Self-Care Habits to Introduce in Lockdown

Self-Care Habits to Introduce - Caitylis

If any possible year you introduce self-care habits, let it be 2021. After a shocking 2020 and an awful start to 2021, I think we could all do with adding more self-care habits into our routine. My one and only piece of advice for getting through these endless months (and now years) of lockdown we’re having are routine. Routine. Routine. Routine. Nothing else in our life makes sense at the moment, nothing else makes sense. I recently made a post about habits to include in your morning routine that you should definitely read too!

So the best thing we can do for ourselves right now is to give our daily habits a schedule – because in a world where we have no idea what’s coming next it would be helpful for ourselves if we knew what was coming next in our day to day life.

One thing we all must add to our day to day routine is an abundance of self-care habits. Because the more often you do them, the more likely you will be able to form a habit – a habit to care for yourself. It can take over 18 days to form a habit, so for that first stint, you just have to keep reminders to do these things. 

For me, I like to keep a habit tracker. A small table with daily habits to introduce down one side, and then the days of the week across the top. Shading in each box once a habit is completed. Other people would prefer a tick list or a reminder on their phone. There are tonnes of apps out there to help remind you to do these things. 

Now, here are the self-care habits you need to introduce in 2021.

Drink More Water

Something we all know we need to do more of. The amount each person needs differs depending on a lot of factors. But roughly men should drink 3.7L a day, and women 2.7L. So for me, that would be about 5-6 glasses of water (500ml) – but going from hardly drinking water to intaking that much so soon would give me a stomach ache. So just do an increase that feels right for you. Currently, I’m aiming for at least 3 glasses (1.5L). And in doing so I’m already feeling so much more motivated, awake and fuller. It’s helped me stop binging on unhealthy snacks too!

Call a Friend

Something I definitely need to work on. I’m so used to chatting online that you forget the importance of actually hearing your friends voice, or seeing them on videocall. The benefits are wonderful and so important to help you subside the loneliness you might be feeling. Make a more conscious effort to contact a friend or family member for a chat. You never know, they might just need a chat too.

Reading

Whether that’s a book, magazine or a news article engaging your brain to read is so crucial. I’ve recently been finding a love of spending some time getting lost in a fiction book. Perfect for taking you away from real life for a short while. Reading is a intermit thing to do for yourself and it should certainly be up there with one of the most important self-care habits.

Look after your Skin

You’ll thank me for this one. Be a bit more mindful of how much (or actually how little) you look after your skin. Give yourself time to add a little extra love in your routine. I found a wonderful eye cream I just love and its made a huge impact on how tired my face looks in the morning. Even using some hand cream (because we all know our hands are cracked and dried from all the sanitiser we’ve been using!) will help make you feel that little bit better. 

Get Outside

Whether you just shove your coat on and drink a cup of tea in the garden for 10 minutes or you go on a walk. Either will be so beneficial! Staying cooped up inside isn’t natural for us. Just a small piece of fresh air and the feel of a breeze will motivate you massively and make you feel good both inside and out!

Exercise

This doesn’t even have to be anything outrageous! Even a walk will do. I’ve been doing a mixture of walking, runs and home workouts. I managed to get two 3KG dumbbell weights and a 5kg kettlebell to help do just a 20-minute workout in the evening once the kids have gone to bed. It never fails to make me feel alive and better about myself.

Journalling 

Something I know isn’t for everyone, but even jotting down a few words will help you reflect. Try getting a one-line a day journal. The idea is to jot down your feelings/what you’ve done each day, and it has room to do this 5 times, one for the same day for 5 years. Meaning you can always look back a year to the day and see how you felt or what you were up too. Seeing how far you’ve come through the years. 

Social Media Detox

As someone who works on social media, this is a difficult one for me to do. But setting limits, to stop the pointless endless scrolling is worth it. You’ll find yourself having more time for the things you thought you never had time for! Just turning off notifications will do you wonders, I always have Facebook, Twitter and Tiktok notifications set to off. Those platforms I don’t really need to know when something is instantly said. On weekends I turn off notifications for Instagram and Pinterest and I’ve found to have a much more enjoyable, relaxed, productive weekend!

Are you making more of an effort this year to add more self-care habits into your life? It really needs to be done with the awful time we’ve all been having lately. Just be a bit kinder on yourself, give yourself more time to refresh, revive and relax. 

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