 Hey guys, so for this video I'm excited to share with you some of my favorite self-care habits. As someone who values the importance of taking care of myself, I've developed a routine that works really well for me. I hope that by sharing my tips and tricks, you'll find inspiration and ideas to incorporate into your own self-care routine. Hope you guys enjoy. The first self-care habit that I implement every single day is not going on my phone for at least the first hour after waking up. The first hour of your day just really sets the tone for the rest of it. And if you start your day by scrolling through social media or checking emails, you're essentially giving control of your day away to the internet. So instead of grabbing my phone, first thing in the morning, I've been trying to establish other habits that are more beneficial for my mental and physical health and by taking the first hour of my day to focus on myself and set intentions for the day ahead, I'm able to start my day off on a really positive note and feel more in control of my time and energy. So first thing I do when I wake up is I turn off my alarm and I just get out of bed right away and that really just helps with my mental clarity and it makes me feel so much better throughout the day. The second self-care habit that I like doing every single day is once I wake up in the morning, I like to take advantage of having an empty stomach because if you think about it, it's like basically the only time of day that you would really have an empty stomach is in the morning. And so I like to take full advantage of that and kind of get some liquids in. I like to get some vitamins in. I alternate between vitamins all the time. I'll go through a phase where I have athletic greens. I've been taking care of, I've been taking seed. Like I honestly just like rotate what I take but I always make sure that in the morning, no matter what it is, even if it's just like my lemon water, getting some nutrition in me first thing in the morning, sometimes I'll even do like fresh pressed juice or I'll do like a green smoothie. It just honestly like depends what I have at home when I'm in a mood for what kind of era I'm in. But yeah, right now I just made myself some athletic greens and I have some lemon water here and it has a pinch of salt in it. Apparently putting salt in your water in the morning is like really beneficial for hydration. So I just put a little pinch of salt in here and it's so good. I know a lot of people like to wake up and have their coffee like first thing. But personally, that's like just so disruptive to my stomach. Like if I have coffee first thing without drinking like anything, hydrating like water, smoothie, green juice, whatever it is, I honestly feel like shit and like it just doesn't agree with my stomach. And so before I have food or coffee, I make sure to get my vitamins in, my water in hydration. And it just makes me honestly feel like I'm taking care of my body and it makes me feel so good. And it's been one of the biggest differences for me with my mood in the morning because I used to just go straight to like, wake up, drink a coffee, no water and eat. And I would just feel so sluggish afterwards after doing that. But now like after incorporating intermittent fasting and having just kind of like my liquids in the morning, it makes my body just feel so much more like clear, energized and good. And it's like such a simple, easy way that I can take care of myself that I noticed so many benefits from. When in doubt though, if I don't have like any vitamins at home and anything to make a juice with, I'll just have my lemon water. And that'll do it for me if I don't have anything else. But yeah, this is just kind of something that I've been doing for a really long time now in the mornings. And it just makes me feel so good. And also like throughout the day makes me feel really good knowing that I got all those like vitamins and fasting in the morning. I got some hydration in. Cheers. The next self-care habit that I do, I've been doing recently every single day is getting myself ready, presentable for the day. And yes, I consider this a self-care habit because it does so much for my mental health and my productivity levels. And it's made the world of a difference like seriously. It's overall just made my days and me feel so much better. And it's obviously okay to have lazy days once in a while and not get out of your pajamas. It's like, if it's a rainy day on the weekend, yes, I'm gonna do that. But in terms of like Monday to Friday on like a weekly schedule, I have been making myself get ready for the day, get presentable. And that doesn't even necessarily mean putting on makeup every day. It just means getting out of my pajamas, like brushing on my hair, making myself look cute, feel cute. And when I do that and I feel put together, it directly correlates my productivity because I'm gonna wanna get more done. I don't feel as lazy, so I'm not just gonna go take naps all day. And it's just become a crucial part of my self-care habit that has made the biggest difference. And some days for me getting completely ready, it looks like me putting on full face of makeup and wearing a dress, a skirt, something really kind of cute. And other days, it looks like me brushing out my hair, putting it in a nice sleep back bun and just kind of wearing a sweatsuit. But it still makes me feel super put together. But it's just the act of doing something to make yourself feel ready for the day and feel like you can accomplish things, get