How to Balance a Busy Life Through Practising Self-Care

One of the most difficult challenges many people face when practising self-care is finding the time to do it. When you live a busy lifestyle, finding extra time to look after yourself and find the right life balance can seem almost impossible.

So, how can you balance practising self-care with a busy lifestyle? This post offers some great tips you can follow. Self-care is often seen as a luxury, but did you know it can lead to a longer, happier life? Without self-care, you’re likely to end up feeling stressed, tired, and generally unhappy.

Make the Time for Life Balance

To ensure you can fit self-care into your busy routine, schedule it. If you’re like most people, you schedule everything else, so why not self-care? When you set a time to focus on yourself, you are more likely to stick to it. No matter how busy you think you are, there will always be time for self-care somewhere in your schedule.

Establish a morning routine

If you are struggling to find the best time of day to practice self-care, you might find it easier in the morning. Finding the right balance in life can be challenging if you have a hectic life, but doable. In the morning, you could get up just 30 minutes earlier, or 15 minutes to start with. Establishing a morning routine can be the perfect opportunity to practice self-care.

As a parent, you could focus on self-care in the evenings when the kids have gone to bed if that works better and you don’t have the morning rush. It doesn’t have to take long to practice self-care so you should always be able to squeeze it in somewhere.

Automate daily tasks

All kinds of tools and gadgets can automate various aspects of our lives. If you are constantly busy, you’ll find automating certain tasks can be a game changer. A simple thing like speech-to-text takes so much time off having to type (I love it).

For example, you could switch from going to the grocery store to ordering groceries online. If you have items you frequently purchase, these can be added to your favourites list, making it easier to add them to your order next time. Doing your grocery shopping online can free up a lot of free time during the week that can be used for self-care.

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Start small to find your life balance

You don’t have to start by completely overhauling your lifestyle. Instead, you can start small with self-care. Begin by taking just 10 minutes out of each day to focus on a self-care activity. Focus on developing one positive self-care habit at a time. Once you have mastered that, you can move on to the next task.

By starting small, it makes it easier to fit self-care into your busy life. Many people mistakenly think they need to begin with at least 30 minutes a day. The truth is, however much time you can free up for self-care is enough. Once you get started, you’ll find it easier to start focusing more on self-care due to the benefits you experience.

Overall, balancing practising self-care with a busy life isn’t easy. Remember, self-care is essential to your health and well-being. So, no matter how busy you are, you should always try and make time for self-care daily.

Common Hurdles When Practising Self-Care

When it comes to working on self-care, all of us have different blind spots. These are aspects of ourselves that we aren’t fully aware of. It could be personality traits, feelings, or actions. Awareness of the hurdles you need to get over is the first step in the right direction.

These blind spots can hamper our self-care efforts of finding life balance. That is why it is so important to become fully aware of them. Here, we’ll look at some of the most common blind spots you may discover when working on self-care.

You avoid conflict

Many people hate conflict, but sometimes it is needed to resolve situations. If you tend to avoid conflict, you’ll often do or say things you don’t necessarily agree with. This is a common blind spot that can derail your self-care efforts.

The trouble is when you give in to others just to avoid conflict, it reduces your credibility. You’ll also find you are frequently miserable due to not standing firm in your own beliefs and values and trying to please everyone. So, if your blind spot is avoiding conflict, it’s important to address it, set boundaries and be clear about what you want.

Not letting toxic people go

Do you have toxic people you just can’t seem to let go of? Whether it is a friend, partner, or family member, associating with toxic people is going to hurt your self-development.

If you learn to let toxic people go, it’s going to significantly improve your life balance. You’ll be happier and much more able to make positive changes in your life. It’s hard to remain positive in life when you are surrounded by negativity. So, assess the relationships in your life and if there is a toxic person around you, work on distancing yourself and instead surround yourself with positive role models.

You are continually late

Frequently running late might not sound like a problematic hurdle in self-care. However, it could be negatively impacting various aspects of your life. When you are known for being late, it lowers your reliability. This can negatively impact your relationships, as well as lead to issues at work.

In terms of self-care, this trait can make it harder to stick to certain changes you make. For example, you may find it more difficult to stick to a schedule you set yourself. Time management is important if you want to long-lasting and impactful change.

Impatience

If you tend to be an impatient person, you may find self-care more challenging. This is because you won’t necessarily see any results overnight. It takes time to adopt new habits and see the benefits of self-care. So, if you’re impatient, you might give up before you’ve experienced the benefits of your hard work.

When you are impatient, you can get easily frustrated when you don’t see instant results. So, working on becoming more patient as you start your self-care journey is essential if you want to keep it up. As they say… patience is a virtue.

These are some of the most common hurdles you’ll experience when working on self-care. Identifying them will help you reduce the challenges of letting your self-care slide and make you much more likely to succeed with any changes you make.

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Effects of Lack of Self-Care on Life Balance

How a lack of self-care can lead to an unhappy life. Learn some of the signs to watch out for that you need more self-care in your life. You can’t pour from an empty cup.

You’ll feel stressed and exhausted

When you aren’t taking care of yourself, you’ll often feel stressed and exhausted. This in turn can lead to burnout and a feeling of resentment. For example, it could be that you are exhausted from taking care of everyone else’s needs. Over time, if you don’t factor in self-care, you could end up resenting your loved ones.

When you are constantly exhausted and stressed out, it’s impossible to maintain a positive outlook. Self-care helps to combat stress and it also boosts your energy levels.

Personal hygiene suffers

A side effect of not following a self-care routine is that your hygiene could suffer. This is especially true for those experiencing depression. When you are depressed or low, self-care is the last thing on your mind. In severe cases, you could spend days in bed, failing to do even basic self-care tasks such as taking a shower or brushing your teeth.

The trouble is, that failing to take care of yourself makes you feel even worse. So, maintaining self-care is crucial for your mental health and personal hygiene.

You’ll turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms

Another thing that tends to happen when you lack self-care, is you’ll seek unhealthy enjoyment. It could be overindulging in junk food because it makes you feel better. Or you could turn to alcohol or drugs to escape.

When you start turning to unhealthy habits for comfort, it’s going to lead to additional issues. You’ll also feel unhappier, particularly if you drink in excess. Alcohol is a depressant which can leave you feeling a lot worse than you started.

Weight gain

Many people who don’t take care of themselves, experience some level of weight gain. The more weight you gain, the unhappier you are going to be. It can be difficult to lose weight, so focus on self-care to help you avoid this potential challenge.

Healthy foods and exercise are good for your overall well-being. The feel-good hormones leave feeling lighter and in a better mood.

You never feel good enough

Self-care is something you do because you are already worth it. Therefore, if you fail to take care of yourself, you can feel like you are never good enough. As you are constantly tired and juggling life’s responsibilities, you may feel like you are a failure or don’t measure up to others.

These are just some of the things that can happen when you don’t follow a self-care routine. The effects can be severe, causing you to lead an unhappy and unfulfilled life. So, if you’re looking to lead a happier life, now is the time to start focusing on your needs and making self-care a priority.

Self-care is a deeper experience of taking care of yourself from the inside out. There are so many ways to nurture and care for yourself. You don’t need elaborate measures or to go all extravagant. Anything that brings you joy, a sense of calm and connection is a means of self-care.

Replenish your reserves and fill up your cup. Take time and make the time. There is always something you can cut down or do without that doesn’t have the great benefits of self-care. Try it. You’ll love it.

Love, Everyday

Ntha

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