The Self Care Life with Sara Miller

How I Practice Self Care Everyday

March 22, 2022 Sara Miller
The Self Care Life with Sara Miller
How I Practice Self Care Everyday
Show Notes Transcript

Before you click away. Yes, I'm a mom. No, I don't literally spend hours on self care every single day. But I do practice it daily. Let's talk through HOW I do it. Building these tiny self care moments into your day is key to reducing overwhelm and feeling fulfilled. 

Here's where you can find me:
Own Your Self Care Starter Kit - https://theselfcare.life/own-your-self-care/
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Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sarastrives/

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Sara Miller:

With a thousand things on our to do list, a lot of us are doing life on constant autopilot forgetting to care for ourselves feeling overwhelmed and frustrated with the way things are. I strive to help you, the everyday woman to stop and to embrace the power of effective self care, in order to reduce overwhelm and anxiety and find fulfilment in your everyday life. I'm Sara Miller, and I'm here to help you stop going through the motions and start being the happiest and healthiest version of you all by caring for yourself, like someone worth caring for. Join me for conversations about self care, wellness, mindfulness, and so much more that will help you find your own self care lifestyle. I'm Sara, and you're listening to The Self Care Lifestyle Podcast. Good morning, good afternoon. Good evening, good night, whatever time you're listening to this. Welcome. I am here to talk to you about basically making self care a part of your daily routine. I know we've talked a lot a lot about why we need to make self care a part of our daily thing. What that looks like, what it means. Why I mean, really, that why I think we focused on quite a bit. Today, I really want to dive into how, and I want to be super, super tactical, like just very, what I do, and how you could do it, very clear ideas and not just, you know, concepts. So this could really be whatever you need it to be if you need help with how to make self care part of your morning routine. If you need help making self care part of your like work day, if you need help making self care part of your evening routine, finding those little moments. This is for you. So let's just dive on it. I have to say that I am not the best example of making self care part of my morning routine. I think I do in like really little ways. But it is something that I am very much a roll out of bed and get to work kind of person when it comes to my mornings, I'd rather like get on eat kind of like eat the frog, get it done that kind of thing. That kind of thought process, I guess. But there are ways that I noticed when I do do these things. They help my day go more smoothly, and they are definitely self care for me. So some of the like really, fairly low time commitment, things that you could do would be simply making coffee, how you like it, it could be taking two minutes longer to put on a little mascara, if that makes you feel good. It could be taking a little while to curl your hair put on a nice outfit. I know we talked about dressing yourself as an act of self care with Jammie not too long ago. So definitely check out that episode if you need ideas around that. But there's, it's a lot of like preparing yourself for the day that I see as being an integral part of my morning routine. So those are a few ideas. Some others would be like walking around the block, I'll often try to walk around the block with my husband, if I have the energy and time. It probably happens less than I'd like to admit but working on it. So there's that. And then as far as like my day to day like throughout my day, one of the things that I like to do is to take stretch breaks, take snack breaks, you know, breathe, listen to an encouraging podcast. There's lots of little tiny ways that you may even already be doing those these things, but maybe without so much intentionality around it. So that's like a mindset shift thing there Right? Thinking about, okay, I am doing this so that I can really care for myself and be intentional and slow down and think about oh yeah, this is such a good podcast and this coffee is so yummy. That kind of thing. And I want to be clear that that doesn't mean Oh, you must show gratitude. Like that's not the thing. That's not the vibe here. With the concept of gratitude, I have to admit I'm really sensitive about but you've heard that soapbox. And in other episodes, I think I think the one with Brittany, Clark's and I talked about this a little bit. So scroll back a little ways, if you would like to hear that. But yeah, that's those are a few of the like little tiny ways throughout my work day. Another thing that I have taken on recently, when I started my new job, I actually take a lunch break in this new job. And during that time, I actually, you know, I am very grateful to have a environment where I have a long enough lunch break, to do a yoga session and eat my lunch. And that has become a time where I can move my body, that feels good to me, I've never super enjoyed working out in the morning, and then I'm too tired. By the end of the day, that middle of the day is perfect. And being able to have that dedicated time on a daily basis with something that feels good for me. And my body that isn't too intense in the middle of the workday has been fantastic. So maybe there's something like that for you. Maybe it's not yoga, maybe it's reading a chapter of a book, maybe it is doodling or writing, or maybe it is simply walking around the block. There's so many different things, different ways to practice self care, I don't want you to get stuck on exactly what I do and want you to think about how you could apply what works for you. In the same way, so if you have a lunch break, consider how you can like really self care-ify that lunch break, are you walking away from your desk, are you leaving your office space and truly disconnecting during your lunch, I really encourage you to do that, especially if you are fortunate enough to have an environment where you can do that, I recognize that it's not like that everywhere. So just some thoughts. I'll usually do you know some yummy coffee, yummy sparkling waters, that kind of thing throughout the day that really do make me feel good. But also things like having a blanket and my office space that is a little bit of a self care thing for me where I feel more comfortable and cozy and safe. Having those the blankets in my office. And then let's get into your evening routine. So I know here and my house is always crazy busy when it comes to the evening routine. It is you know, we're going to get my son from school and then run back home and cook dinner. And one of the things that we've been doing lately is trying to a lot of times my husband will cook lunch. And then we'll do leftovers for dinner. And then pick up on pick something up on the days where we don't have the energy to cook. But it really just depends on the day on the schedule. But that's just one way that we kind of simplify or evening routine so that it doesn't feel quite so chaotic. We also have been trying to have food prepped before Rhys gets home. Because otherwise he is super cranky. And it's like I'm ready for dinner or what's

happening. Like dude, it is 5:

