5 Self-Care Habits That Will Help You Be Your Best Self in 2020

5 Self-Care Habits That Will Help You Be Your Best Self in 2020

Life is complicated, and it often seems to move at 100 miles an hour. When you’re juggling work, school, family obligations, and relationships with friends, you may feel like there isn’t a moment left over for you at the end of the day. But constantly running around flat-out can be a mistake. 

When you’re always on the go and are always being distracted and pulled in different directions, it’s hard to enjoy life — and it’s definitely hard to focus on your health. If your life is too busy and you’re feeling stressed, you’ll need to establish some self-care habits to prioritize your health and well-being. Here are four habits to establish now so that you can greet 2020 as your best self ever. 

Start By Taking Care of Your Hygiene

One important self-care habit isn’t that difficult to accomplish: Focus on your daily hygiene. Taking care of your hygiene can help to improve your mental and physical health. For instance, flossing your teeth can help to prevent gum disease, and it can also save you expensive dental treatments. With less pain, fewer health worries, and less stress over the money you would have to spend in such a situation, you’ll be healthier overall, all thanks to flossing. 

Do you know when you last had an annual physical? Are you overdue for a cleaning at the dentist? Make taking care of your health a priority. Sit down and get your schedule together, then make any doctor, vision, or dental appointments that you’re due for. By taking an active role in your health, you can prevent or catch conditions early on. 

Use Food to Get Healthy

Focus on the role that food plays in health, too. Living healthily does have a cost, since fresh foods and diets are more expensive than unhealthy junk food or fast food options. It’s important to give yourself permission to indulge in self-care through food. Sit down and create a budget, then determine how much you can spend on groceries each week. Look for ways to save money on healthy foods, such as by buying foods in bulk and freezing them, or by looking for deals on fresh foods at farmer’s markets. 

Be open to trying new foods, too. When you try new foods, like bird’s nest soup, you can build up your immune system and expand your palette. Bird’s nest soup has even been proven to promote eye health. You could be missing out on the benefits of special foods if you never try them.   

Give Yourself Permission to Relax

You may be in the habit of living life at full speed, but one of the best ways to step up your self-care game is to give yourself permission to relax. Of course, this is often easier said than done. You’ll need to start by establishing some relaxation time for yourself, and that requires being firm with yourself and with others. Set up boundaries, like not doing work or checking your email on weekends, and stick to them. 

Then, find a way to use your time so that you can slow down and enjoy your life. Maybe this means spending quality time with your family, or maybe it’s time to reconnect with some friends you haven’t seen in a long while. You might choose to enjoy a quiet morning at home, head to a spa for some pampering, or finally make that recipe you’ve been wanting to try. Whatever you decide to do, give yourself a flexible schedule and include plenty of time for things that you enjoy. 

Focus on Minimizing Stress

As we head into 2020, don’t let stress negatively impact your health and your happiness. Stress has serious effects on your body and can leave you with low energy, headaches, insomnia, an upset stomach, and more. Additionally, stress can make it difficult to relax, and you may be easily agitated and have a constant feeling of being overwhelmed. 

To become less anxious and stress-free, you need to make some changes in your life. Focus on keeping yourself physically active, since exercise can help to relieve stress. Focusing on your self-care can also help, such as by setting your alarm early each morning so you have some quiet time before the day starts. 

Practicing mindfulness is another helpful de-stressing activity. Breathing exercises can help you to focus and lower your blood pressure, so work on incorporating breathing exercises into your daily routine. Yoga also offers great stress relief benefits, and it can improve your well-being, too. In addition to providing physical fitness benefits, yoga focuses on the importance of being non-judgemental toward yourself and others. If you can work yoga into your routine, it can help to reduce your daytime stress hormone levels and can even make your body better able to deal with stress when it does occur. 

Quit Harmful Habits

When implementing all of these healthy and positive self-care habits, it’s important to also address any bad habits you may have. Quitting habits that are harmful to your body and mind is self-care, as you will be directly caring for your personal well-being by eliminating them from your life. 

Some harmful habits you could try quitting could be drinking, smoking and vaping, and even sugar. All of these things can do lasting harm to your body the longer you partake in them, so detox your body from them before it’s too late to heal from the damage. As for bad habits in regards to your mental health, you can reduce the amount of time you spend on things like social media, as well as cutting toxic people from your life. 

With 2020 right around the corner, now is the time to take charge of your health and your wellbeing. By incorporating these self-care tips now, you can make them into habits so that you’re well-prepared for everything that next year will bring.

Image Source: Pixabay

Frankie Wallace
Bookmark and Share

Leave a Reply