you live a busy lifestyle, it can seem almost impossible to find extra time to look after you. But if you continue ignoring yourself, you will feel stressed and exhausted all the time, and you will notice unexplained weight gain, and self-doubting thoughts, every one of us is different, which means we enjoy and dislike different things.
Self-care isn’t just bubble baths, yoga, and meditation. It is about anything that relaxes and takes care of you. So, if you find going for a run is a more effective way of feeling good, go for it.
If you find one self-care approach isn’t working, try something else.
Self-care should be personal to your own needs.These are the most common reasons people fail to take good care of themselves. It can be difficult overcoming the initial barriers to self-care. However, once you fully understand what and how important it is, you’ll find it much easier to stick to a self-care routine.
My Pandemic Self-Care Routine
When I get tired from stressful and long work from home days, I tend to take a complete break from TV, social media, and calls in the evening. Sometimes, talking to someone is also an effort for me. So, my self-care routine during this pandemic is-
- Switch off the Wi-Fi at home. Less EMF around me when I’m already stressed, the better it is
- Switch off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on my digital devices
- Put on light soothing music on our Sony Home Theater system.
- I put on a teapot to make myself a nice cup (or two) of tea.
- By the time tea is getting ready, I take a nice long shower with my favorite spa tools.
After a shower, I sip my tea and color my prayer bible. Inspire Bible is my favorite during the Pandemic. If I don’t get to do anything else, Bible time is my favorite time of the day.
In about an hour or so, I feel refreshed, relaxed, and happy. If afterward, I have some work, I do that or it just gets pushed to the next day. And that is fine. Because I have taken care of myself so I will have more energy to get things done quickly and effectively tomorrow. This is my weekday unplanned self-care routine. But during the weekend, I take a complete break on Sunday and have no -work, only a fun routine.
I firmly believe that you do not need to have a dedicated self-care routine planned out. Simple breaks throughout the day to get away from stress, even for a few minutes helps you to bring back balance. I love Personal positive affirmations cards for this.
These cards are instant, portable pick me up. Keep them handy, especially on expected stressful days, and take them out in stressful times. Don’t forget to read the card slowly, take a deep breath, smile, and sign your favorite tune for a minute. See your stress melt away in less than a minute. They are a great way to affirm that all is well and you do not need to sweat the small stuff… because, in the end, it is the small stuff that zaps your energy if you let it linger for a longer time.
Self-care Ideas for men during pandemic
For the men reading this article, please do not ignore this article as it mentioned girly self-care examples. You need to relax after a stressful workday as well. And that is not equal to guzzling beer and watching TV until you fall asleep. Sure, it feels good to put up your feet and have no care of the world for short time. But, it does not make you feel better the next morning.
Nothing wrong with having a beer or two over a weekend, but daily habits of neglecting yourself can result in more weight gain, more stress, less sleep and soon losing the direction of your goals in life. So, ladies, please urge the man in your life to take the self-care assessment test.
Download the Self-Care Assessment worksheetSelf-care Ideas for Couples during pandemic
If you are a couple, plan a self-care routine for both of you. Do fun relaxing activities that you both enjoy. It will help you build a strong trusting relationship.
When you both are relaxed, you both can handle stresses in life together without hard feelings for each other. Especially, during this pandemic, both husband and wife are having more responsibilities than ever. We tend to take our stress out the most on our better half. Why not find more reasons to make this time a little less stressful? Check out these fun and snarky coloring books for couples (affiliate link). The images and wording is so fun that both of you will love coloring it together. Choose your colors and color away your marital stress.
Those of you who don’t like coloring activities or think it’s challenging to your liking, check out one year of us.
It has a daily question for couples to answer. You can use it on date nights to start interesting conversations or just use it on long boring winter days when you all are social distancing.
Self-care at different phases and seasons of your life.
This is also applicable to everyone in different stages and phases of life. Each new stage is a big change in itself and each change challenges us to leave our comfort zone. No wonder most of us fight any significant change in our lives. But, life keeps changing. We keep growing up and with that our roles change and our responsibilities change as well.
