5 Fast & Free Self-Care Habits to Let Go of Guilt & Prioritize YOU

Intro:

• Do you feel guilty about taking care of yourself?
• Are you constantly putting others' needs before your own?
• This episode shares 5 free, 5-minute self-care habits to help you let go of guilt and prioritize YOU.

What is Self-Care?

• Oxford Dictionary Definition: The practice of taking an active role in protecting one's own well-being and happiness, in particular during periods of stress.
• Self-care is a practice, not perfection.
• It's about being intentional and active in protecting your well-being (mental, physical, emotional).

5 Free & Fast Self-Care Habits:

1. Pause:
   • Close your eyes for 30 seconds.
   • Practice intentional breathing (box breathing or simple deep breaths).
   • Focus on a candle flame.
2. Movement:
   • Stretching.
   • Walking.
   • Dancing.
   • Shaking out your body.
3. Self-Care Check-In:
   • Ask yourself, "How am I feeling right now?"
   • Journal, speak into your phone, or use a notes app.
   • Be honest with yourself and allow yourself to feel your emotions.
4. Nourish:
   • Refill your water bottle.
   • Make tea or coffee.
   • Grab a healthy snack.
5. Celebrate Yourself:
   • Write down or say aloud "I am fabulous because..."
   • Focus on your strengths and positive qualities.

Bonus Tip (with a Partner):

• Hugging: Reduces fear, stress, and pain. Supports the immune system and cardiovascular health. https://www.healthline.com/health/hugging-benefits 
• If no one is around, hug a soft blanket, stuffed animal, or pet. Petting a pet can also be beneficial.

Creating New Habits:

• Starting new habits can be challenging.
• Join the free Facebook community "Love Your Life On Purpose" for support and connection. (loveyourlifeonpurpose.com or search on Facebook)
• Podcast listeners get a free 15-minute connect call!

Call to Action:

• Which self-care habit will you try first?
• Share your own self-care tips in the comments!

Download the Self-Care Cheat Sheet

Join the community: Love Your Life on Purpose

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Transcript

  📍  Does taking care of yourself make you feel guilty? In today's episode, I'm going to share with you five free, five minute self care habits that you can start incorporating into your everyday life to help you to let go of that guilt of taking care of yourself, even though you know you need to, you still feel guilty that you're doing it.

This is going to help you to feel empowered to say yes to you and not go back to using these excuses like, it takes too much time, I don't have the money to take care of myself. And stick around to the end because I have a bonus habit that requires a partner.   📍 After a lifetime of always prioritizing everyone else's needs over your own, do you feel like you don't know who you are anymore?

You might be moving into another phase of your life or going through a major life transition. Maybe your family dynamics, your career, or partner relationships are changing, and you might find yourself saying, Who am I?  Or, I'm lost. You are not alone. It is time to prioritize yourself and power your mission.

It's time to love your life on purpose. I'm Michelle VandeHei, Certified Holistic Life Coach and Compassion Fatigue Specialist to mission driven leaders around the world. Let's explore who you are and discover who you want to become because you are worth it.   Today we're going to talk about  five   📍 different self care habits that you can start incorporating today that take five minutes or less and that are free or mostly free. 

Before we dive in to the five self care habits, let's talk briefly about what does self care even mean. I'm someone who, when I'm talking about a topic, I like to look up the definition in the dictionary and see what the dictionary says and what the Oxford dictionary says about self care. Self care is that it is the practice of taking an active role in protecting one's own well being and happiness, in particular during periods of stress.

This is so important. I'm going to repeat that for you. Self care is the practice. First of all, practice means that you're not perfect at it and that you're doing it on a regular basis. So you're practicing. Taking an active role, not passive, but active, that you have to be intentional about your self care, that it doesn't just happen automatically. 

In protecting,  so you're protecting yourself, protecting one's own well being and happiness. Well being can be your mental health, physical health, emotional health, all of those things. So you're taking this active role in protecting your health and well being. In particular, during times of stress, which is why today's episode is so important, because so many of you are so busy and we just go, go, go, that these five habits are things that you can incorporate in your everyday life, and many of them you can even do in less than five minutes.

So let's dive in. 

The first opportunity for you is to pause.  And what might a pause look like for you, maybe you're someone who is constantly working and you're like, I don't even have five minutes What if you just paused for 30 seconds? What if you close your eyes?  and are just intentional about closing your eyes.

There's nothing you need to think about, but maybe you just need to de stimulate yourself from everything around you and close your eyes. So that might be an option for pausing. Another option might be to take some intentional breaths. We're so much on autopilot. I talked about this in a previous episode of Being on Autopilot.

And these self care  resets that you can take throughout the day, help you to kind of  wake you up to the autopilot that you're on.  You might be familiar with box breathing, so that might be an option where you inhale for four, Hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four.

Or maybe you don't count and you just intentionally inhale into your belly, and you intentionally exhale, and you take a few inhales and exhales. They don't even have to be super loud. You could do this even with other people around you potentially. And then a third option for your pause might be looking at a candle.

Maybe you want to look at a candle and watch it flicker. That might be a way to pause and take a break from everything that's going on.  So that was habit number one is the pause.  Habit number two and one of my favorites is movement. This might look like stretching.  I'm a trauma centered, trauma sensitive yoga facilitator and we do Mindful movement.

