Self-Care Habits that Bring Summer R&R into Your Daily Life
Self-care habits may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of summertime.
Instead, you might be focused on rest and relaxation or taking a vacation!
And it’s true, summer is the ideal time to get outdoors and do things you love, whether it’s walking on the beach, hiking in the mountains, or waterskiing on the lake.
However, just because the warm weather and sunshine create the ideal setting for fun and relaxing activities, that doesn’t mean it’s the only time you can have R&R. In fact, you can bring little pieces of summer’s relaxed vibe into your daily life with simple self-care habits.
One way to ensure a life of well-being and ease is to implement self-care habits—even little ones—that allow you to easily automate your wellness routine. Here are several daily self-care habits that I teach in my Journey to Thrive program to get you started!
Earlier, Lighter Dinners
Your digestive system needs a rest too. Eat a light dinner and take advantage of fresh seasonal vegetables.
Aim for 13 hours between dinner and breakfast—overnight fasting supports cell repair and regeneration.
Remember that “breakfast” literally means “breaking your fast”—so the longer time your body rests, the better—self-care for your digestive tract.
Early to Bed
Be sweet to yourself and get some extra Zs tonight—clock out before 10 p.m.
Relax by patting yourself on the back for doing your best today. Before you head to bed, list three “wins” you had today. Focus on the positive and how life supported you.
Transition to bed with a simple foot bath. You can add flowers to a tub of warm water with epsom salts, as in the photo for this post. A few drops of essential oils, like lavender, will make it more of a spa-like experience. No time to prepare a foot bath? Simply rinse your feet under running water in your shower or bathtub and towel off. During the hot summer, this can be a refreshing treat when you change into your pajamas.
Rather than thinking about what didn’t get done today or what needs to be done tomorrow, focus on contentment and satisfaction for what did get done.
Take a vacation from technology, especially for a couple of hours prior to bedtime.
Start the Day Right
Begin your day with hydration—a self-care tip for first thing when you wake up.
Give yourself extra time in the morning to eliminate. Regular hydration helps this become a habit.
Practice gratitude first thing in the morning—connect with the things that are going well and plan to have a positive attitude today.
Self-Care Habits You Can Do at Work
Just because you’re at work doesn’t mean you don’t need to take care of yourself—in fact, quite the opposite. Bring self-care habits to the office to get through the workday with ease.
Bring a healthy lunch to keep your energy up and your digestive system on track.
Enjoy your lunch with a friend or co-worker. Eat slowly and away from your desk. Consider lunch a time to connect with yourself and others, rather than focusing on disconnecting and zoning out.
Take periodic deep, cleansing breaths at your desk—it relieves stress without anyone knowing!
Set your timer to take short breaks where you get up and stretch, walk, or just move around to keep your circulation flowing and your muscles loose.
Take a few essential oils to work to help clear your head and keep you focused—cedarwood, rosemary, and lemon are just a few choices.
Easeful Living
Easeful Living is the most powerful self-care habit of all, because it invites you to shift your mindset from stress to ease. Easeful Living includes all the self-care habits mentioned above, as each of these habits builds a stronger foundation for your mind and body to function in unison with circadian rhythm and the seasons.
When you top these self-care habits off with Easeful Living, you have a holistic approach to your self-care routine and overall lifestyle.
The best way to practice the self-care habit of easeful living is to avoid:
Rushing
Hurrying
Worrying
Practice shifting your thoughts from negative to positive, serotonin-inducing thoughts. Think of it like the old adage of putting on rose-colored glasses. While you might think of this approach as naive, there’s actually a great deal of depth in accepting things as they are and still being able to trust that life is here to support you and allow things to flow with as much ease as possible.
Daily self-care habits bring the rest and relaxation of summer vacation into your everyday life.
Self-care habits don’t have to be complicated or extravagant. As you can see, all you need to do is toss a few of these tidbits into your day to begin adopting a healthy self-care foundation. Actually turning these into a daily routine will ensure that you’re always getting rest and relaxation, so that you have the energy you need to do what is most meaningful to you.
Don’t stop your self-care habits when you are on vacation, either. Instead, begin to think of them as a mini-vacation for yourself no matter where you are.
Feel free to add your own self-care tips in the comments below and incorporate them into your daily routine.
Your result will be a happier, healthier, more balanced and grateful you—not just today, but for a lifetime!
Photo credit: Rune Enstad