Please feel free to share your stories of how certain little self-care rituals changed your life for the better and have made you proud you started doing them.
A lot of it boils down to mindfulness.
When I realise my mind is wandering into anxiety territory where I make up scenarios that stress me out, take a few deep breats (box breathing is nice for this), focus on where I am right now and what I’m doing. What is actually true right now.
Take time for hygiene. I got long hair so I only wash it about once a week, using a specific soap, that smells and feels nice, condition it with a vinegar solution, rinse thoroughly.
I also brush it every day and tend to wax my beard when I go out and trim it regularly.
I’m still pretty shaggy but in a way that I enjoy personally.
Besides these, I have very active hobbies, that I stick to once or twice a week. I get to physically exhaust myself, interact with people outside my daily routine, work on my skills to get better. I picked up reading again in my late 20s after over a decade of losing that interest. It clears my head in the evening when reading in bed and I’d say that habit improved my sleep.
As boring as this answer may be, but the one thing that was most helpful for me, is meditation. I’m an atheist and I want to run away when I hear ambient yoga music and „soothing voices“ in guided meditation, so it took a while for me to find a good entry point that was suitable for me, but it improved my daily live significantly. I don’t do it every day (because I’m still human and I can’t call it a habit yet) but I know it would make my life better if I did.
Sidenote: I also tried to create a going to bed ritual with fancy face gels and face wash, but all it spawned was a lot of pimpels and a parfume smelling pillow. So I ditched that and have again no pimpels at all, now that I let my face do it’s thing and just wash it with water and some soap every now and then.
I’d be interested in other „going to bed rituals“ that you guys may have, as I like the idea to have this kind of ritual in general.
It was a long journey that is probably not so interesting. If you want a somewhat different approach than many popular mediation apps (which I’m sure all have their audience and place) try the „waking up“ app by Sam Harris. I find it to be much more down to earth and focused on introspection and (meta) perception. The difference becomes more obvious in the introduction series after a few days and maybe not right in the beginning. If you really can’t afford the price, make sure to check out their „no questions asked“ stipend options that let you select a lower price to pay (or nothing).
I stopped using social media. Facebook was easy, just deleted it. Instagram was step by step, first I unfollowed all the pages that I don’t know personally. Then I only used the “Following” timeline. When I only had a new photo in my feed every other day, I realized that this platform had nothing to offer me. I left Twitter when Mr. X comes around and switched to Mastodon. And I don’t think I have to explain to anyone here why I no longer use Reddit…
Yeah, i know. But Lemmy don’t feel like Social Media to me… More like a Internet forum.
Going to the barber. Not only do i look nice afterwards, but this hour of simply doing nothing while nice people are around, good music and maybe a glass of whisky or a coffee is quite good.
Visiting a thermal bath/sauna. Afterwards i am pretty relaxed and tired. Sure, you must get used to the “no clothing allowed” policy, but you can use a towel, and everyone around is also naked and as fat and ugly as yourself.
Driving around on my ebike on a summer evening with good music on my airpods, enjoying the weather and spectating other people enjoying the evening outside.
