Caroline, what does your self-care routine look like?

In this short post, I will share the top 5 things I do on a regular basis that genuinely support my mental, emotional and physical well-being.

In keeping with the community's theme of minimalism, I'm asking myself to be as clear and concise with my words here, so you gain maximum value for the minimal amount of reading time.

Image by Allef Vinicius

While I do many different kinds of self-care activities, these are the ones I wouldn't be without. I don't have a routine per se, more like a buffet of options I pick from as and when I need them. And all of these I do on a regular, if not daily, basis.

I have excluded the things many people do on a regular basis already. e.g. brushing my teeth. I have included the ones I think others may overlook or not have thought about before.

Let's dive in!

1. Moving my body first thing in the morning

Whether it's yoga or a walk, strength training or a run, doing an online dance class or getting into the garden, moving my body in whatever way it's asking to move that day nourishes and fuels me. It also gets my digestive system moving, gets my blood pumping around my body, and--since I usually do it outdoors or right in front of an open window facing the sun--I get sunlight into my eyes too. This is another thing that's great for my well-being: letting natural light into my eyes to reset my body clock.

Image by Hulki Okan Tabak

This brings me to my next sneaky self-care re-set:

2. Weeding the garden

While this might seem like a strange one, I find that any time I need a break from the screen (and the weather isn't crazy outside) that I'm often drawn to the garden. Tending to the garden by pulling out weeds or pruning things back let's me use my hands, get a little dirty and reckon with nature. Plus, I get to see an immediate difference that I've made and that feels really empowering.

Image by Phạm Chung 🇻🇳

Now, for something that you might not have heard of before:

3. Doing trauma-informed tapping

"Tapping" is the colloquial and collective term for a bunch of different healing modalities that get you to tap lightly on acupressure/meridian points with your fingertips as part of their process.

Having studied several versions of "tapping" over the last 8 years I've blended together much of what I've learned and integrated it with a better understanding of how the nervous system works so that I can make it highly effective while also far more gentle than many of the versions taught. This is what makes it "trauma-informed", that I'm using this in a way that understands the influence and impact of trauma on our nervous system and I can slow down my process as my body needs it.

While I do this work with clients my first and most important client is myself, as helping my own mental, emotional and physical health with tools like this allow me to do better work with everyone else.

Image by Brent Ninaber

A far more common self-care tip but one that's often overlooked is:

4. Drinking a lot of water*

Now, I've put that asterisk there for a reason. That's not a coding error, it's a caveat. I drink a lot more water these days than I used to but I also drink somewhere between a small glass and an entire litre of green smoothie most days as well. So water + green smoothie = higher water intake overall.

Most of us are chronically dehydrated. There are so many parts of our bodies that require more water than we give them. Upping my water intake has helped to improve my digestion, improve my skin health and I have no doubt that it's helped clean out lots of things on the inside that I'll never see or understand.

Image by engin akyurt

And finally:

5. Authentically expressing myself

Sooooo easy to overlook. Noooooot always easy to do. But far out does it help me feel more energised when I do this every day.

Whether it's writing a blog post like this, or shooting a video for my business, or telling a friend of mine about something important to me, making a point of expressing whatever my truth is in that given moment is one of the things that can make my day.

I can have done all the "right" self care things for me that are listed in every self care book on the planet but if I don't say what's in me to say then I feel far less well than I otherwise would. So I priortise expressing myself in whatever way that expression wants to come out.

Image by Allef Vinicius

Thanks for reading my authentic expression for today 😉

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This post was written in response to the question posed in The MINIMALIST Community:

"How do you reset your energy and what are some of your go-to activities to regain balance in your life?"

If you're quick there may still be time to blog on this subject yourself if you would like to. All the details can be found here.

Thank you, dear @deraaa for the tag! ❤️