This month my theme is #love... since February is the month of love I figured there isn't a theme more fitting than this. In coming up with this theme and working through some ideas, one that kept popping back up to me was #selflove - putting yourself first, being your own BFF, and learning to love & appreciate the person you are. There are 8 million and one self help books out there about the long term solutions to loving yourself first, but today I just want to touch on 10 quick things you can do RN that will help you learn to put you first!! These are things I try to practice on the daily, and have really helped my self love game, hopefully they help yours too!
1. Plan Out Your Day
I know this seems simple, and you might be thinking, "how can planning out my day really be an act of self love?" Well, by planning out your day every day, you remind yourself of a few things:
Firstly, your goals - you know those things you try to work towards every day, they don't just magically happen. They take dedication and planning. I always believe if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Secondly, your priorities. By writing out what you plan to do each day you can prioritize what is actually important to you. Want to spend more time hanging out with your kids? Schedule it in. Want to take a friend out for coffee? Plan to do it. Whatever it is that is important to you, plan for it so you make it happen!
So sit down either at the beginning of the week, or each morning, whatever works for you, and plan out your days ahead. Then, when opportunities for distraction come up (which to me, are ALL the time. I don't know why my friends love impromptu shopping trips so much lol) you can decide whether that fits into your schedule or not, whether that's a priority or not, and whether you want to do it now, or plan to do it later (maybe when you've saved up a bit of cash haha!)
2. Go For a Walk In Nature (Pro tip: leave your phone in your pocket & don't take it out)
Everyone has 10 minutes they can spare in their day to go for a walk in nature. How is this an act of self love? By spending 10 minutes just with YOU, you can start to learn to appreciate the subtleties of who you are. Spending time alone with yourself also allows you to calm your nerves, breathe in some fresh air, recharge your battery & begin fresh again with whatever the next task you've got on the agenda. Hint: Plan this out in your daily calendar & set a reminder to do it!
3. Have a morning routine
I used to find myself struggling to get going with my day, especially being self employed it's so easy to just laze around in bed all morning and do nothing and accomplish nothing. But doing that was actually detrimental to my mental health, because I was beginning to believe I wasn't capable of doing more in the mornings (even though they're actually my most productive time). So I started a morning routine.
I really enjoy scrolling social media and seeing what my friends are up to, so after my alarm goes off I lay in bed for half an hour and just do that. It seems unproductive, but actually getting it out of my system before I do anything else allows me to focus on my day and not worry about it. Figure out what morning routine will work for you, and try it out for a week. I couldn't believe after doing this for a week how much more productive I had become!
4. Donate your least favourite clothes, because math!
If Katie has a closet full of 100 items of clothing, but she only likes 50 of those pieces, she is satisfied with only 50% of her closet. That means for the other 50% of the time when she's wearing her least favourite clothes, she isn't feeling 100% her best. If Katie donates the 50% of the clothes she doesn't like, now Katie has a closet of 50 items that she loves 100%. Math!
It's crazy how much a great outfit can make you feel like a million bucks, so get rid of the ones that don't! I can't tell you how many pieces of clothing I used to own "just in case" or "one day I'll wear this and it will look good." Once I stopped telling myself those lies, and just purged the BS, I was filled with a closet full of things I love, and that in itself is an act of self love. Every time you put on a great piece of clothing or jewelry, or whatever it is that makes your heart happy, you look in the mirror and you feel good. If that's not the fastest path to loving yourself RN, I don't know what is!
5. Take yourself out on a date!
This was maybe my most brilliant scheme, especially when I was single. So what does this even mean, take yourself out on a date? Well, just as it sounds, take yourself somewhere nice, order something nice, and do something you love for the evening.
The reason I started doing this was because I had been in SO many crappy relationships that I didn't think it was fair to allow these crap guys I was dating to define what was good enough for me. Their idea of good enough for me, and mine, were two totally different realms of reality. I realized that a man didn't have to define who treated me the best, and that in fact if I treated myself the best, it would be the easiest measure to see who else measured up. If they didn't treat me as good as I treated myself, they were out of the running. It made it very clear, very quickly, who I wanted to date, and who I didn't.
As well, by doing the things I loved, I firstly spent more time just doing the things I loved (hello cool events around town, fancy restaurants I had always wanted to go to, fishing trips to local lakes, etc.) but secondly, and more importantly, I got to know myself. I got to realize the things I really enjoyed doing, and the things I had been doing before because other people were just doing them, so I did too. I was able to define myself better, who I was, who I wanted to be, and where I was going. And that was life changing. So try it, take yourself out on a date this week (even if you're attached), and get to know yourself a bit better!
Putting it all together:
So try out these tips, and let me know how they go! Send me an email and tell me about your experiences trying them out, or leave a message in the comments! Better yet, tag me on IG @katiekayboudoirstudio doing the things that you love to do, that are an act of self-love and spread the message! #loveyourselffirst !
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