your to-do list done and be productive. Because if I don't get out of my pajamas and I don't like brush out my hair or wash my face, I'm just gonna wanna sleep all day and watch TV. So if you guys have been feeling sluggish recently, I would definitely recommend making it a priority to get yourself ready every day. I mean, I guess this is kind of more crucial for people who like work from home or who are home more often because if you have to go out to school every day or to work every day, it's like you kinda have to get yourself ready to leave the house. But I guess I'm more talking to people who have the option of getting ready every day if you're just kind of staying at home. Yeah, so now ever since I moved, I'm getting myself ready every single day and it's honestly just like made me so happy. It makes me feel like I'm taking care of myself and putting in that extra effort. And it's like I'm doing this truly for me. Like if you're gonna get ready every day, make sure you're doing it for you and not because you want other people to think that you look presentable. I really just like doing a super light makeup routine so that it makes it really attainable for me to do it every day and it takes me like under 15 minutes to do this every day. But it's definitely important if you're gonna get ready every day to make it kind of a habit and make it easy for yourself. So even if you have to force yourself to do it for the first week or the first two weeks, that's how you build habit. You have to kind of force yourself into it at first and then it's just gonna become something that you do naturally. And yeah, finding products you like, making it super easy for yourself, laying out your outfit the night before, even if it's like a matching sweatsuit, makes it just so much easier and so much more attainable and kind of like more exciting too. The next self-care habit that I like to incorporate every single day is getting some sort of movement in. Our bodies are literally meant to move and this is something that I like to do at least six out of seven days of the week. Sometimes I like to get myself like that one rest day because it's okay to be lazy all day and do nothing like those days are needed. But out of the other six days of the week, I definitely do like to get my body outside or do at least some sort of movement. The thing is is that like I used to drag working out because I used to like correlate working out to, oh, I have to go to the gym and that's like the only thing that I can do to get movement in. But that's not true. I feel like that's why a lot of people are scared and don't feel motivated to work out is because you're kind of correlating working out with just like one thing. But there's so many different things that you can do to move your body. Like you can go on a hike, you can go on a walk, you can play tennis, you can dance, you can go to a Pilates class, you can do yoga. Like there's an unlimited amount of things that you can literally do jumping jacks and that's moving your body, that's exercise. I feel like finding what you love doing and what works best for you is you're gonna motivate you the most to work out and get your body moving. So it's important not to really ever force yourself to do something that you don't like doing necessarily. I guess it really all depends too of what your health goals are and what you wanna achieve. But at the end of the day, like if you wanna feel motivated to work out, you have to start somewhere. It's just really important to choose something that like makes you excited to work out and feel motivated to do it and that doesn't have to look like the same thing every single day. Like you can even wake up and be like, oh, I feel like dancing today and then do that as your form of exercise. It can look different every day. You don't have to necessarily create a specific schedule and I feel like that will help really motivate you to move your body in different ways. But yeah, as long as you move your body, that's what matters. It doesn't matter necessarily how you do it. And yeah, I really like going on like long walks especially outside because I get to get some fresh air and then I'm also walking. So I love doing that. I kinda wanna start running maybe. I feel like that would be cool to try and see if I like it. I just love getting outside especially to work out if the weather is good. But also workout classes are really fun and they're super motivating because you have a bunch of people surrounding you. So yeah, you just have to start somewhere if you wanna start incorporating movement every day. And it definitely makes it a lot easier to do something that you feel excited to do. But yeah, anyways, I'm just gonna go outside, probably listen to a podcast while I'm walking or something motivational. Maybe just, I don't know, sometimes I like listening to music too just to kind of depends like the mood I'm in. But yeah, especially on like a nice sunny day, I just feel like it's so beneficial to get outside and do your movement. But yeah, let's go on a little hot girl walk together and get our movement in. And I just bring them every time I go to the grocery store because then I don't need to use those like little plastic bags. Instead, I use these and they're such a good find and they're so cute and they're just like the perfect size. But anyways, let me lay this all out and give you guys a little haul. I just got some strawberries. These honestly don't look the freshest. They look like they're gonna go bad in a couple of days. So I'm gonna try