With mental health awareness increasing by the day, self care is becoming an ever increasingly more important part of day to day life. Quite simply, self care is any act in which you do something to look after yourself, either physically or mentally.

Too often though, we think of self care as a bit of a big deal, and I know that I for one am guilty of ignoring self care with the excuse that I don’t have enough time, when in fact we should always be finding the time to make sure that we are happy. Self care doesn’t have to mean spending 2 hours in a bath with £20 worth of Lush products, it can be as simple as a minute here and there, and sometimes the smallest things can make a big difference to your day.

Here are a few self care practices that I’ve been doing lately that take no time at all:

• Taking a little more time brushing my hair after washing it, rather than just enough to get any knots out
• Instead of gulping down my hot chocolate while I’m trying to get work done, I’ve been stopping to sit back and enjoy it
• At the end of each day, taking just a small amount of time to write down, or just think about all the good things that have happened that day
• Sitting to eat breakfast, rather than standing
• Using an in-shower moisturiser to keep my skin happy with minimal effort
• Drinking at least one glass of water every two hours
• Deciding what to wear to work the night before so I don’t have to rush around in the morning and feel cuter
• Taking a little bit of time each morning to comment on Instagram posts instead of just liking, and also replying to comments on my own posts
• Using my Fitbit’s ‘relax’ feature for breathing exercises before bed
• Applying BioOil to my stretch marks after showering
• Reminding myself why I love what I do when I’m feeling stressed about it
• Retweeting cute animal videos to brighten up my (and others) timelines

These might seem like insignificant little acts, but just by doing them and knowing that I’m making a little effort towards looking after myself, they have been making a big difference!

Do you take time to look after yourself?

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