2020 Community Self-Care Check-in Challenge!

[BrendaBT]

As the New Year unfolds and we adjust back into our daily hectic routines it is important to remember to pause, take a break, and take care of ourselves as well. This year my biggest goal is to practice more self-care rituals. After all, beauty starts from within!

As a way to commit, hold each other accountable, and ultimately help each other take care of ourselves, we thought it would be fun to do a weekly self-care check-in, by choosing one ritual and reporting back weekly with our progress.

Now, I know most of us are busy people, but dedicating time for ourselves can be as simple and effective as:

1. A morning meditation, and/or nightly adaptogenic drink (may we suggest FOUR SIGMATIC - Golden Latte Mushroom Mix with Shiitake & Turmeric or FOUR SIGMATIC - Mushroom Hot Cacao Mix with Reishi )
2. Better sleep! Committing to getting a full night's sleep 1 night/week, and sticking to an earlier bedtime.
3. Waking up! Get up after that first alarm so you’re less rushed in the morning and have more time to mentally prepare for the day!
4. Be active - get to yoga 1/week or go for an early morning run before work.
5. Skincare - masking on a weekly basis, getting a facial, or remembering to remove your makeup every night!
6. “Me time!” Embrace the FOGO (fear of going out), read that book you've been wanting to pick up
7. Make healthier choices - adding more fruits and veggies to your meals.
8. YOU PICK! You know yourself better than we do, so if we missed something please share how *you* want to take care of yourself. Just don’t forget to check in with us! 😊

This thread will be a place to talk about your weekly self-care check-ins, share how you’re feeling about your progress, recommend/talk about products you’re using, and share your self-care tips and tricks.

Reply below to tell us which self-care ritual you’re committing to!

*EDIT 4/2:

Hello everyone, we hope you and your loved ones are staying safe! Given the times, we may just need this thread more than ever so we wanted to add in extra self-care goals now that many of us are spending more time at home or are going into the world helping others. Here are some additional ideas for taking care of yourself. We challenge you to try a few of these and share your wins on this thread!

1. Stick to your routine: Maybe it's putting on your favorite outfit instead of PJs or doing your makeup/hair in the morning! Snap an OOTD and share it here.
2. Staying active: This could be as easy as one 10-minute workout video each week or dusting off your yoga mat. Let’s see that at-home gym or virtual workout class!
3. Setting up your space: Are you reading, eating, sleeping, working out, and BIC-ing in the same spot? Try to establish devoted spaces for all of your activities.  
4. Stay social: Set up virtual face-time with your loved ones and maybe spend some extra time here in the BIC!
5. Spring Cleaning: Try reorganizing your home, bedroom, or simply going through your stuff to declutter your space. If you reorganize your beauty space we would love to see a before and after photo here!
6. Take on a new hobby or learn a new skill: Master that smokey eye you’ve always wanted to. Maybe even learn a new language or instrument!
7. Do your own nails - no nail salon? No problem. Let’s see that at-home mani once you’re done – no worries if it isn’t perfect.

What are you doing for self-care? We are open to all advice and want to congratulate you on your little wins!

[haleyvvvv]

The Lunar Chronicles are so good, @JaneanBT! I love YA scifi and fantasy!

[JaneanBT]

Hi @haleyvvvv ,

I am just now seeing this! Who is your fave? I love love love Winter and Jacin! Most people love Cress and Thorne! 

Best Wishes,

Janean

[haleyvvvv]

@JaneanBT I really like Scarlet! But they're all great!

[RebeccaBT]

@JaneanBT I love these ideas! I am going to try the stretching before bed. 

