The Self Care Life with Sara Miller

6 Self Care Categories to Explore Today

April 05, 2022 Sara Miller
The Self Care Life with Sara Miller
6 Self Care Categories to Explore Today
Show Notes Transcript

This episode contains SO many self care ideas. Tune in to hear me chat through six self care categories and countless ideas that fit into each category. This is a great place to start if you need ideas to put self care into action.

Here's where you can find me:
Own Your Self Care Starter Kit - https://theselfcare.life/own-your-self-care/
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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. Welcome, I'm really glad that you are here with me today. I feel like it's been, quite literally forever since I've recorded an episode just you and I, you and me grammar. But today, I want to talk through these like six core categories of self care that I kind of utilize that I feel like really span, the things that I utilize in my self care. And who knows, maybe in six months, I'll add another self care pillar for just we never know, a we're constantly learning and evolving and growing as people, which means our self care does too. But let's go ahead and dive into these six, I'm going to give kind of some examples, some ideas. And yeah, I think it's gonna be really, really helpful for anybody who's trying to find what kind of self care really works for them. Kind of get get some ideas flowing of what to experiment with to begin with. So number one, practicing self care through your physical body. And this goes so far beyond what you're probably thinking, because if I had to guess you're thinking movement, you're thinking nutrition, you're thinking, all that kind of stuff. But there's so many other things that have to do with your physical body, that are self care, and that are really powerful parts of my own self care. So let's talk through those of it. First, of course, movement and nutrition, this is going to help you generally feel physically good and energized. And of course, that there's complex layers to this where sometimes you've got to work through improving your relationship with movement and food, and choosing things that feel good. I'm personally on my own journey with this. And one of the things that I'm doing as far as movement and improving my relationship with that is choosing movement that truly feels just healing it almost, it's so good. So for me that's been yoga from a very specific creator, and just really tuning into my body's needs. And that is felt very freeing. So that that's one piece of that next meeting, you were like basic needs like drinking water, eating food, that kind of stuff that can often slip through the cracks when we're struggling. Hygiene is a big one for me, it always has been it's this like physical representation of caring for yourself. So showering for one is like literally top of my list. One of my favorite ways to reset when I'm having an off day when I'm trying to like unwind after work. It is a must in my self care kit. Other things that could go in there are skincare, brushing your hair or your teeth for those like really low spoon days, washing your face with a little bit of water. Just keep it simple and think through. How can you physically, like represent caring for yourself? So I think what's interesting is this aspect of caring for your physical body has such an impact on Your brain and how you are feeling about yourself and your self care. It's such a big part of self care beyond eat or still even realize it. So big favorite. Last one for that physical body category. dressing yourself to feel confident in your body. I recently had Jamie Baker on the show who is a former celebrity stylist termed turned mom's stylist and she really believes in getting dressed, to care for yourself and to show up in the world the way you want to and helping you to just feel more confident. And that's something that I'm trying to do a little more of. And yeah, definitely tune into that episode. If you haven't, that's a really great one. Okay, next big pillar, practicing self care through self expression. This could look like a lot of things, it could be painting or writing jamming out to some like punk rock journaling. Anything that recharges you through creation and sort of expressing your feelings, whether that be by literally putting them on paper, or just in the way that you move your body like dancing or anything like that. It's this deep self expression, right? So next pillar, practicing self care through quiet. This does not have to mean meditation, I recognize that meditation and Zen and all of that are not for everybody. I think there's definitely, I mean, for me, personally, I'm not a meditator, I don't, it's not my thing. But being able to be in quiet at times can be very calming, and it can be good to sit with your thoughts. I think it's really easy in this day and age to drown ourselves in constant stimulation from Netflix, from music and podcasts, whatever else, we don't just allow ourselves to hear our thoughts. So a couple ideas that are not meditation could be quiet walks, again, journaling, breathing exercises, simply sitting outside and like enjoying a drink. Reading can also be a great one, that one is not as much of that like being alone with your thoughts, but it is quiet. So just kind of find what fits for you. And also, I do want to note that you don't have to pick something from every one of these categories. I think that that's a great way to think about it in terms of finding balance in your self care. But you don't have to either. It's, you know, ultimately about what self care is effective for you. Okay, next one, this is kind of a fun one. But also a tough one. Practicing self care through guilty pleasures. So something that comes up a lot in the self care space is that there's kind of these extremes of self care is only these things that are like getting you towards your goals and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, or