It's not always necessarily stretching. Maybe you just take a moment to say, oh my gosh, I need to stand up. I need to stretch. I need to move from side to side and maybe need to reach my arm above my head because I've been typing all day. Maybe going for a walk. That's one of my favorite things to do.

That's something I've been more intentional with this year is going for a one mile walk every day outside, even when it's freezing here in Wisconsin. I've definitely missed a few days, but many less than I ever have in the past. I've never walked this much in the winter before. Maybe dancing. That's another favorite of mine.

Usually in the winter, I prefer dancing over going for my walk, but I just love being outside.  But dancing can be a really fun thing. Or maybe you just shake. Maybe you need to shake your wrists, move your arms, maybe wiggle back and forth.  A couple different options for movement for your self care.  That was number two. , so far we have number one is pause and number two is movement of the five Free five minute self-care habits. If you're liking this, you're welcome, especially if you're on YouTube to subscribe and turn on the notifications or follow this podcast and wherever you're watching it. So number three is doing a self-care.

Check-in. Ask yourself, how am I feeling right now?  Oftentimes, , we refer to it as journaling. You could have a special little notebook. I have a bunch of different little notebooks. Like I don't know if you ever get free notebooks from people. Pick one of those and  use it as a place for you to self reflect of like, how am I feeling right now?

And be honest with yourself, how you're feeling right now and allowing yourself to be in that moment. And if you're having some hard, emotions and hard feelings, writing it out can help you to work through it without ignoring it. So maybe writing it down, you might speak to into your phone or maybe you do a, a note on your phone as well.

There's, there's options for that. And then number five, don't forget, I have a sixth bonus one that you're really going to want to stick around for because it involves a partner.  Number five is to nourish yourself. Refill your water, maybe go get a beverage. This might be one that requires a little bit of money depending on where you work or what you have access to. 

But maybe you refill your beverage. Maybe  you heat up some more water for tea. You get a new coffee water, soda, sparkling water, whatever that is. Refill your beverage. Something as simple as refilling your beverage, that is self care. That is taking care of yourself. Or, maybe it's grabbing a snack.

Maybe you're starting to get hungry. Grabbing a snack can be a great way to take care of yourself. Okay, I think I just said that, that was number five. But in reality it was actually four. I'm human just like you.  The fifth one,  is to write down an I am fabulous statement.  This is something that I do, I work with clients on and I have them actually fill out a sheet of 50 reasons of why they're fabulous.

This is something that sounds  simple and it can be so powerful. It's almost like celebrating yourself taking a moment to celebrate yourself. What makes you fabulous? I even the other day was like I'm fabulous because I got a haircut.

And  there's no  rhyme or reason to why you're fabulous You being fabulous doesn't have to do with anything that you're doing. It's just you being. I didn't do anything I guess I got a haircut, but it wasn't me that gave myself the haircut I'm just fabulous cuz I got a haircut.

 You could have a specific journal for that or somewhere in your notes app on your phone or another option could be to just to say it in the mirror.

So saying it to yourself in the mirror can be also very valuable.  Let's quick recap. The five, five minute free or mostly free self care habits. One is pause. Two, movement.  Three, a self care check in of where you're at right now.  Four, nourish. Refilling your beverage, grabbing a snack. And five, celebrating yourself. Writing down or saying to yourself, I am fabulous because.

, if  You're like me and you're like, oh my gosh, this sounds great. I want to start this new habit starting something new Even if it's something that's only five minutes But because you're trying to create this new habit, it can be challenging And that's one of the reasons why I created my community for people just like you who want to learn grow Have a little fun and celebrate being human together and laugh And not take life too seriously.

 You're welcome to join my free facebook group love your life on purpose when you join you'll be welcomed by myself My team and other folks like you rediscovering who they are and as a podcast listener You'll also get a free 15 minute connect call that when you come in to the group.  I'll offer a connect call and it's an opportunity for us to get on a phone call, for me to ask you a few questions, and you ask me a few questions, to literally just get to know each other.

I love to know the people in my group. So go to loveyourlifeonpurpose. com, or you can search Love Your Life On Purpose on Facebook. Click join, and I will see you there.  Okay, are you ready for The bonus tip where you need a partner for this one. And it's also really powerful.  Hugging someone,  giving someone a hug, according to Healthline.

com, has been proven to reduce fear, reduce stress, even reduce pain. Which I think is super powerful. It could also support your immune system and your cardiovascular health.  The study in the article that I read on the benefits of hugging, I will have in the show notes, so you can go there and read the benefits of it.

It's just so powerful. But even think to yourself, and maybe it's just me because one of my top  love languages is physical touch. But that is so powerful and here's the thing if you don't have someone to hug Maybe you have a soft blanket nearby. Maybe you have a special stuffed animal. I have a special stuffed animal That I sleep with at night  Maybe you have a pet.

 You can hug your pet, maybe you can't, but maybe petting your pet. Having that physical touch can be an opportunity for self care, of taking care of yourself, and it's almost like that pause on another level. Taking a pause, and interacting with something else , that satisfies that physical touch and the benefits are absolutely amazing.

So let me know in the comments, which one of these are you going to try? Which one was the most surprising to you? Or do you have another self care habit that you do that's  a five minute free or mostly free habit that really is powerful for you? Because here's. The final thing with this, all of these things can be really powerful.

The key is doing them most days consistently, and that's how you get the most benefit out of these self care habits. Sending you all light and love, and always remember that you are worth it.