Best,
Rebecca

[WinglessOne]

@BrendaBT  Haha, I was going to say “I’ll commit to getting more sleep” but here I am at 6:30 AM CT, having not slept all night... 🤦‍♀️ 

Part of my problem is lack of exercise for the past, oh, year. I used to manage my insomnia by working out (mostly via bodyweight and kettlebells/dumbbells) at night, close to bedtime, as a way to slowly shut my brain down and relax. Not so much anymore. I blame bouts of illness and my angry knee, but those are just more indicators that I need to take better care of myself. When I’m physically sick, I have a bad habit of pushing my body beyond its limits—defying bed rest orders, going out to run errands when I should really stay indoors (especially in Chicago’s current weather) and coming home feeling physically miserable. Lack of sleep, abundant stress, and boundless anxiety add fun levels of misery to it all. It’s a terrible cycle I’ve fallen into, and it’s just making me physically and mentally sicker. 

So here’s what I can commit to: 

1. Follow doctors’ orders: bed rest means BED REST. Bed is good! The world won’t end simply because I’m in bed. There’s nothing wrong with taking the time I need to rest. 
2. Try a sleep supplement. I’ve had Rx sleep meds before and hated them for various reasons, which is why I keep refusing a new Rx now. But something like Olly Restful Sleep might work for me. 
3. Earlier bedtime. This won’t work without some kind of “okay brain, time to shut down a bit for bed” activity, but I can at least aim to be in bed by a more reasonable time than 4+ AM. 😄 
4. Fall asleep faster. I won’t try to force-extend my internal sleep clock anymore; even when I’ve been successful at this, it’s never lasted long. My internal clock is set at 4-6 hours. Usually 5 hours. Instead of trying to push it to 7-9 hours (whenever I manage to get that much sleep, I wake up super tired and end up dragging all day), I’ll commit to falling asleep faster. According to my Fitbit, I currently take at least a full hour to fall asleep, even if I’m not having a major bout of insomnia. I rarely fall asleep within 15 minutes, let alone 30 minutes. So I’ll aim for 30 minutes to start with. 
5. Start exercising again, to help myself fall asleep at night. If that means more doctor visits to fix whatever’s wrong with my knee, it’s time to work through all my anxiety around that and get it done. I miss cardio too much to continue not doing it, and my typical cardio routines require 2 capable knees. Though I should also start doing more upper body cardio. And my knee’s current state shouldn’t stop me from doing some of my weight training. I’ve developed such a mental block against exercise because I don’t trust my knee. I have to start proving to myself that I can still do things. 
6. Don’t mentally beat myself up if I fail at any of the previous 5 things once in a while. That’ll only trigger anxiety attacks, usually at night, while I’m in bed trying to sleep. “Failure” is just an opportunity to learn from what went wrong and Improve the next time. 

There are plenty of sensory things I can do to help me sleep but, honestly, most of my insomnia issues are “in my head” so to speak. I’m sure some other folks who have an anxiety disorder know what I mean. Still, I’ll also consider incorporating some sensory changes. There hasn’t been a clock in my bedroom in years; I don’t even keep my phone in there unless I need to set an alarm. I might start using a noise/sound app + mini bluetooth speaker, though. Hmm. 

[ClassicallyFab]

Awesome plan @WinglessOne ! There are some pretty fantastic things you can do to work on circadian rhythm. If you’re interested in improving sleep, I highly recommend checking out Ari Whitten’s work and recommendations! 💞🙌

[Nickelliebear1]

@WinglessOne Yes please, make sure you listen to the doctors!

My biggest sleep obstacles is shutting my brain off.  Lying in the dark is when I sit down and think of everything that I've ever done wrong in the past 4 years, what could go wrong, etcetc.  I've found that using the Mindspace app has helped zone me out a little bit, focusing on more of my breathing and less on whatever struggles I have.  I also need to have something in the background.  If my cat hears Zak Bagan from Ghost Adventures, she knows it's bedtime and we're in for a good snuggle.  Ocean noises don't do it for me, has to be a hunky paranormal investigator LOL. 

[WinglessOne]

@Nickelliebear1  Ugh, the nighttime mental playback of aaaallll the things I’ve done wrong, people I’ve hurt (whether or not I really did doesn’t matter; anxiety insists that I did), and probably impending disasters... I wish we had an easy OFF switch for that stuff. Good idea to use focused breathing exercises. I haven’t done that in a long time; I’ll restart that. I usually do some of that during weight exercises. Yet another reason to restart nighttime workouts. 

