Lately, our lives can be very unpredictable and confusing at times and leave us stressed and worried for the future. Whether your life is crammed full of zoom calls all day every day, or you are just pottering around the house doing whatever you can find, a self-care night is well deserved. Here are a few of my top tips on how to relax and have time to yourself.
1. What helps you to relax?
We all have different things that keep us relaxed, or that we enjoy doing when we have time. This may be having a pamper session, watching a movie or even just reading a book. sometimes, we all get caught up in the idea of an ‘aesthetic’ self-care night, that it takes away the meaning, and you end up panicking and stressing over the night, completely defeating the idea. If you don’t like putting on a face mask, or sitting in front of a TV, that’s perfectly fine: just do what makes you happy and relaxed.
2. Choose a time
This seems pretty self-explanatory but is also very important. Our schedules can sometimes seem all over the place, with short gaps, or just too much time that we don’t really know what to do with ourselves. You need to not only choose a time that is free in your schedule but allows you to be relaxed. For example, if you choose the evening of a busy day, and still have lots of things to do, then you’ll end up not being able to relax and thinking about what you have left to do. For me personally, I normally choose a Saturday night, as I don’t normally have too much to do on a Sunday, and I can just spend the time for myself. This night also shouldn’t be a form of procrastination…no matter how much you try and convince yourself.
3. Involve others
You may prefer to just spend time with yourself, especially when you are stuck with people the whole day – usually on multiple videocalls! But having friends join you might be beneficial. It can be quite hard, especially now, to keep in touch with people we don’t see all of the time. Maybe you have a best friend who goes to your guiding group or school that you’ve completely lost touch with. Spending a virtual chill-out night with them may help not only boost you but allow you to have a nice catch up. You could watch a film together online, paint your nails over a call, or even just have a nice rant! Whatever you decide, it’s important that you enjoy it, and feel it helps you.
4. Relax!
Have your night! Whatever you choose in the end, make sure that you commit to it and give it a go. At the end of the event, have a little review of what went well, what could be better, and if you genuinely felt relaxed. It’s important that you do this, so that you can work out what actually makes you relaxed and what you benefit from.
5. Put it into a regular schedule
Some self-care nights can be random and spontaneous, but you should try and have them regularly. This could be once every month, every other week, or every week. For me, I always keep Saturday nights free, so that I can relax and have time for myself. You don’t have to do the same activity every time: you may choose to watch a film one time and have a long bath the next time. Either way, regularly leaving time for yourself is really important, especially at the moment,
There you go! Here are my tips on having a relaxing time for a recharge or break from whatever is going on in your life. I hope you enjoy your time, and benefit from the relaxing!
If you specifically benefit from a certain activity, and have some top tips on it, don’t forget that you can send them in to The Hive! Here is a link for more information: https://www.girlguidinglaser.org.uk/challenges/report-for-the-hive.
Happy relaxing and I’ll see you next month 😊!