How to Create a Daily Self Care Routine

You can find a million articles out there with self care ideas for moms, like this one. However, articles that breaks down the types of self care and hot to fit it into your schedule are harder to find. That’s why today is all about learning how to create a daily self care routine.

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Coming up with self care ideas is easy for me. On the flip side of that, finding the time for them in schedule eluded me for years. This was due to a few key reasons:

I didn’t know how to card out time for myself including for self care.
I had no idea that there were different levels of self care.
It never occurred to me to make self care part of my daily routine.

We have already covered how to carve out me time. Now it’s time to learn about the different levels of self care. Then we’ll create a daily routine that incorporates them.

Basic Self Care

Basic self care included everything that keeps you healthy and well. This means getting the appropriate amount of sleep every night. It also means making hygiene a priority. Stay-at-home moms especially struggle with making the time to get a shower everyday (I’m totally guilty of this). Even if you have a tiny tyrant at home that you can’t leave alone, bring them in the bathroom with you. Yes, it might be a quicker shower than you’d like but you’ll still feel so much better.

Basic self care also includes a healthy diet and fitness. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about brownies and gummy bears (not together) but the majority of the food and drinks you consume should be fuel for your body.

The same goes for fitness. Don’t feel like you need to be a body builder, but adding activity to your day is important.

Check out Tips to Fit In Fitness for ideas on how to work fitness into your day.

Emotional Self Care

Your emotional self care includes your mental and spiritual care as well. Much like your hierarchy of needs, if your basic self care isn’t met, you can’t successfully take care of these ones.

Once you take care of your basic self care, it is important to follow it up with emotional self care. This includes journaling, meditation, and religious activities.

This is also when you do things that recharge you. Reading a book, taking a bubble bath, and enjoying hobbies all fall under emotional self care.

Social Self Care

It is so easy to become isolated as a SAHM. Your social self care becomes non-existent. Even talking on the phone is difficult with demanding tiny humans.

That’s why it is so important to make time for your group hobbies, girls nights, and even play dates. These are the ways that you fill-up your social needs. If you are truly swamped, or simply feel like you need additional social self care, try writing letters with friends and family. This is a great way to connect socially without finding a ton of free time or leaving the house.

Goal Alignment

When you go to create a daily self routine, it is important to keep your current goals in mind. There simply isn’t enough time to do everything every day. Trying to do it all is a one-way ticket to burnout.

Your basic needs should be met everyday, but spending 20 minutes each on other self care ideas daily isn’t realistic. Meditation, journaling, hanging out with friends, Bible study, reading, enjoying hobbies, self-improvement, and more means finding an additional 2-3 hours in your day. You aren’t going to do that daily without falling behind in other important areas.

Instead, align your daily self care routine with your current goals. For example, if you are currently focused on getting more fit, your daily self care routine should be heavy on those activities. Your outings might always include hitting the gym. The hobbies you choose to pursue will be active ones like hiking or dance. These align with your current goal. As this goal changes, so will your self care routine.

Example Self Care Routine

Once you know your priorities, it is time to create a daily self care routine. This is personal for everyone because our lives and goals vary so greatly. As much as I wish I could, that means I can’t give you some magic formula for your self care routine. Instead, here is my current routine as an example to inspire you.

6 am: Wake up, work out, and shower
7 am: Breakfast with the kids, backpack checks, meditation
8 am: Get older kids on the bus and work on letters with youngest
9-11 am: Outings, Phone Calls, Errands
The rest of my day is filled with chores, blogging, kids activities, and family time until 9 pm.
9 pm: Wash my face, put on pajamas, journal, and read
10 pm: Lights out/Sleep Hypnosis

Notes:

Some days my outing block is filled with grocery shopping and appointments. Other days it’s more fun activities or conversations on the phone. That’s totally okay. The point is to find a general balance throughout the week.
If your kids get out of bed in the morning if they hear you up like mine do, don’t forgo the morning self care. It is a test of your boundary reinforcement. Instead of fighting with them, sit them in a chair and let them know that you aren’t going to fight about staying in bed but this is your workout time and that is what is going to happen right now.
Sometimes my kids meditate with me but other mornings they don’t want to. On those mornings, I throw on headphones and ask them to play quietly for 10 minutes.

Remember your basic self care needs and align additional self care with your goals is how to create a daily self care routine. Don’t let your basic self care falter because it affects all of the others. Again, if you need some specific self care ideas, check out Open When Self Care Ideas for Moms. Also, know that as your goals change and evolve, your daily self care activities will change too.

See where I’m linking up!

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