In this article, we’re going to cover 3 easy ways to build self-care into a busy schedule. Taking care of the self is not the same thing as being selfish – self-care is actually the greatest gift you can give to yourself, your loved ones, your community, and anyone else who might be suffering.

Self-Care is the fastest way to achieve work-life balance. You’ll hear me say this many times – Our Work and Our Life do not equal each other and that’s why we find it so hard “balance” them. The only thing that can be in “balance” is us, ourselves, we can be in balance as we move through our life and through our work.

Picture a carton of eggs, the carton equals your life, the eggs are your work, your family, your friends, your hobbies, and so on. Work is just 1 egg, it’s not equal to the carton, the container of your life. If you can practice some of these simple ideas for self-care, I promise your life will change dramatically and you’ll feel in balance at work and in life.

One thing I want to have more of in my life is Laughter. Real true laugh-out-loud, pee-your-pants, belly-aching, laughter. I’m conscious of every interaction I have throughout the day and I ask myself if I’m having fun. Did we share a laugh, or a special moment, did we have a good conversation? I’m trying to really be conscious about this idea of having laughter, it’s like, you can’t be stressed out, when you’re laughing. Adding laughter and joy into my daily life is a wonderful form of Self-Care.

Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg did a comedy recently called “Me Time,” which is where I got the idea to put together this article. This movie, “Me Time” is absolutely the funniest movie I’ve seen in a long time. In the movie, Mark Wahlberg’s character celebrates himself in a grand and amazing way. He is absolutely over the top in the art of celebrating himself. I remember thinking, ‘Wow – what if everyone took such great lengths to love on themselves and care for themselves? How great would that be?’

Kevin Hart’s character is a bit different, he’s a stay-at-home dad and he’s taking care of everyone and everything around him, he’s taking care of his wife, who is an accomplished professional and his kids, he’s involved in the PTA, and he doesn’t take any time for himself. How many of us can relate? How many of us, are working full-time, taking care of kids, and organizing our family, and baking 272 chocolate chips cookies for teacher appreciation day, oh wait, that might just be me! How many of us are so busy and so overscheduled that we don’t take “Me Time.”

What are the consequences? We’re stressed out, maxed out, we have no bandwidth. One time, my husband planned a romantic weekend getaway, with a spa package, in my absolute favorite place, June Lake, CA, and I was in such a state of stress and overwhelm, I made him cancel. That time of taking a few days off, over a weekend mind you, would have been so restorative, but I couldn’t do it at the time.

Creating time for self-care – particularly in a busy crazy schedule, is essential.

#1 – Create a Morning Ritual

First thing, when you wake up, before you get out of bed, in that quiet, easy, space of time, I want you start loving on yourself. I want you to say to yourself, WOW, I AM AMAZING, I am wonderful at my job, I’m a great mom, my dog loves me so much! As many compliments as you can think of. When we wake up in the morning, we tend to start to plan out the day, and anticipate our challenges, and worry about how everything will go, and frankly, while we’re laying in bed, we can’t do our work effectively, or solve any problem effectively, so instead, lay there and tell yourself wonderful, nice, kind, thoughtful, things. Think yourself a LOVE LETTER for as long as you can before you get out of bed.

But wait, you wake up to an alarm, and dive right into the craziness of your day, you DO NOT have time to lounge around in bed thinking nice thoughts about yourself, I get it, I hear you. If that’s you, do this exercise while you’re getting ready, while you’re showering, blow drying your hair, putting on your make-up and while you’re in the car commuting. Spend that time loving on yourself.

You’re not taking any extra time away from anything, you’re just going to dedicate some of that mental energy to self-love, self-kindness and saying nice things to yourself. You don’t have to tell anyone, you don’t have to do it out loud, just take a portion of your thoughts and consciously think nice thoughts about yourself.

Let me tell you about Mark Wahlberg, I’ve heard him say in interviews, that the first hour of his day is spent in what he calls “Prayer Time.” It’s the first thing he does, before anything else happens in his life, an hour in prayer. He gets up at 4:00am to do this. This is how important his morning ritual is to him. I think it’s brilliant.

