Reconnecting with yourself: Summer Self-Care
If you’ve been struggling to connect with yourself: I see you.
I’ve been there. In fact, I struggle to connect with myself more often than you would think given how much I talk about self-care. We get so caught up in our lives and our everyday worries, stressors, to-do lists, etc. that we forget to slow down and focus on ourselves.
So today, I want to give you some reminders along with some things you can do to reconnect with yourself in different ways throughout the rest of the summer.
Here we go.
1. Carve out time for yourself every day
We often tell ourselves that we don’t have time. But in reality, we’re the masters of our own schedules and we only lose the time when we over-schedule and over-commit and don’t set boundaries. So instead of telling you to just figure out how to get more hours in a day, I want you to look at your schedule and consider how you can remove or shorten the things that aren’t serving you. How can you delegate some of the tasks that drain your energy? How can you get support from a significant other, your coworkers, your employees, your friends, and even your kids?
2. Boundary setting
Speaking of setting boundaries… that’s a huge piece of self-care that we don’t often talk about. Let’s change that.
Healthy boundaries reclaim your time, your energy, and your peace. These can include creating a schedule for when you will (and won’t) answer work emails or texts. They can be letting a judgmental family member know that you will no longer be engaging in conversation about your weight or your eating habits. Or sitting down with your family and setting expectations for how they will help out around the house instead of you doing all the cleaning.
The thing about boundaries is that once they’re set, the only way you can maintain them is if you follow through. If you tell your family that you won’t clean up after them and they need to start doing it, and then you get sick of their mess and do it anyway, you’re not respecting your own boundaries. Be the nag that reminds them repeatedly until they get so sick of if that they start cleaning up without you having to ask. Set your boundaries and then respect them, and your life will feel lighter.
Here is some more info about different types of crucial boundaries and how to set them in a healthy way.
3. Get your thoughts and feelings out on paper
Journaling, writing in a diary, having a notebook with guided prompts. However you do it, writing has been proven to help with mental health. You can use this resource to read more about the benefits and also get some helpful prompts to guide your thoughts. If you Google “journaling prompts for mental health” or “self-care journaling prompts” a lot of resources come up that are totally free, and you can just use a regular notebook to start.
Or, if you want a more guided approach here are a few guided journals that have great reviews (I don’t do Amazon, so these links are all either the original publisher or a small business):
This is the guide I included in my retreat SWAG bags for the 2021 self-love retreat:
This is the workbook I included with my retreat SWAG bags for the 2023 self-love retreat:
4. Embrace the good weather
Get outside! There is a lot of research into the benefits of grounding and spending time in nature. We weren’t designed to be staring at a screen 24/7. In fact, getting out and truly experiencing nature – even if you’re in your own backyard – can vastly improve your mental health. Psychologists recommend getting outside for a minimum of 120 minutes in a week, whether it’s all at once or split up throughout the week. If broken down, that’s only around 17 minutes a day every day, 24 minutes 5 days a week, 1 hour twice a week, or 2 hours all at once.
Here are some ways to incorporate this into your routine:
Go for a walk outside on your lunch break every day
Go kayaking – you can rent kayaks for an hourly or daily rate
Visit a hiking trail on the weekend for a long hike and a picnic
Take your kids or pet for a walk every evening
Explore your local parks, go to a new one each day for 20 minutes
Go into your backyard and ground yourself (walk around barefoot)
Do your regular activities outside instead of in your house – reading, meditation, eating meals, even working
Sign up to join a nature wander in your area – here in the Tri-Cities you can do this through Abundant Wanderings
5. Get social
Just like we weren’t meant to be in front of a screen all day, we’re not meant to be alone. Humans are inherently social beings, and we need community and connection to thrive. In order to do that, we have to get vulnerable and be willing to open ourselves up to creating positive and authentic relationships in all facets of our lives.
But how do you make friends as an adult? It’s so much harder than it was when we were kids. I completely understand that, because it’s something I still struggle with to this day. But what I’ve found is that the best way to make connections is to just jump in and lean into the awkward. Attend networking events in your area. Go to paint classes or music lessons or whatever other things you’re interested in, and start conversations with the other people there. If you start with a shared interest it’s easier to break the ice. Here are some ways to find these events:
Go to the “events” section on Facebook and filter it to your city.
Visit the website for your local chamber of commerce or visitor bureau, they often have calendars of what’s happening around town.
Ask your coworkers if they know of any fun classes or events coming up.
Embrace google! Look up classes, workshops, or events, with the keyword of your interest, and the name of your town. For example: Theater workshops in Kennewick.
I hope this summer you’re able to embrace your own self-care and restart your journey toward self-love and set yourself up to continue that journey into the fall and winter. You deserve it. You need it.
We all do.
And remember, if you need some support or help finding your community and learning about self-care, my self-love retreats may be exactly what you’re looking for. The 2023 retreat has passed, but you can get on the waitlist for my 2024 retreat here and you’ll be among the first to know when registration opens up!