Self-Care For Less!

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One thing everyone can agree on is that it’s hard to find joy in today’s world.

The cost of health care, food, and everything else keep going up.  National and international politics are a shit show.   The planet is becoming less and less hospitable to human life.  The list goes on.

Yet in spite of all of this, we do have to get through every day and be productive members of society.  And this is where self care comes in.  And in spite of what you may have heard, self care doesn’t have to be expensive.  In fact, it doesn’t have to cost anything at all!  Here are 5 completely free things you can do to calm your mind and survive another day on this round rock.

#1 Take a walk.   There’s a reason this is the top entry on almost every list like this.  It costs nothing and has tremendous physical and mental benefits.  If you’d like you can go to a park or someplace especially pretty, but even just a quick walk around the block can turn your entire day around.

#2 Yoga/ Stretching.  Thanks to YouTube, anyone anywhere can pull up thousands of how-to videos on basic yoga and/ or stretching in seconds.  I’m partial to Yoga with Adriene- especially if you are new to yoga and/ or flexibility challenged like I am https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene

#3 Listen to music.   Crank up your favorite artist and sing/ dance/weep/etc.  Anything that makes you FEEL something will do.

#4 Journaling.  It’s been proven over and over again that writing things down helps get those annoying/ unhelpful/ harmful thoughts out of your head.  I can personally vouch for this one, having been journaling on and off since high school.

#5 Read for pleasure.  Unplugging for a while in any way is good for you, but if just clearing your mind by sheer willpower isn’t easy for you (and it isn’t for me), reading is a great way to redirect your mind.  I am partial to thrillers and murder mysteries myself, but I am trying to expand my horizons by including biographies and anything with a fun looking cover.   Your local library has everything you need to escape reality for a while.

Bonus #6 – Taking a bath/ shower.  Yes, most of us do this every day anyway, but you can make it a more pleasurable experience easily enough.  Simply staying in the water a little longer or turning up the water a little hotter can take our daily chore to the next level.  If you have the option to upgrade your shower with great smelling/ feeling products all the better!  I got an $8 scalp massager that makes washing my hair feel SO GOOD- I highly recommend them!

So, what’s your favorite way to decompress?  If yours didn’t make the list, let me know!

 

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