Quick and Easy Ways to Restart Your Self-Care Routine

Let’s look at some quick and easy ways to restart your self-care routine.

Whether it has been a few days, weeks, or even months, you can restart your self-care routine at any time.

Today, we are going to look at ways to dust off a neglected self-care routine. As you revive your routine, you may also find ways to bring it back even better than before!

Start small. Your self-care routine was probably slowly neglected over time. It is ok to take time to build it back up. This will prevent burn out and also helps build consistency.

When Your Self-Care Routine Has Been Neglected

It is very easy to let a self-care routine take the back seat. At first, it may be giving up one or two self-care activities here and there. Then these tasks never restarted. Eventually you are feeling stressed or even burned out.

The first step is to notice when your self-care is low.

For a while, you may not have noticed your self-care was slipping. Self-care is often slowly pushed to the back burner. There may have been a change in routine, one too many meetings, a new caregiver, or the loss of a caregiver. Maybe your child was hospitalized or had increasingly aggressive behavior.

There are many reasons for self-care to start to lag.

Since you are reading this – you have taken the first important step to restoring your self-care routine.

The second step is to give yourself grace.

You are human. You are working through many challenges from busy schedules, to personal issues, to the many stressors of being a special needs parent. When you read about reducing the many Barriers to Self-Care for Special Needs Parents, it is easy to see the many ways your self-care routine may have started to suffer.

Restarting Your Self-Care Routine

Now that you have noticed the need to refocus on your self-care let’s start with rebuilding the basics. Then we will look at ways to add in special touches. Lastly, we will look at ways to prevent future lapses in self-care.

(Re)Start with the Basics

You may have noticed your self-care was lacking due to a recent illness, increased exhaustion, irritability, or general unhappiness.

Take time to look at your most basic self-care activities. I hear and understand the common complaint that mom’s taking a shower or other basic daily living activities is not “self-care.” However, even these most basic areas can become neglected. This can be especially true when special needs parents become overwhelmed by caregiving responsibilities, illness, a new diagnosis, or a number of other stressors.

Take a look at the basics. Again, give yourself grace as you notice areas that have become more neglected than you’d like.

Areas to Consider:

• Basic Hygiene – regular showers, brushing your teeth
• Basic Grooming – nails, hair, skin
• Sleep – consistent schedule of at least 8 hours a night
• Diet – eating throughout the day, hydration, well-rounded diet

Once you have highlighted a few areas that you would like to improve, here are some action steps you can take!

Action Steps

Action Step: Place your toothbrush and toothpaste in an obvious place. I like to keep mine near a pretty teacup. Before and after brushing your teeth you can drink a cup of water to also address hydration needs!

Action Step: Set a sleep alarm for the evening. If you set it a few minutes before you would like to be in bed, you will also create time to brush your teeth and put on some hand and body lotion. Bonus: Set a do not disturb time on your phone to start when your sleep alarm goes off so you are not interrupted while sleeping. You can set the do not disturb to end with your morning alarm.

Action Step: If consistent showers have become difficult, set an alarm designating shower time. If needed, this could be set 30 minutes or so before your sleep alarm. Pairing showers with one grooming task each day will help you catch back up in this area. For example, shower and then use a calming lotion one evening and then trim and file nails the next. Showering can become part of your wind down routine in the evenings and also benefit your sleep schedule.

Action Step: Have a travel water bottle to keep near throughout the day. When you start your morning routine, have a cup or two of water to get you started.

Action Step: Keep ready to eat fruit and vegetables out and visible. If you work or are spending time in the car, bring at least one fruit or vegetable with you.

Items to Help Your Restart Self-Care

Having easy to use items on hand can help prevent self-care from slipping. It is ok to get help from some dry shampoo or use convenient face wipes.

(Re)Add in Something Special

As you restore the basic areas discussed above, you can start to add in a few special items and self-care activities within these routines. By adding to an existing activity, you are more likely to remember and have the opportunity to do it.

You can also do double duty! For example, since you are already showering you can use a cleanser that addresses skin care and has aromatherapy benefits. Using an after shower lotion with aromatherapy addresses basic hygiene and grooming and can also calm and unwind you as you prepare for sleep or energize you if you are preparing for the day.

As you restart your self-care, frequency and consistency are more important than one large self-care experience. I enjoy massages and facials at the spa of course! However, for the purposes of restarting your self-care routine, make sure you are focusing on tasks that you can do consistently and often.

Some Simple Yet Special Self-Care Suggestions

Add in some aromatherapy!

Add in something pretty! Like a mug for your water and while rinsing after brushing your teeth.

Add in some affirmations! Boost your mood and emotional well-being while addressing basic tasks. Place a card or two on your bathroom mirror.

Prevent Future Self-Care Lapses

Review

Become aware of times in the past that have resulted in self-care lapses. Are holidays difficult? What about transition times like back to school or school breaks? If you know when you have had difficulties in the past, learn from them and make a plan.

Plan

Once you have figured out your self-care challenging times, you can plan ahead. Build in extra self-care time before, during, and after these moments. Just like you do back to school or holiday shopping, build in extra self-care during these or other difficult times.

Prepare for Surprises

Often special needs parents do not have advanced notice that stressful times are coming. Having some self-care ready to go in the event of a life-stressor is very helpful.

One great way to do this is to have Self-Care Kits on hand at home and in the car. Read about how to make Self-Care Kits for Special Needs Parents.

Making Easy Upgrades to Basic Self-Care can also keep the momentum going.

Notice the Signs

What are your signs that self-care may be slipping? Often in behavior therapy, children are asked to identify signs that they are becoming angry. We also have signs that we are needing a little more TLC.

Some examples may be, increased fatigue or reliance on caffeine. Trouble sleeping or irritability as signs I notice when I have low self-care levels.

These signs can help you tune-in to your needs and restart your self-care routine ASAP before the side-effects worsen.

Quick and Easy Ways to Restart Your Self-Care Routine: Summary

Today we looked at some basic areas that need to be addressed first when self-care has slipped. These areas included hygiene, grooming, sleep, and diet. Then we looked at a few ways to make self-care in these areas special as you focus on consistently and frequently attending to your self-care again. Lastly, we looked at preventative measures so that your self-care is less-likely to be put on the back burner in the future.

You may also be interested in ideas for Reducing Stress-Related Side Effects.

Ready to add more to your self-care routine? Try some special needs parent-friendly ideas from Fast and Free Self-Care Activities and How Special Needs Parents Can Add Rest to Their Day.

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