Day 62 of "Figuring it Out" - The Ideal Self-Care Routine

Kia Ora! Hello. G'Day.

Happy Wednesday!

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How are you going today? I've had a bit of a rough morning, I woke up around 7am and was just sooo dizzy and nauseous that I needed to go back to sleep so I managed to get some more sleep and then finally stumbled my way downstairs for breakfast, but my centre of gravity was WAY off and it felt like my body was pushing me down - kinda like the feeling when you're on super strong pain killers and you feel a bit out of it. Anyway, had some breakfast, and then my hayfever started to play up too but I managed to take some hayfever spray and also get in the shower and I started to feel a little bit better, and sitting down felt a bit easier. I know these are mostly IBS symptoms from the meds I am on at the moment and I appreciate the many people who are encouraging me to drink lots of water (don't worry, I am), but right now a lot of things are out of my control (thanks body) and I'm doing my best to stay positive, but ways that I cope with it are mainly by talking about it and making jokes about it cos it helps me get through the day. I still find myself struggling to rest because I feel guilty when I do and that I should be doing more but I'm trying to not focus on those thoughts as much - and idk even know if that sentence made sense or not. Anyway, I've also managed a really small walk by myself so far today and made myself salad wraps for lunch (so that's always positive, eating super healthy). Oh, I also added in a "Rocky Road" recipe to the blog today as I keep forgetting I have a recipes page. So if you love baking OR if you love Rocky Road as much as me, give my recipe a go, I promise you will not be disappointed.

Melbourne weather today is a little bit warmer outside than I expected, it's only about 17 degrees but the sun is out and gorgeous when it hits your skin. It's also so nice to go for a walk when no one else is outside because it feels so peaceful, except when you hear rustling and turn around and no ones there but then you turn around again and it turns out someone is there and just carrying groceries from the supermarket down the road haha. I've also watched some YouTube again today (I know I gotta read my books, it's just hard to read as much when you're feeling dizzy but watching good YouTube is always fun) and I watched a really interesting video about glitches in the matrix. You can watch the video I watched "here." I don't know why that stuff is so fascinating - obviously a lot of it is fake and made for entertainment purposes only BUT there's a little bit of oooh that's a bit spooky when watching something like that.

Tonight, Luke and I are going to get Mexican for dinner and most likely watch a movie so that we can have a chill date night and not worry about cooking or cleaning up as well at times, doing things like that can be a bit much. I need to steal some of Luke's energy, he's so good at doing lots of things at once. I used to be too, but I think these health issues are trying to tell me to slow down and I'm still not very good at listening haha. Anyway, that kinda inspires me to write about what I do for self-care for today's blog. Sometimes it's a lot and sometimes it's not much but what's important is doing it when your body and mind really needs you too. So on a typical self-care day for myself (Ash, it'd be weird if you didn't know me by now wouldn't it?) and by no means do I follow this religiously - so let's make it more of the "Ideal Self-Care Day" and it wouldn't be a work day so like a weekend day or day that you have off (which for me is every day at the moment haahahaha I am only slowly going insane). You can use my routine or add in your own things e.g., workout routines (mine aren't here at the moment because I haven't had the energy to do them)

• 7:00am - wake up and do a quick 5 minute morning meditation, then scroll on my phone for 10 minutes to help wake myself up.

• 7:30am - make myself a nice breakfast e.g., poached eggs and spinach on toast with a berry smoothie OR cereal with fruit and yoghurt + a hot bevvy.

• 8:00am - a self-care shower, a full body exfoliation scrub, wash hair, shave legs etc.

• 8:20am - my skin care routine - wash/cleanse face, exfoliate face, moisturise, and put on sunscreen + do my hair

• 8:30am - a 30 minute walk

• 9:00am - write down or think about 5 things that you are grateful for today e.g., sometimes they can be as simple as having clean drinking water, a roof over your head, food OR more complex like getting to do what you love for work etc. Once this gratitude list is done, get onto any tasks/work that you might need to do. Some mornings I like to start by taking some online surveys or doing some research for blog writing (or if it's your cleaning day, start that).

• 12:00pm - make myself some lunch (usually some sort of meat + salad sandwich or a toastie)

• 2:00pm - another walk if feeling up to it (usually would play Pokemon Go to distract me from not feeling good)

• 3:00pm - 5:00pm - time for watching videos, learning things on the internet, blog writing, and starting to plan what I am going to make for dinner

• 5:30/6pm - start making dinner (usually with the help of Luke)

• 6:30 - 8pm - dinner with Luke (or a loved one) and time together, usually spent watching TV as our self-care together

• 9:00pm - when I start to get tired, time to make sure I've taken all my meds before bed time, and I complete my gratitude app prompts on my phone. I also then start getting ready for bed, by washing my face quickly, brushing my teeth, and putting my night moisturiser on.

• 9:15pm - time to get in bed and complete 2 of my self-care journals. I use a random one from amazon that just talks about how my day went and the resilience project one. Once complete, then I do another guided meditation (usually a sleep meditation one or an astral projection one depending on how I'm feeling).

So there you have it, my ideal self-care day! I don't always follow it BUT when I do follow it, I feel great mentally. The things that I aim to do every day out of the above list are self-care journals, a gratitude app, and a 30-minute walk (especially because it's the most exercise I am getting and I'm an exercise person). I also eat food every day haha and some nights it's just me for dinner so Luke has cricket.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading today's blog post! I hope ya'll continue to enjoy reading about my journey and learning random stuff about my life and purpose as we go along. I'm slowly getting more comfortable writing things about myself online and I'm waiting for a new microphone to come that attaches to my camera so will see if I actually give vlogging a go (it might be something cool to do as an introvert and give me something else to do as I take this well-being career mini-break).

For today's question, I want to know, what's your self-care routine? I don't care how small or big but what's something that you do for your own well-being.

Thanks again for reading! I'll see you again tomorrow! Ka kite,

Much love,

Ash xx