to eat as many as I can. But they were like the only batch that they had today and I really wanted strawberries. So I just bought them. But yeah, I'm gonna have to eat these fast, but they look so juicy. So got strawberries and then I also got a bunch of just like fruits. These are like peelable, peelable tangerine. Got some oranges and then I got some lemons because I like to have lemon water every morning. And then I got this cucumber. The cucumbers here are so good and so fresh and this one is huge. So let's cut some fruit and cucumber up and let's make ourselves a little snack. So here's what I just made. I just sliced up some cucumber, put salt and pepper and then just did a little fruit salad with oranges and strawberries. So a rule of thumb that I like to follow as one of my healthy habits is to have at least one fruit and one vegetable a day just so that I know that I'm getting that nutrition in and no matter what, I will make sure to have a fruit and a vegetable. What I like doing is like in between meals, I like having it as a snack instead of reaching for like crackers or something just because it makes me feel a lot better. And it's also a really easy way to get it in when you get hungry throughout the day like in between breakfast, lunch or dinner. And also what really helps is keeping your fridge stocked with fruits and vegetables. So it's really easy to just access another thing that can really help is if you pre-cut them for the week, like if you just get kind of a load of produce and then you divide it into like five containers, let's say kind of like section it off. So you have one container a day. If you're super busy, I feel like that's a really easy way to incorporate them is to pre-chop, pre-wash and just make it really easy for you to reach in the fridge which is like essentially meal prep. But also obviously incorporating it into either like a green juice smoothie is an easy way to do it and get them in. But I don't know, sometimes I just don't like smoothies. Like I go through smoothie phases where I'm like really into it and then I'll go through like a period of time where I just hate smoothies. So it really just depends like what kind of era I'm in in my life and what phase I'm in. But one thing that helps is I like to kind of switch up the fruits and veggies that I eat every day. So I'll get like a bunch of different things. But yeah, so honestly recently I've just been really into cutting up my fruit in a little bowl like this. If I had chocolate chips, I'd probably add them in here and make it a cute little fruit salad. And then I just kind of a cucumber with some salt and pepper and it makes it so good. But that's my little platter of the day. Doing this just makes my body feel really good because then I at least know I got my fruits and vegetables in for the day, at least like one serving. So I just currently came outside because the next self-care habit that I like to implement every single day is journaling. Journaling has become a big thing now but it honestly is so good and it helps so much with my mental clarity, getting things out on paper and just like writing, expressing your thoughts and being creative. It helps so much. Journaling allows you to just kind of sit down and reflect about everything and anything going on in your life. And when you journal, you can kind of see trends that's been going on in your life, like in the past with decision-making, with your mood and just how things like evolve for you in general. Like when I look back at my old journals and read them, I'm like, damn, I forgot that I was ever like that or I ever thought like that and you don't really remember unless you actually have something to look back on. It's kind of like a little time capsule of what you're actually thinking in the moment. Vlogging, I can look back on more like my memories but journaling, you can look back on what was actually going on inside your brain, which is really cool. And if you're a creative person, it's also just a way to express that. Like if you don't know how to express your creativity, take a pen and paper and just write whatever comes to your head. You can also look on Pinterest for journal prompts. There's like so many on there. So if you guys are ever struggling on what to journal about, I would definitely recommend just typing it on Pinterest, journal prompts and so many things will come up. If I sit down and I just don't know what to write that day, I will look up on Pinterest and just like kind of use the prompts. It doesn't have to look a certain way. It doesn't have to be in a certain way. You don't have to say certain things, just like write whatever comes out. It doesn't need to look pretty. And let me tell you, like you won't regret it because in a few years from now, when you look back at your journals from today, it's just gonna be mind-blowing and you're gonna see how much you've evolved and grown and it's actually such a beautiful thing to look back on. After a journal session, my mind always just feels so much more clear. I feel so much less stressed, so much less anxiety because I just kind of expressed it and got it all off on paper. And it just, I don't know, it's just like a really good tool for every day to keep my mind clear. Yeah, it just really, really helped me mentally. So it's been a habit that I've implemented that I try to do every single day. I mean, there's obviously days where I skip it, but at least like five out of seven days of the week, I will sit down and journal. But anyways, so yeah, that's what I'm gonna do