- Teenager- needs more self-care when they are in school managing studies, competing in school sports, and other extracurricular activities. When the hormones are changing and there is a growth spurt, most things in the world seem so different to young teenagers. These are the early formative years when they look up to role models both at home and outside in school. In these times, self-care takes a back seat. Parents should encourage self-care by creating a safe, open, and inspiring environment for their teenagers. A simple inexpensive self-care routine is great for teenagers. Things like simple crafts, outside games and adventures, painting, and one-one time with your teenagers are great ways to offer them affordable self-care options.
- Adolescents- Self-care is essential when they are planning for their college applications, when they first get away from family, living in dorms with other students. Self-care is all the more important for the young adult when you are just starting your independent life away from family for the time.
- Parents of Teenagers and Adolescents – This is also a difficult time for parents of young adults as constant worry about their children gives them anxiety. Letting go of your day-to-day parental responsibility is hard for many parents.

This is the time, you start taking care of yourself by involving yourself in creative projects or anything that puts your mind at ease. You anyway get in touch with the kids via technology- zoom, and facetime throughout the week so do not feel guilty to take care of yourself. Besides, when your kids see you during the calls, they will be happy to see a happy mom and dad.
4. Young adults- working full time and living with their new love need to have self-care routines from start. Partying and socializing with encouraging and supportive friends is helpful to a certain extent. But, allowing yourself to slow down and relax during weekends or your off-days is important for recharging yourself for workdays. This is also the time when young minds start dating and that itself is a huge change. Love yourself first before you give yourself to another!
Because It’s only when we love ourselves that we feel worthy of someone else’s love.
Make it a point to give yourself time and break from always being with others and social media which can be quite toxic- especially during this Pandemic. Take frequent breaks from it and do social media detox by limiting your online presence every few days
5. This is also applicable for newlyweds, first-time parents, and grandparents. You all are going through a big life change where there are more demands on you and your time. Make sure to place self-care at the top of those demands. It will save you and your loved ones from the future stresses of a life together.
6. Entrepreneurs constantly work on their businesses because when they stop working, they feel that they are losing precious time to build their businesses. But when you constantly work on the project after project, your creativity, problem-solving ability, and focus take a hit.
If you are looking for more ideas to increase your self-confidence and self-esteem, check out these 30 journals prompts written by my friend and a highly successful coach Sadie Smiley.
Frequent breaks among stressful projects not only give you enough energy to recharge but also helps you regain happy hormones- serotonin, dopamine, etc. One easy way to de-stress is to take a good soak in Epsom Salt Bath (Affiliate Link) Both Lavender and Eucalyptus essential oils ease soreness and aches in under 20 minutes. They also have different options for detoxification and energizing.
7. And finally, those of you who are planning on retiring or already retired, lord knows you will finally have the time for yourself. Some people love this me-time easily but some people like my dad dread being free. If you are like him, you have led a busy life so far. Your work fulfilled you for all those years and there is no reason you should take a complete break from it. But you can reduce the pace of work and do only that work that fulfills you. Many retirees I know have turned into creative projects and are making a decent monthly income from their hobbies.
Some retired people who love writing and crafts have also turned into blogging where their blog becomes their self-care outlet. You can also create a blog like this in a day and start writing your thoughts on it. Personal blogs are so popular for the last 10 years. In times of social distancing, people are blogging about their lives to remain in touch with their loved ones.
So, in conclusion
You don’t have to start by completely overhauling your lifestyle. Instead, you can start small with self-care. Begin by taking just 10 minutes out of each day to focus on a self-care activity. Focus on developing one positive self-care habit at a time. Once you have mastered that, you can move on to the next task. Remember, self-care is essential to your health and wellbeing. So, no matter how busy you are, you should always try and make time for self-care daily.
What is your self-care routine? How do you unwind from the stresses of being away from your friends and family during this Pandemic? Please share your ideas and thoughts.
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