Self Care Itinerary: 4 Days Of Thanking Yourself
The holiday where we are our most grateful comes once a year, briefly for 24 hours. With the hustle and bustle of hosting guests, baking pies, and stuffing turkeys, we get lost in making our loved ones feel special. But do you pause to simply tell your own self “I’m proud of you”? Our 4-day self-care itinerary will help you express gratitude towards the one person you may have neglected: yourself.
Day 1 – You Don’t Need A Journal
Start small with answering this question using specific examples: what were my best qualities this year? While we love using our gratitude journals (hey, Papier), sometimes we’re too stretched for time to even find where we left the dang book. Focus on the purpose of using the journal, rather than being attached to the physical journal itself. A gratitude journal works because it’s a safe place to dig deep and find the things you appreciate about yourself, big or small – including, your self-control against tempting snacks. You can use any text form in any location to identify things you are grateful for: notes (like we do here) on your phone while sitting in your car or a napkin at a loud birthday party. Just remember to use a medium that you can save and look back on to see how far you have come in loving yourself.
Day 2 – Finally Do That Thing
We all have that one thing we really want to do but keep pushing to the back burner because we keep telling ourselves it’s not as important as all the tasks others need us to do. Start your self-care routine by making a list of the activities you have always wanted to do, whether it’s finally learning how to swim, making extra closet space, binge watching a new series, or creating a new recipe. Start immediately to chip away at this list and every two weeks, update the list with your progress. Often we believe that making time to do the things we love to do means we’re being selfish or we’re taking away time from our loved ones. But remember: practicing a self-care activity for a couple of hours will make you feel more happy, relaxed, efficient, productive - not less.
Day 3 – Don’t Sleep On Inspo Mantras
There’s a reason why inspirational quotes get thousands of likes and comments on Instagram: even the cliché one-liners are the perfect pick-me-ups. We all have favorite mantras that we love and have shared with others. Collect and compile them in a place where they are easily accessible to you on days when you’re extra hard on yourself. Simple words, phrases, lyrics, poems and such are powerful in providing a much-needed dose of “I love myself today.” You should freely add to this collection as moments change you and remove the ones you outgrow. Organize rebuilding your self-confidence by arranging your daily mantras to align with your priorities.
Day 4 – You Can Look Back
Sometimes, we are too busy looking forward that we forget to look back. Other times, we are taught never to look back. The happy medium: look back to understand where you’re headed. We tend to overlook that some of our greatest accomplishments today were once what we so badly wanted and hoped for. Make a timeline of your accomplishments and list all the hard work you did to get to where you are today. Instead of depending on others to clap for you, let that internal voice express how well you have done for yourself. Validate your own pride and joy in how far you have come and use self-acknowledgement to fuel your passion and ambition.
How are you giving yourself extra TLC this week?