30 You can't, you can't expect us to have dinner ready for you. We got off at you know, five, maybe a little after five depending on the day. But one thing that we've been trying to do as a family is at the dinner table, not go immediately sit in front of the TV. And I know that that's not necessarily the most fun form of self care to pull into your day to day. But it's like a simple change. And I feel like that's where self care becomes really powerful is in those simple changes here routine that really lift you up and support you rather than I guess enable you maybe I mean, I think that there's a time in the place for your TV nights. You know, for me, like Grey's Anatomy nights are always ones that I want to eat on the couch sometimes Friday nights if we want to watch a movie, that kind of thing. But in general, on the weeknights, we really try to eat as a family at the table, not on the phones not watching TV, and just connecting with loved ones. You know, will it it's just a really simple change. And I know that you've probably heard this a million times. But I really want you to think about it with an angle of self care. Because think about how you feel when you start doing this consistently. And it may take a few times before you start seeing a difference. It may take a week or two could take a month. Take note of how you're feeling. This is kind of comes into those like hard things or self care too. It's not always about the stuff that's easy. That is just, you know, fun. It's not about the bubble. laughs It's not about going on shopping sprees. It's not about that all the time. Yes, some of that is self care. But there's this balance with things that are fun and things that are what feels good. Long term. So yeah. Now as you go into your nighttime routine, for us that very much is obviously very involved with a kid having his bedtime routine as part of it, but we actually have this like, nailed down so well, his nighttime routine, I think it's actually we've talked about it in the it's in the own your self care starter kit, how to like self care-ify your bedtime routine. And we do a lot to like prep him for bed and to get him to sleep through the night and he's generally been a really good sleeper most of his life knock on wood. But he Yeah, I that's a whole thing. I guess not really. You're, I'm getting off track. So your nighttime routine, self care for your nighttime routine. This is where my self care comes in. I usually like to take some time alone. I'll admit, sometimes I'm guilty of doing freelance work working on the podcast in business during this time. And I was recently talking with somebody about this and how I needed to do a better job of having like clear boundaries between what's a hobby for fun and what is a work hobby, if that makes sense. But that's kind of a whole other can of worms. So I'll like have a glass of wine or a cup of tea and do that if I can like take a hot shower and do one I tried this for the first time recently. And I turned out with these like battery powered candles that you know they don't actually burn. They're just battery powder powered, they light up. I did those, put those in our bathroom and took a shower by like quote unquote candlelight and did like my favorite body wash and like took my time with like really working in my conditioner and washing my body and shaving and just being really slow and intentional about it scrubbing my feet. washing my face. I did some like face oil and gua sha stuff. If you know what Wilshire is with the little like what's it called? Little gua sha tool doesn't like little thing and you like rabbit, run it over your face and I'm motioning like you can see me but just taking those taking it slow. As I'm like moving through caring for my physical body is one of my favorite things and an evening routine. And then getting into bed maybe doing again the tea or wine and I love to read if I have the energy that is one of my favorite ways to like kind of disconnect and not be on my phone and just relax. And that can be anything from like a it could be fiction, nonfiction. I love it all. Often, it'll be like rereading an old favorite when it comes to fiction. So, you know, there's like, books you've read over and over again, but just it they're comforting in that way. You know, classic Enneagram six But that's one way integrate a couple of ways I guess that I integrate self care into my nighttime routine. I also love to do things like invest money in things that I know make my space feel better and calmer. So like I recently got not not super recently in the last six months got like one of those satiny silky pillowcases not real silk because because budget but to help with hair breakage and just keeping my hair from getting frizzy and all that supposed to be good for your hair. But it also just like feels more luxurious when I'm getting into bed. But also things like acting on like making my bed. So I'm getting into like a freshly made bed freshly made sheets, like there's nothing better than freshly clean sheets. I will fight you on if you disagree. There's there's so much goodness in freshly clean sheets and a freshly made bed. But yeah, I feel like I've just been like rambling and chatting with you. But I think that's the style of this episode. And I am finding what feels good. As I'm talking to you on this show. I think it's important that I connect with you and myself and I hope you enjoy that. So anyways, to really just kind of wrap up loose ends. When it comes to making self care a part of your routine. Think about the tiniest moments, the tiniest upgrades the way you can just simply elevate something to make it feel a little extra good. You know, that's a lot of what self care is about. It is a mindset shift. It is doing the little bitty extra thing that makes you feel good even though some people might think it's silly. It is about doing what works for you to make you feel good, and pulling it into the tiny little pockets in your day. So I hope this was super helpful for you and go get your self care on. Thank you so much for joining me today. Before you go be sure to grab my free Own Your Self Care Starter Kit by visiting theselfcare.life/own-your-self-care/. This kit is specially designed to help you identify what kind of self care will work best for you. That way you can start developing your own self care lifestyle. If you'd like to stay connected find me on Instagram at @sarastrives or on TikTok at@TheSelfCareLifestyle. Thank you so much for listening and I will talk to you again, soon.