right now is just kind of sit down and journal. I like to do this. Honestly, whatever I feel like it throughout the day, sometimes I don't always wanna do it like right in the morning because I used to always do it in the morning, but sometimes I'd rather like wait to do it midday or at the end of the day, I just kind of pick it up whenever I really feel like doing it. Today, I just kind of wrote about being present because it's something that I've kind of struggled with recently and something that I wanna really, really work on because I have been catching myself thinking too far into the future and planning the future, what I wanna do in the future, not necessarily worrying about it, but just like my mind being more in the future. When you're in the process of manifesting something, it's really tricky because you wanna find that balance between being present while also having that manifestation and working towards that. So it's kind of like a fight in my brain that goes on all the time where it's like I need to learn to enjoy the present moment more and not live in the future because the thing is is that the future and the past, they don't exist, like they're not real. The only thing that is actually real is right now and is this present moment and that's all that we have. Past and the future are just thoughts. They literally cease to exist unless you're thinking about them, which is crazy. So since the past and the future, they're just thoughts, like they don't actually exist in this moment. They're just in our thoughts, like we just can think about them in our heads. There's no point of ever stressing about them or worrying about them or thinking negatively about them because we're making those thoughts up in our heads. If you think back to something you did and you're like, oh my God, I can't believe I did that. You're just like, you keep thinking so negatively about it. It's like you're making that up in your mind. Why don't you change it and you say, oh, like everything that happened in my past it led to exactly where I am now and so that's something positive. And so it's just like altering your mindset when you think about the past or the future and thinking of it in a more positive way rather than a negative way because it's all in your head and the only real moment you have is right now. Sometimes I just catch myself thinking about the future too much and it takes me out of the present moment that I'm in. But the only thing that actually exists is the present. I don't even know how to explain this. Like this is kind of trippy and like I've been thinking about this all week. It's really hard for me to put into words but basically what I'm saying is that you control your thoughts and the past and the future are just thoughts. And so if you wanna have a good future you just have to be thinking good things. Don't worry about what's going to happen in the future because that's the future. That's not your present moment right now. So if you're worrying about your future and you're thinking negative thoughts about it then you are manifesting that and that is going to happen because that's the future that you're creating for yourself. Everything we do in the present moment we're building a foundation for our future. And so if you keep worrying about your future and having negative thoughts about it your future is gonna reflect that. And same thing for the past. If you're worrying about your past and you can't get something you did out of your head you're just creating that stress and anxiety for yourself for no reason because it does not exist anymore. And altering that thought pattern in your head and making it positive rather than negative is one of the most life-changing things that I've ever done. It is honestly a little bit difficult to master because like I said I'm struggling to be in the present moment sometimes but I'm happy that I'm aware of it and that I'm working on fixing it but yeah, it's just kind of crazy. But anyways, hope that made a little bit of sense. That was my journaling session. Feel a lot better now. Like I'm telling you journaling just really really helps sets the tone. It's one of my favorite self-care habits. One of my self-care habits I've developed that has made a huge difference for me is meditation. As we all do sometimes I struggle with anxiety and stress and taking a few minutes each day to sit and just breathe has been a game changer. When I meditate I feel like I'm hitting the pause button on life. It's a chance to quiet my mind and just be present in the moment. Meditation just gives you that space in the day to just be, because if you think about it during the day our minds are constantly thinking and processing things and we don't ever really give it a break. Of course there are times when life gets in the way and I skip a day or two, but that's okay. Meditation isn't about really being perfect it's about taking time to care for yourself. Just sitting and being in the present moment without any thoughts, stressors or worries is such a beautiful thing that you probably wouldn't be able to experience if you don't make a point of just sitting in silence and also meditation can look different for everyone. For me sometimes it looks like me putting my headphones on and doing a guided meditation and other times I'm just watching the sunset with a clear mind. Meditation is really a small but super powerful habit that can have a big impact on your life in a really positive way and it's one of the things I do that really just nurtures my mind, body and soul.