Doctor C J's Blog

5 Ways to Balance Practicing Personal Self Care with a Busy Caregiving Life

Caregiving changes everything including how you care for yourself! One of the most difficult challenges a lot of women face with self-care, is finding the time to fit it in. When you live a busy caregiving lifestyle, it can seem almost impossible to find extra time to look after you.

So, how can you balance practicing ‘guilt-free’ self-care with a busy lifestyle? Let’s explore, below are some great tips you can follow.

1. Schedule it in

A good tip you can follow to ensure you can fit self-care into your busy routine, is to schedule it in. Think about it, you schedule in everything else, so why not self-care? When you set a time to focus on yourself, you are much more likely to stick to it. No matter how busy you think you are, there will always be time for guilt-free self-care somewhere in your schedule. Remember “no time” is no excuse because self-care is not an option.

Be number one on your schedule – it’s your time

2. Establish a morning routine

If you are struggling to find the best time of day to practice self-care, you might find it easier in the morning right after you get up, before the day’s distractions can overtake your day. If you’re a busy parent, you might disagree here but think about it. In the morning, you could get up just 30 minutes earlier, or 15 minutes if you want. This can be the perfect opportunity to practice self-care. Make it as automatic as brewing coffee or tea.

Alternatively, if you are a caregiver you could focus on self-care in the evenings when the others have gone to bed. It doesn’t take long to practice self-care so you should always be able to squeeze it in somewhere. You are worth the squeeze.

You are worth the squeeze, unapologetically

3. Look at automating daily tasks

There are all kinds of tools and gadgets that can automate various aspects of our lives. If you are constantly busy, you’ll find automating certain tasks can be a game changer. Delegate what you hate. There’s an app for almost everything these days.

For example, you could switch from going to the grocery store, to ordering groceries online for curbside pick-up at the store or delivered to your home. If you have items, you frequently purchase, these can be added to your favorites list, making it easier to add them to your order next time. Doing your grocery shopping online can free up a lot of free time during the week that can be used on you. This helped me so much during the COVID 19 pandemic; I didn’t have take time to pick out an outfit, put on make-up, or walk through the aisles.

Let others help you

4. Start small

You don’t have to start by completely overhauling your lifestyle. Instead, you can start small with self-care. Begin by taking just 10 minutes out of each day to focus on your favorite self-care activity. Focus on developing one positive self-care habit at a time. Once you have mastered one, you can move on to the next activity.

By starting small, it’s easier to fit self-care into your busy life. Many people mistakenly think they need to begin with at least 30 minutes a day. But the truth is, however, much time you can free up for self-care is right for you. Once you get started with a routine and it becomes an enjoyable habit, you’ll find it easier to keep up the routine. You will begin to notice a more relaxed energetic you.

I know, balancing and practicing ‘guilt-free’ self-care with a busy caregiving lifestyle isn’t easy. No one said it would be easy – but indeed worth it for you and your loved ones.

Start one step, one habit, or one routine at a time. NOW!

5. Just do it for you!

Sometimes you just have to do You. Yes, do what’s best for you not what’s best for everyone else but you. It’s not selfish to do self-first because you cannot give what you do not have. If you don’t have energy how are you going to take care of others effectively? No matter how busy you are find ways to carve out time, space, and energy to take care of you spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically, and financially.

You got this gurrlfriend go for it!