And I love the Zak Bagan bedtime alert for your cat! A friend of mine sleeps to the sound of jet engines: he always sleeps during flights, so that’s the sound he plays at bedtime. His border collie began to associate that sound with bedtime. One year he brought his dog to visit relatives who live near an airport, in the flight path. He says the first night there, his dog tried to herd him into the guest bedroom each time a plane flew over the house. 😄 

[haleyvvvv]

Oh, I feel you @WinglessOne in needing to have something to shut off my brain. I know its bad, because screens, but I have to have something on in the background that my brain can low key pay attention to while falling asleep. I hope you find something that can work for you and that your knee feels better!!

[JaneanBT]

Hi @WinglessOne ,

I feel you on the sleepless nights! I think exercise would help me a lot. Thanks for sharing your goals and commitments. Hopefully we can get lots of good sleep in 2020! 

Best Wishes,

Janean

[ElleElleG]

I need to commit to ALL of these!! The biggest one for me is getting adequate rest, going to try that one first 😴 

[haleyvvvv]

Good luck, @ElleElleG! Let us know any good tips for sleeping more!

[BrendaBT]

@ElleElleG That is my number one as well and to put my phone and other electronics away. I usually only get 4 to 5 hours of sleep but I am committing to get 7-8! 🙂 

[ElleElleG]

I’m still struggling @BrendaBT !  The only 5+ hours I get a night are on the weekend 🤦🏾‍♀️

[averylayne]

@BrendaBT I'm in the 4-5 hr club too, usually with 2 interruptions for night feeds 😴

[thetraveler23]

I love all of these!! And agree 100% 💁🏼‍♀️ I started daily morning and nightly ritual of cleansing, moisturizing, eye cream, Jade roll. Not only is my skin looking amazing I’m feeling and carrying myself taller 💕 I’m super excited to be part of this accountability self care community!! In a diction to my skin care, I would like to incorporate 10min meditation in the morning and 45-60min workouts 4x a week. I will practice yoga or barre 2x a week. Ideally I would also like to do 20min foam rolling at night before bed along with a 10 min meditation before bed. To accomplish this I would need a new wake up time of latest 5:30am preferably 5:00/5:15am. I would like to get back to a full Keto lifestyle; I derailed after thanks giving, I’m super excited to be a part of this accountability group 🙌🏼 Thank you!

[haleyvvvv]

Foam rolling is so nice after a hard workout or when you sleep wonky and a muscle is sore! Wonderful goals, @thetraveler23!

[PrettyPaint]

@thetraveler23  Have you done the foam rolling before? I have a roller, but I'm never sure if I'm doing it correctly! 🙂 

[ellem24]

My top 4 goals this year would be :

1. To start working out again. I find it really helps me with my mental health and seasonal depression and anxiety. I've already subscribed to the gym and went 3 times a week since the beginning of this year. I've been going in the morning to start my day. It really makes me feel like I'm doing more in my day and I find I have no energy left to go in the evening.

2. To slowly transition towards a pescatarian or vegetarian diet. I find it helps me a lot with my stomach issues. This goal will be the hardest because I was raised eating meat and consuming diary on a daily and it's quite challenging to change those habits. I've already started to cut back on red meat and bought plant-based milk. My goal is to eat vegetarian or plant-based at least one day a week and see how it goes from there.

3. Eventually transition to vegan and cruelty-free beauty only. So I'd like to empty some items.

4. I'd like to go to bed earlier to fit in my whole healthy journey. I would also like to cut back on watching tv before bedtime and start reading for pleasure again.

[ClassicallyFab]

Great list @ellem24.

Working out always makes a huge difference for me, too. 💕

Fruits and veggies def help our microbiome. The bacteria in our guts create fatty acids and other important byproducts from fiber, and the more varied our diet is, the more the flora in our guts thrive! Hope 2020 is the year your diet makes you feel great!

[ellem24]

Thank you very much @ClassicallyFab ! How interesting! It is my goal to diversify and try new recipes, hopefully my gut will go with it!!