Three Totally Free Ideas For Self-Care

Happy Galentine’s Day! May you spend today with your most beloved female friends, treating yourself in a loving, kind way.

Galentine’s Day is a chance to spend some quality time with the people you’re not making out with. It’s an important day, a day to remind yourself that platonic love is just an necessary as romantic love in a full life. Today Bravely is taking it one step further and giving you three totally free ideas for self-care.

What is self-care? Here at Bravely, self-care means actions you take to take care of yourself and to help you live your best life. It’s being gentle with yourself in a manner that no one else will be. It doesn’t mean indulging in destructive behaviors, or developing bad habits, in the name of ‘feeling good.’

Self-care is intricately involved with personal finance. The two essentially go hand in hand. When you’re taking care of yourself, you’re inclined to take care of your finances. When you’re life is going to pieces, your budget is more likely to fall apart. Money can help you take care of yourself in healthy ways, and it can be the tool you use to wreck yourself.

Taking the time to recharge, reset, and give yourself what you need to live your best life should be on everyone’s priority list. Too often, we neglect ourselves in pursuit of other goals. You know how it goes: we stay up late and sacrifice sleep we need in order to crank out more work. We eat crappy food purchased on the go instead of eating meals that provide actual nutrients. We nurse broken hearts with bottles of alcohol.

Self-care comes in a lot of forms. It’s not necessarily kale and sunrise yoga classes. Your self-care can be alone time in your bedroom or an indulgent meal at the end of the week. Bravely has a few ideas for self-care that are totally free, and good for everyone. Give yourself some love today and tomorrow

Give yourself some love today, tomorrow, and every day that you need it. The best relationships we each have in life is the one we have with ourselves. Treat yourself like you would your bestie or your boo with our free self-care ideas.

• Flex Your Creative Muscles

Being creative makes people happy. It’s science y’all. So when you need a little break from the world, try setting aside some time to create something. Writing a poem, sketching in a notebook, or playing music are all ways to flex your creative muscles.

If you have a few dollars to spend, invest in some type of craft that you feel drawn to. Paints, coloring books, and colored pencils, an instrument, or a sketchbook are all good investments.

If you’ve got zero dollars to spend, you can sketch on scrap pieces of paper or half-used notebooks. You can choreograph your own dance moves to a favorite song. You can write a poem or song lyrics. Creativity comes in many forms. Find a medium that works for you and explore it.

• Exercise

Exercise has also been proven to make people happier. Push ups, squats, and jumping jacks can be done literally anywhere and require no equipment. Try three sets of 10 to start. If you’re in better shape than that, or if you feel up to a challenge, up the reps to 25. Burpees, mountain climbers, jumping rope (just jumping if you have no rope) and butt kicks are good ideas too.

Body weight circuits are a great way to get your mind off of whatever is bothering you. They’re a demanding workout when you push yourself. Focus on what your body is doing and forget about everything else. Plus, endorphins are always a good thing. In the wise words of Elle Woods, ‘Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people don’t just shoot their husbands.’

If getting out of bed was a huge challenge today and the thought of a push-up makes you want to cry, try stretching. Stretching is incredibly good for your body and is much less intimidating than push-ups. You can also go for a walk- getting outside is another way to get happy.

• Get Rid of Something

Getting rid of physical stuff that we don’t need in our lives is more than a minimalist trend on Instagram. We live in a world that constantly markets stuff to us as the solution. You want to be happy? Get this new dress. You want to know true joy? Find it with this new couch.

Sometimes, things really do bring us happiness. Hold onto that stuff. I have a t-shirt that is 10 years old, stained and has a hole in the armpit. But I LOVE it. Each time I wear it (to bed mostly), it makes me happy. It was a gift from a friend and I’m never throwing it out.

We gather so many things in our lives that we do not need. I have several wine glasses that I never use because 1) I don’t drink that much and 2) I’m not a fan of them. They sit on my kitchen counter because they don’t fit in my cabinet. I can get rid of those cups today. They add nothing to my life and getting rid of them will.

Look around your home and see if you can eliminate one thing that you don’t need. It can be small. Recycle or re-gift it to cut down on landfill waste. Remove something that doesn’t add to your life and enjoy the emotional and physical space that it opens up.

Self-care doesn’t have to break the bank to become part of your life. Try these free ideas and tell us how if and how they help you. And leave us more ideas in the comments!