If you’re still waking up with an alarm, it means that you’re probably not going to bed early enough. Very simple strategy here, and it’s free. Get a good night’s sleep and wake up early and love on yourself to start each day. The benefits will blow your mind, it will change your life.

#2 – Take a Class in Hobby or Interest

The next way to incorporate self-care into your life is by taking a class in a hobby or something you’re interested in. I’m a lifetime learner, if I want to learn something, I take a class in it. I took Drawing 101 at the local college, and it changed my life, it was the single best thing I’ve ever done for myself. I’m actually writing an episode based on that specific class I took and how much it changed my life.

Scheduling the class into my busy schedule was no easy task, the class was every Thursday afternoon for 3 hours, plus homework. I had to really alter my schedule to take a Thursday afternoon off, but it was so worth it. When I wanted to learn how to knit, I went to our local yarn shop, and hired a lady to give me and my mom private lessons. I had so much fun with my mom and learned how to do something new.

If you can’t take time off work or your schedule, or your budget, isn’t able to allow this, then simply go on YouTube and search for whatever you’re interested in learning more about. You can literally learn about anything. We went to Disneyland a couple of weeks ago with our granddaughter, and bought her a toy book, that we could not figure out how to open, we went on YouTube and in 10 seconds, found a video of a woman opening the book toy. Everything is available on YouTube, everything I’ve learned about watercolor, acrylics, oils, all from watching videos on YouTube.

The key here is to schedule it in and dedicate time to it. Move everything else around it, make this a two-to-three-hour commitment per week, preferably during the work week, and make it a firm commitment. This will become a time for you that you look forward to, that you think about, that you get excited about. I promise you will not be disappointed.

I’d love to hear in the comments, what type of class you’ve decided to take, so we can inspire and encourage each other.

#3 – Develop a Sunday Mindset

There’s something about Sunday’s that are different for me than any other day of the week. Sundays are that special day of the week, that I don’t really schedule anything. I simply move through the day putting my attention on whatever pleases me. I do a lot of art, I’ll clean, I sometimes work, it’s a day where I don’t have any pressure on myself to do anything specific. As a result, I really enjoy how I feel and how I show up for myself on Sunday’s.

Unlike say on Wednesday where the optimism of what I could accomplish this week has disappeared and I feel like I’m desperate to at least get some tasks accomplished by a rapidly approaching Friday.

I’ve begun to be conscious of the way I am on Sunday, which is relaxed and easy going, compared to how I am in the middle of the work week, which can be hectic and scattered. Have you ever gone into your email to send a message, get sidetracked by responding to several new emails, and forget to send the original email that prompted you to go to your email to begin with? I do it all the time, and that’s my trigger to know that I’m out of balance.

The easiest and first thing we can do is go for a short walk. Get up, and walk for 5 to 10 minutes, it really doesn’t take much. Walk until you start to notice your surroundings. Another thing you can do is sit and have a cup of tea, just sit quietly, and enjoy the simple pleasure of a nice cuppa. You don’t want to be thinking about work, or whatever situation in your life is making you stressed, and you don’t really need to try to meditate here, although meditation is great, you’re really just trying to soften your thoughts, get back into your body, get back into the present moment. Focus on feeling centered, feeling grounded, and this only had to take 5 to 10 minutes.

Develop that Sunday Mindset, think of something funny, think of things you’re grateful for. Tell yourself how amazing you are, and just BE. Just have awareness around those elevated levels of urgency to act, and realize, that having a little patience here, will go a long way towards actually getting things done faster.

Quick Review

Today we covered three ways to build time into a busy schedule for self-care, we talked about creating a morning ritual, we talked about taking a class in a hobby or area of interest, and we talked about creating a Sunday Mindset which is all about feeling in balance. We’ve put together a free guide called, “3 Ways to Build Time for Self-Care into a Busy Schedule,” that you can download that will help you create your own personal plan for self-care.

Taking care of yourself and being in balance yourself, is the single greatest gift you can give to yourself, and to all the people in your life that are counting on you.

If you’re looking for more support on your journey and want to join a lovely and engaged community of like-minded people, please head over to our website at ShineFirstToday.com, and check out our resources to help guide you. I’m sending you light and love and I hope you have an amazing day.