Self Care in 5 minutes or less

Self care isn’t always pretty. Face masks and yoga sessions are fine, but sometimes you need to really dig deep, and find the one thing that clicks for you. You need a little more.

Sometimes, though, you don’t have time for that little more, and you’re right in the middle of what feels like a whirlwind of crazy. For times like that, here’s a list of self care activities that can be done in five minutes, or less, so you don’t have to cut into your lunch break.

1. Relax your jaw and massage your scalp. As you go through the day, you’ll find yourself completely tensed up. While you may not be able to go get a massage right away, a good way to start to relax is to activate your self-awareness: Are you clenching your jaw? What effect is this having on you right now? Take this moment to unclench and relax your jaw, first rub your temples, then move along to gently massaging your scalp. Do this as long as you need to in order to release your immediate tension.

2. Get a warm drink. It’s widely known that consuming anything cold will shock your insides, while warm drinks (not hot), will assist in breaking down food, aiding your digestion, and soothing your insides.

3. Give yourself a foot massage. Sometimes you just don’t realize much your feet hurt until you’re taking care of them. Find that sweet spot and apply pressure!

4. Drink water. Hydration is usually the answer. Not only does it have the obvious benefits, but sometimes just knowing that you’re treating your body well is a step in the right direction.

5. Buy yourself a little something. It happens more often than expected that snagging a tiny something for yourself will put a smile on your face. It could be something personal like an addition to the collection you’ve been working on, or something seemingly insignificant, like an empty notepad, or a new set of characterized pens. As cliche as it sounds, even down to picking a flower that caught your eye can help, as long as it puts a smile on your face. But spend responsibly.

6. Make a list of 10 things that make you happy. You’d be surprised how quickly your day can turn around when you do something like this. In the event that you can’t think of 10 things right away, an alternative is to build on the list as your day goes on, either as they happen, or as you think of them. Your attitude is sure to change as you go.

7. Let yourself feel what you’re feeling. This might take more than five minutes (so proceed carefully), but one of the worst ways to handle your feelings, is to stop yourself from feeling them. It is neither healthy, nor pleasant to do so, and usually ends up in chaos of some sort along the way. Stop, excuse yourself, breathe, then feel. Once you’ve collected yourself again, step back out until further notice. This has saved me from many a rampage or fit of tears.

While it must be stated that I am not a licensed expert, everything on this list has helped me on multiple occasions; some of them since I was very young, some I realized during quarantine. Based on this, I’ve compiled these points in the best way that I could, so as to share with anyone who might be or has been in the same situation.

May you all get the care you need!