Do you dream of having time to relax, rest or take a break?
Do you want to have a day where you’re free and unsaddled with responsibilities?
These may feel like simple desires, but do you feel like you don’t have the time to achieve them?
Time may feel like a rare commodity in your life where you’re busy with your family, kids, or work and other projects.
You find yourself constantly shuttling from one activity to another during the day in the desperate attempt to complete the list of tasks on your calendar.
But you end the day feeling like you had a busy day but not a very productive one. You still have tasks left to do, but you feel exhausted and lack the energy to see your tasks through.
All these hectic activities take a toll on your physical and mental health.
You feel a consistent lack of energy, stamina and strength. You feel body ache and tiredness, and your digestive system becomes sensitive and unsteady. You feel dull, numb and disconnected with what’s happening in your life.
You may be looking for motivation and methods to become more efficient and get more things done with your time.
But the key to your success lies not in what tasks you achieve but how well you take care of yourself.
Your Self-Care
Self-care is the practice of taking action to protect and enhance your own physical and emotional wellbeing.
You can use self-care during times of stress to help quiet your emotional storms. You can also use self-care as a daily practice, where you lay the foundation for strength, vitality and long life.
These daily self-care practices help you get rooted in your body, become mentally calm and clear, and handle life’s challenges in an efficient and effective manner.
For you to understand the value of daily self-care, it is important to understand your body and mind.
Your body is a dynamic entity that is constantly digesting food, metabolizing and assimilating nutrients, eliminating waste products, building tissues and organs, and doing a host of other necessary functions.
Your mind is acquiring and understanding information, processing information and gaining knowledge, storing and retrieving information from memory.
Your body and mind are constantly changing their functions and behaviors based on external stimuli. These stimuli include many factors such as your diet and lifestyle habits, the time of day, and changes in seasons.
For instance, when the sun rises in the morning, your body and mind become alert which provokes you to wake up and get out of bed. At nighttime you start yawning and your mind becomes dull which prompts you to go to sleep.
During all these activities, the body and mind are constantly sending out signals that demand action. And it is up to you to choose how you want to handle these signals.
You can choose to pay attention to these signals and take action according to the needs of your body. Or you can choose to ignore these signals and act based on your present emotional state. Or you may be unaware of these signals and you take actions that can be different from what the body wants.
But if you want to feel energetic and alive, it would be important for you to setup a daily self-care routine where you take actions at different times of the day that align with the body’s needs during that time.
It is one thing to know your daily routines, but it quite another to practice those routines in a focused and consistent manner.
If your mind is agitated or depressed, then you get distracted, lose consistency and stop practicing these daily routines.
But when your mind is clear and content, you pay more attention to your body and take actions that benefit your wellbeing.
Here are some ways of how you can align your body and mind so you can practice self-care habits consistently and improve your overall health and wellness.
Practice Self-Love
When you appreciate who you are, acknowledge your strengths and gifts, and celebrate your wins and achievements, your mind feels fulfilled. This practice releases any tension and stress, and allows your mind to relax.
This practice helps raise your self-esteem, let go of unreleased emotions, and get in touch with your body.
Tip: Write a letter to yourself. Write down at least 5 qualities that you love most about yourself. Write down how these qualities have impacted and benefited you. Write down how you’d bring out these qualities more often in your life.
Improve Immunity
When you increase your immunity, your body becomes strong. And you feel more confident in your own body.
Your mind becomes resilient, you feel more grounded, you become connected with your body.
Tip: Boil a cup of cow’s milk (you can substitute with almond or oat milk) at night. Add 1 date, 1 almond, few strands of saffron and ¼ tsp of ghee. Drink the milk hot or warm 20 minutes before going to bed.
Own Your Morning
When you feel alive and energized in the morning, the rest of your day feels the same. And the reverse is also true.
Your mind is the calmest and most open and receptive just before the sun rises in the morning. When you practice relaxation exercises during this time, you infuse your body and mind with energy that last you the rest of the day.
Tip: Wake up 20 mins before sun rise. Upon waking up, practice 10 minutes of deep breathing exercises where you breathe in deeply through the nose and breathe out the nose. Sit for a few minutes after the deep breathing and then get up and go about your day.
