How to Fit Self-Care into a Busy Schedule

Self-care is essential to life, as it ensures that your stress levels are properly managed by giving you some time away from work and other responsibilities. People aren't machines, and everyone, no matter what their background may be, needs some downtime to recuperate on a regular basis. For some people, it can be easy to incorporate self-care into their schedules. However, making time for self-care can be next to impossible for others. If you have a busy schedule yet are looking for ways to fit self-care into your life, you obviously realize the importance. Here is an overview that provides tips and clever ways to include self-care in your life courtesy of GSMovement, so you can ensure that you remain in tip-top condition in your mind, body, and soul.

What Exactly is Self-Care?

Before you can start incorporating self-care into your regimen, you need to know the precise definition of self-care. Self-care is participating in activities that are conducive to good health and well-being, both physically and mentally. For instance, you could begin a "self-care Saturday" routine in which you go for a full-body massage and get a manicure and pedicure on that day. However, self-care isn't limited to just these activities, as it could be anything you find relaxing. Everyone is different, so everyone must create an individualized self-care plan. Some examples of self-care activities are:

• Taking a yoga class
• Learning transcendental meditation
• Going for a daily nature walk
• Keeping a gratitude journal

Consequences of Failing to Add Self-Care to Your Life

Regardless of how busy your schedule may be, there is time to practice self-care. However, if you find that there is no time for self-care, you need to make time immediately. If you continue to engage in back-to-back obligations with no downtime, you're eventually setting yourself up to become burned out. Once you reach the point of burnout, you face the risk of developing potentially serious health problems, like having a stroke, heart attack, cancer, and more.

How to Add Self-Care to Your Life

Believe it or not, there are small things that you can start doing immediately that would be considered self-care. These things can even be done while you're doing other tasks. For instance, while working at your desk, you could have meditation music in the background. You could even have a fountain somewhere in your office, as the fountain and the music could promote relaxation during your hectic day.

Taking care of yourself doesn't entail taking a day off work to devote to yourself. Although that would be great, taking baby steps is okay if necessary. You could also take five minutes here and ten minutes there to add in self-care. One way to do so is to take five extra minutes while in the bathroom, getting ready in the morning. You can use those five or ten minutes to practice mindfulness or even a quick morning meditation before starting your day.

Determining the Type of Self-Care That's Best for You

The last thing you want to do is stress yourself out trying to add self-care. That's the opposite of what you want to do, as you want to ease in self-care so that it seems as natural as possible and poses no threat to your current time. Therefore, you must determine which self-care rituals you feel would not only be most beneficial but that would also be easy to incorporate into your life. Creating a self-care checklist can help you figure out the self-care plan that might work best for you.

A Sample Self-Care Checklist

What should a self-care checklist consist of? Here are some things that you should include in your checklist to help you get started with managing stress more effectively.

• Nutrition - Are you consuming a healthy diet that includes fruits, vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, low sugar, etc.? A healthy diet not only helps your body to feel its absolute best but also your mind, as well as your ability to manage stress.
• Sleep - Are you getting an adequate amount of sleep each night? Most people need between seven and nine hours of quality sleep to function at their full capacity.
• Exercise - Do you get a minimum of three hours each week? Proper exercise is essential to good overall health, including mental and emotional health.
• Adequate hydration - Maintaining a certain level of hydration is crucial to the entire body's functioning, including how you handle stress and anxiety.
• Reward - Everyone needs a special reward to look forward to regularly. As long as you're not allowing work obligations to deprive you of this, then you should meet your "reward quota."

As you can see, it doesn't matter how busy or hectic your life might be; there is always the possibility of adding some time for self-care. By taking the time for self-care, you are not only making your life less stressful but also improving your ability to handle stress when it does rear its ugly head.

If you're not ready to begin a full-on self-care program, small rituals should work well for a while when you can squeeze them in. Then, once you're feeling more relaxed and ready to express yourself, you might be motivated to add in more extensive self-care practices, such as taking a weekend once every few months to go on a mini vacation, having a "me day," or even simply going out to lunch followed by seeing a movie with a family member or friend. As long as you take some steps to unwind and manage the stress in your life, then you should be fine. Join us at GSMovement if you want more ideas on how to unwind!