Self-Care Sunday for the Mind, Body and Soul

Happy Monday my lovelies! For a lot of Americans, and even lots of Canadians, yesterday’s Super Bowl was a big event that essentially took up the entire Sunday evening. I know that after a long Sunday of meal prepping, although I do enjoy watching football, my ideal way to relax doesn’t entail watching sports. 

For many of us, we’re constantly taking care of things. Whether it’s our own children, our homes, our grocery and pantry stock, our pets or even our parents… There’s one important thing we’re forgetting here. We sometimes neglect taking care of ourselves. The most important thing to care for before you can care for anything or anyone else, is your own self. If you’ve ever heard the expression “you can’t pour from an empty cup,” you know exactly what I’m talking about. Not taking care of yourself first leaves you with little to no energy after taking care of everything and everyone else. This can be taxing on both our physical and mental health. Don’t forget about yourself. Besides, there’s nothing better than a “Self-Care Sunday”. And if you’ve never had one before, I’m here to help you start.

For those who aren’t sure, yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like; Self-Care Sunday is a day to relax and do whatever you need to take care of yourself. You don’t need to dedicate an entire day to it, but you do need to allot some time to doing something that’s exclusively for YOU at least once a week. No one else. Since we’re all so unique, self-care can come in many forms. It’s rooted around doing things to feed your mind, body, and soul. So it can be anything from something intellectual (mind), something physical (body), or something mindful/spiritual (soul). If you’re not sure what helps you relax the most, try out these Self-Care Sunday ideas to help re-energize and nurture yourself. You’ll start to learn what you love by trying different things. 

Unwind Your Mind

The first way you can self-care is through your mind. Different ways to relax your mind and do something exclusively for yourself are through things like exercising. Take your mind off of your everyday life by doing something good for your body and allowing your mind to focus on your muscle groups, progress, and workout routine. Focus on your breathing and heart rate as you’re exercising. 

Another way to self-care is through creative exercises. This forces you to think using the right side of your brain, which is the part known to be more active during your creative sessions. You can do this through writing or drawing. You don’t need to be good at either of those things to do them, this is a no-judgment zone. It allows you to really focus your mind’s connection to your pencil and what you are writing or drawing. If you don’t know what to draw or write, I highly recommend prompt books to help you. They give you cool ideas and really get you to think about what you can get down on paper. 

Here’s my favourite drawing prompt book: 301 Things to Draw

This type of book has blank pages divided into squares, each labeled with something to draw. You don’t even need to think about it, simply flip through the book and draw when one of the prompts inspires you. It’ll prompt you with stuff like: mermaid, rosebush, superhero, kitchen utensils, etc.

Here’s my favourite writing prompt book: 642 Things to Write About

This type of book has lined pages with a prompt to help jog your thoughts and creative ideas. It will ask you things like “what is your biggest fear and why?” or “if you had one superpower, what would it be? What would you do first with your newfound superpower?”

Reboot Your Body

Your body is one of the most important parts of self-care. So much of your energy is expended when you physically use your body, so it’s crucial to make sure you do something nice for it in return. There are many physical ways you can care for yourself. Either through skincare rituals, shower-time routines, or complete relaxation. My personal favourite is by taking a warm bubble bath. The very best way is to light some candles, and use a lavender bubble bath soap like Dr. Teal’s Lavender Foaming Bath. This bottle comes at great cost and lasts forever. Just a little goes a long way with this bubble bath soap.

Another way to relax your body that’s completely free is by learning breathing techniques. As someone who suffers from periods of anxiety, the 4-7-8 Breathing Technique has been a life-saver for me. It helped me learn how to calm myself down on my own. Start by lying down on a flat comfortable surface. Close your eyes and take a deep breath for 4 seconds. Hold your breath for a count of 7 seconds. Then exhale slowly to release your breath over 8 seconds. The concentration on the breaths for a certain amount of seconds really helps relax your body. 

Replenish Your Soul

To cleanse the soul and do something good for it, things like meditation, showing gratitude and daily affirmations work best. These are ways to keep a positive mindset and make you feel good about yourself. It’s all about you and focusing on your life goals, and acknowledging thanks for all the blessings that you have. The Gratitude Journal is a great way to get you started. All you need is 30 minutes to sit and think about the great things you have. It also comes with a cute little bookmark, too!

Daily affirmations are another way to keep a positive mindset and replenish your soul with the energy you need. Daily affirmations help create a self-fulfilling prophecy; they help you to ignore your negative thoughts and only think about your positive ones. Doing this everyday disrupts negativity and forces you into a pattern of positive thinking, which in turn affects your actions to be positive ones. You can snag these Daily Affirmation cards to get you started and try it for yourself, you’ll see how much of a positive impact the cards have on you. Take a card every morning and you’ll see as the day goes on that you’ll constantly remember the affirmation you read that morning.

These are just a few ways you can enjoy your next Self-Care Sunday. I hope you take some time for yourself and cleanse your mind, body and soul. Be nice to yourself, you work hard just to be here and do what you do. Until next time… 

Love, Annamaria

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