self care is only the stuff that's fun. And that's the thing. self care is not always fun. But this is our fun category. So this could be things like Netflix and junk food on occasion. This could be anything that might be considered like an unhealthy habit. Maybe it's playing a video game, maybe it is watching like trashy reality TV, I don't know. There are a lot of things that it could be it could be social media. But the thing with that is that you need to balance out these guilty pleasure self care things with the hard to practice self care stuff, which usually comes with I guess I would put it in the self expression category. Things like therapy. Things like moving your body things like being in quiet with your own thoughts when you when you need to. When it comes to, I don't want I don't want to use the word indulging because I feel like that has a negative connotation. Well But when you take part in these, like guilty pleasure, self care things, you just want to really strike a balance. But that really is with any self care, you want to strike a balance with what works for you, and that's going to take experimentation, and it's gonna take a lot of growing your self awareness. So yeah, that that category really though is just about letting yourself have the space to be human and enjoy life. However that may be, maybe that's pizza on occasion, or whatever else, I'm not gonna sit here and shame you about whatever your guilty pleasures are. That's not what this is about. This is about finding balance. And I also want to be very aware of these habits, not just being about food, they could just be Netflix, they could be alcohol, they could be I don't know, there's, there's a lot that goes into this category, right, there's probably something that popped into your head. So I just want you to be very considerate about the time that you spend on this particular category. So practicing self care through your environment is the fifth pillar. So this for me is often about reducing overstimulation and creating a safe physical space, creating this feeling of safety, safety and stability, reducing that like buzz in your brain. So this could be things like making your bed, changing your sheets, cleaning decluttering, that's a big one for that. overstimulation is like getting rid of the extra, just stuff that you have in your home. Decorating in a way that feels good for you can kind of that definitely can kind of crossover into both that self expression and the caring for your environment. But it's just kind of thinking about decorating in a way that feels good for your mind reducing the mental load of like, seeing something that you hate hung on your wall, like making those tiny changes to your home to make it a safe space. And one of my favorite resources for this is Allie Zaza. She is like the life minimalist is what I think she calls herself. But she kind of got started with decluttering. And she has an episode of her show. That's like what happens in the bedroom or something like that, where she talks about how intentional she was in even selecting the items that stayed not just in getting rid of so thinking about oh, I really want this space to feel romantic. For instance, I don't really want like kids toys or kids crafts in our master bedroom, or things like that. So just anyways, check out alley, check out that episode. So definitely get one if that's something you want to dive into more. Last one, and this one is kind of, we're gonna go shallow here, but this one can go pretty deep. So practicing self care through relationships. This one is about understanding your connections with people and your needs with that. So introverts versus extroverts recognizing when you need time with people and when you don't. And, you know, misconception just because you're an extrovert doesn't mean you don't need alone time. And just because you're an introvert doesn't mean you don't need people time. This is about building self awareness of when you do and don't need that time. The other big thing in this category is setting healthy boundaries to reduce those feelings of overwhelming anxiety. I think a really good example of this could even be thinking about boundaries with your work because that is a relationship in and of itself. Even though it may be a relationship with a company versus an individual. It is something where you need to set a boundary of these are the hours I work and from after those hours I get to relax, I am not on. I can breathe and just do what I need to do. Another good example would be a boundary with a friend that's really harmful for your mental health. If there's a friend that is just constantly bringing in this negativity and dragging you down and just doesn't seem to want to change or get out of that, that might be someone that you need to set a boundary with in terms of your friendship. So think about boundaries that you might need to put in place with your relationships. That is definitely a really strong one to end on. I think that it is a key part of your self care journey. It's kind of provides this initial structure and framework for your day to day life by starting to set those boundaries and make space for the other self care that maybe is a little more fun. So yeah, I hope you enjoyed this episode. And just to like, recap, I guess real quick before we close out completely is let's talk through those like, let me give you just a brief summary of the categories we talked. So we talked through practicing self care through your physical body, through self expression, through quiet through guilty pleasures, your environments, and through relationships. If you try out any of these ideas, I would love to hear from you. I would love for you to tell me about it. If you listen anywhere that allows you to leave reviews, please leave a review for me that helps me out so much. And stay tuned on Instagram because I'm announcing something very big in the upcoming weeks. 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.