Post-pandemic has been a hard time to find me after isolating from so many of my friends and family. Through the pandemic, I noticed that I had begun to let myself go, and I don’t mean it in the way that people mean it when they say they’ve gained some weight. I mean I stopped caring about my appearance, my hygiene and just myself in general. After a while of sitting around and being sad about it, I realized I had to take my self-care into my own hands and change it.
I began to spend each day designating time to focus on myself and do things that made me happy and after a while, I began to see a big change in myself. Not only was I starting to generally be happier, but I also began to actually really love myself and feel more confident. While yes, these changes in myself began small they’ve become much larger as time has gone on. Self-care isn’t just putting on a face mask and finally using that fancy eye cream you’ve been saving for special occasions. It’s about the small things you do for yourself that make your own day. In the past year, I’ve gone from barely wanting to look in the mirror to watching my own TikToks because I feel good about them. Here are some of the things that I’ve been trying to do to improve my self-care in the last year.
1. The way to my heart is through my stomach
One thing that never fails to improve my mood on a bad day, or even just make a good day better is treating myself to my favorite meal. As the Snickers commercials always say, you’re not you when you’re hungry, and it’s true. Not only being hungry but eating something that isn’t causing satisfaction made the experience not as enjoyable. I began to budget for a meal that I would treat myself to every once in a while and put myself in my most comfortable environment while I did so. This meal became something that was fun and brought joy back into eating.
2. Treat yo self!
Okay so treating yourself isn’t always easy to budget, but it can be. I learned for me that treating myself didn’t always mean spending a lot of money on a shopping spree. I would go to the five below and find a fun little activity or even just some serious window shopping. This also became a thing for me that just generally made me happy and more excited to wake up in the morning.
3. The Basics
I do the basic self-care things such as starting a skincare routine, a special face mask and exfoliating. While these things may feel small, they can make a huge difference. I felt more confident in my skin and felt more glowing than ever before. Doing these things consistently also made me feel special and worth all of the effort I was putting into myself.
4. Twinkle Toes
One big thing for me was doing my own pedicures. Being in college I had to cut a few things out of my budget since I no longer was being helped as much financially as in high school. One of these things was pedicures which were something that made me feel more confident in my appearance. I eventually found a cheap gel nail set up on amazon and began practicing doing my own toes. Not only was it a fun hobby to get into, but it also became therapeutic to spend an hour devoted to something as minuscule as my toes.
While these things may seem small, they’ve made a huge difference in my life. I feel more confident in all ways and have realized the importance of putting effort into yourself. It has raised not just my confidence but my self-worth. It’s helped me feel so much happier and with happiness has come more energy and willingness to put myself out there. It’s time to put self-care on the New Years’ resolutions and set yourself up for success and happiness.
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