Little Ways to Self Care 01 | Self Care Sunday

{ Self-care Sunday, episode one }

 

I've been thinking a lot about self care recently. January is always a particularly difficult month for a lot of people - it's dark, it's rainy, it's cold, we don't have Christmas to look forward to... - and although I've been doing pretty well, I've also had a few key appointments to go through / look forward to so I've been feeling a little down and on edge. To combat this I've been practicing a lot of self-care and it inspired me (along with a quick Twitter poll) to document it more often on my blog. And so: Self Care Sunday was born! I do love a good blog series and although I'm a little late starting I thought it might be a nice one to run through 2017. It co-insides with my 2017 goals rather well, too!


Six little ways I've practised self-care this week...

1. At the beginning of the week I decided to give my phone a little refresh and updated my home- and lock-screen backgrounds. I spent a little time on Pinterest sourcing pretty quotes and set this photo as my home-screen. This article from Buzzfeed was a great resource; I have number 12 as my lock-screen right now!

2. I went to Boots with my Dad & Luke on Wednesday and printed out some photos for my scrapbook. When I got home I spent a good few hours on organising them, writing the dates on the back and deciding on page layouts.

3. On Thursday I made the executive decision to remove the Twitter app from my phone. I've been feeling a little unconfident and unproductive lately and it essentially boils down to me spending too much time scrolling through Twitter when I could be doing other things. As a result I cooked a mini roast dinner for my family, got around to beginning a DIY that I'll be documenting on my blog, tended to my Pinterest boards and started a new book. I've given myself a limitation of one hour per day to scroll Twitter - I couldn't get rid of it completely because I'd miss my friends too much!
 
4. I've been unwell most of the week but yesterday I finally forced myself out of my pyjamas and into the shower. I washed my hair with my I Love Juicy shampoo from Lush and used the last remnants of my Prince Charming shower cream. I felt so much better once I was clean!

5. I'm feeling particularly anxious today but I still forced myself to come to my Dad's and to go to Sainsburys to buy ingredients for my brother's birthday cake. Sometimes self-care is about making myself do things that I know will help me in the long run. As a little treat I bought myself some beautiful tulips (my favourite flower!) and a few greetings cards to add to my collection. One of them is intended for a special someone but the others are just to have and enjoy until I have occasion to send them!

6. And finally, I downloaded the Headspace app last night. I struggle to sit through self-directed meditations because my mind wanders but I tried a ten minute guided meditation on the app last night and I found it much easier. I did it just before bed and found that it was easier for me to sleep because my mind wasn't racing!  

I've been feeling a little out of sorts recently and I've found myself questioning if I deserve to practice self-care. My answer? If I feel like that then I have a more desperate need for it than I originally thought! I also wanted to offer you a little apology for the lack of activity here on What Lauren Did Today over the past few weeks. I'm struggling a little with a bad bout of self-doubt (lols that rhymes) but I'm working on it. I've also been lingering behind the scenes and have a few posts in my drafts awaiting photos - plus I had the clever idea last night to reformat all of my old posts!

How have you practised self-care this week? I command you to fit a mini session into your day today!

 

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