Goals For A New Decade: Self Care and Wellness Tips

Tehreem Khan | Hyderabad, Pakistan

The start of a new decade marks the beginning of new phases of our lives, new jokes, new experiences, and new opportunities. We can all make this change in our lives a positive one through one simple step. Self-care. Loving yourself, taking care of yourself and appreciating yourself is the foundation of a finer and healthier life. Here are a few of my self-care and wellness tips:

1. Eat Healthy :

The food you eat has a huge impact on your health. Eating healthy helps your body maintain its normal functions, gives you the amount of energy needed to go about your day, keep your weight in check, and makes you less susceptible to diseases. Change your diet plan to a healthy one, add vegetables, and drink at least 7 to 8 glasses of water, take in a balanced amount of protein and carbohydrates, fresh fruits and juices.

2. Wake up Early :

Start your day by enjoying the early morning breeze, make your breakfast and go for a jog. This gives you a feeling of optimism which usually stays with you throughout you day, making it less stressful. Waking up early means going to bed early, resulting in a better sleep cycle. And you know what they say, “A good sleep is an emotional first aid.”

3. Read a book :

Make a habit of reading at least one book a month. Some light reading can improve your mood or a series of books can help you discover a new world. Reading books makes you feel confident, stress free and above all gives you the key to unlock all the gates of the world of knowledge.

4. Stay Clean, Hygienic and Organized:

Take your time to have long, relaxing baths, wear fresh clothes, keep your room tidy and organized, and organize your closet. Living in a fresh environment gives off a positive aura and automatically boosts your spirit.

5. Remove toxic people from your life:

Hangout with people who uplift you and make you feel important and remove people who lower your self esteem. Surrounding yourself with the people who care about you is an essential step of self care.

6. Exercise and Meditate:

Keep your body in shape and keep your mind at peace. If you don't regularly exercise, start off small and do some simple exercises, or meditate starting at 5 minutes per day. Try to go on long walks, play a sport, take a dance class, or do some yoga. Starting somewhere can go a long way.

7. Emotional Self-care:

Understand your emotions and act accordingly in a way that honours them. It’s okay to laugh out loud when you are happy and to cry or eat chocolate when you are sad. Don’t over explain yourself to people. Create boundaries of what makes you comfortable, and learn to say no. Seek professional help when you need to, and find the people who can emotionally support you as well.

8. Have a skin and hair care routine:

Treat your skin and hair to the nourishment they deserve once in a while. Remove dirt, cleanse, moisturize. That goes both ways for girls and boys! We deserve to be the best versions of ourselves.

9. Have hobbies:

Do things that makes you happy, do what you like to do! Learn new things, and you don’t necessarily have to be good at it, just give it a try. Paint, keep a journal, go out with friends, read, grow plants, involve yourself in community work, cook new things, play video games.

10. Cut down on social media:

Although social media is a fun place to be at, too much of it is toxic. It makes you stop living your actual life and makes you feel like there is a standardization to everything you do. Limit your time on your phone. Spend it with your family, spend it with your friends and above all spend that time doing what you love.

11. Have a "Me" day:

Even though a healthy life style is important, being human we also crave getting out of our shell. Have a "me" day, let your self be. Let yourself sleep in, wear your favourite dress, wear your favourite perfume, eat your favourite food, treat yourself to something fancy, spend a day with yourself, appreciate yourself, buy yourself gifts, do what you want to.

It is important to know that you are worth everything, you don’t have to change yourself although you can be a better version of yourself. No matter what hardships you are going through, be there for yourself, appreciate yourself through small things - it’s the thought that counts. Surround yourself with positivity. Be kind to your own self.

“Loving yourself is sanity not vanity.”