Putting yourself out there to start dating is never easy as it takes courage and confidence. But what if you are not as confident as you would like to be and you feel that you might not be putting your best foot forward?
With the hustle and bustle of everything going on around us, we tend to ignore the most important thing: ourselves.
What does self-care mean to you? Sleeping in on your day off? Going to the dentist for a check up? Getting a massage or taking a vacation?
There are a few simple things we can do every single day to take care of ourselves and in turn, help boost our self confidence:
1) Drink Water
Water is such an important element for our bodies, more than half of our body make-up is water. Yet for most of us, it is so hard to get into the habit of drinking it. Not drinking enough water causes negative side effects; a big one is headaches. If you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated and need water right away.
There are lots of ways to get into the habit of drinking more water.
There’s an app for it (of course): For those who love apps, there are lots of different kinds of apps out there that help you with reminders to drink water throughout the day. Read the feedback comments, test a few out and see which one works best for you.
Flavour it up: If you find water lacks flavour, there are lots of no sugar flavors to make your water more tasty. Or you can go all natural and add lemon, cucumber or anything else that might tempt your tastebuds.
On your marks, get set, go!: For those who are visual, an easy way to keep track of your water intake is to mark your water bottle. Break it down by a few hours along the side of your water bottle. In the morning, you start with a full bottle and then as the morning progresses, the time lines go down the bottle as well as the water level. At lunch, you can fill up and start again for the afternoon.
2) Minimize Daily Stress
Stress is a daily occurrence and happens everywhere we go. We think that we are in control over our lives, when in fact we have very little control over what happens. The traffic, the weather, how people behave on the bus, or even finding a big spider in the shower. All these things are possible little stresses that can add up to a big breakdown (if we let it).
What’s the secret to dealing with daily stress? By knowing that you have no control over it. The only thing you have control over is how you react to a moment, a situation or a person.
What do you do when it rains? Do you get upset, pout and stay home? Do you shrug and dig out the umbrella and go out? Or do you put your rubber boots on and dance in the rain?
Knowing you have full control over how you deal with a stressful moment, takes away most of that stress in that moment.
3) Be Your Own Best Friend
Who is your best friend? Who do we talk to the most on a daily basis? We talk to ourselves more than we talk to anyone else. Our true best friend is our Self.
When you have fallen off the proverbial horse and landed in the mud, you can’t wait until your friend is available to talk you into getting up and trying again. If they are busy, you might be sitting in the mud all afternoon. You need to say: I’m ok, and I can do this. When you are having a bad moment, only you can talk yourself out of that bad moment.
This goes for all of the daily self talk we do: if we do something, that maybe was a silly mistake, there is no need to be negative about it and put ourselves down. We get enough of that garbage from other people. Instead, we can be our own cheerleader and encourage our own selves to be the very best version we can be.
This self talk also includes gratitude. Be thankful everyday for something: that the rain started after you got to work, someone held the door open, or the line up to buy breakfast was short today.
While it is so important to have a good support network, it all starts with you. If we don’t do this for ourselves, no one else will.
4) Sleep
This sounds like a simple one, everyone sleeps. But how you sleep is important. Try to maintain a regular sleeping schedule, even on the weekends. If you get up early on your day off, get up and do little things around the house. Small, short naps are ok, but make sure you do not sleep for hours in the afternoon, otherwise you will not be able to sleep at night.
Do you have the right equipment for sleeping? The right bed to support your back, hips and knees? Do you need a body pillow to help with your bad knees? What about a pillow for your head and neck? There are a variety of pillows, if you do not have the right kind, you can wake up with a headache and still be very tired. There are also contour pillows that are self cooling if that may be an issue for you as well.
Invest in your sleep and find the right support for your nocturnal needs.
5) Mindful of Your Body
If something is sore, twitches or hurts on your body, pay attention! The body gives us little hints that something is wrong or needs tending to. If we ignore those little signs, then the body will send us a bigger hint that we need to get on it and do something. The body speaks a different language than what we are used to and so can only send signals through our nerves, muscles and skin to let us know something is up.
If we keep ignoring these aches and pains, it does come to a point where the body needs to shut down so that we have to address the issue and take care of things. By the time it gets too far, extreme measures need to be taken like taking medicine or a hospital visit.
Always listen to what your body is saying. No one knows your body like you do.
3 comments
This is an very informative article that has obtainable and well thought out points.
Thank you so much!
Whats with the new format having to use a mobile phone for messaging? I never use a cell. or what ever.
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