Looking after yourself better

Ask yourself this, and answer honestly. How well do you really look after yourself? Take as long as you need to really think hard about this because honestly in my view, this is one of the most important questions you will ever have to ask yourself at some point in your life. I do not just mean eating well or exercise (of course these are both good to look into.) but I feel it always goes a lot deeper than that, especially when you have experienced this for yourself or have be seen someone struggle with this. Remember to check up on friends and family as much as you can. Some signs of people not looking after themselves properly can be tough to notice.

So have you managed to answer the question? What was your answer? I have asked myself this question a number of times over the past 12 months and in reality this answer changes a lot for me. One way that I can explain this would be this. My therapist always says to me to treat myself like I am my own best friend. The way you treat your best friend or a family member, the way you would treat them, is that how you would treat yourself? If the answer is Yes then that is amazing! If the answer is no then I hope I can help you as much as I can. It is completely understandable for your answer to change on this, sometimes you may feel you really are looking after yourself and other times this can change. You should not be tough on yourself when this happens as this is just a big part of learning on how to maintain the self-care for you. I am still doing the same regarding myself. This can take time and there is no shame in that at all!

Right now for the really good part, let us talk about the things we can do to keep that Yes to a yes or from that nasty No to a Yes!

Exercise

Well we may as we get the simple one out of the way! Exercise, this is the best ways of looking after yourself for both your physical and mental health. If you know a form of exercise that you love doing then that is perfect as I know it is easier to keep that consistent. For me, football is a sport I couldn't love anymore even if I tried, I would happily play 7 days a week if I could, whereas going for a jog or a run is a little more changeling for me to actually go and do it. If you are not really a sporty person, it is good to try get into that mindset of even just going to a walk for a while, people forget that of course that is also a great form of exercise. The more you do it, the easier it becomes trust me!

Healthy Eating

The other obvious example I used earlier I may as well use for a split second! Eating healthy! I know like exercise this one can also be a bit of a hassle to keep up with and funny enough it is something I have been doing for a few weeks now with a my good friend Andy who has been helping me along the way. I am really feeling the benefits of this! At first it was tough and I become a little on edge as my diet had completely changed but now I have settled into it I can say it really is doing me the world of good. I am not saying you should or have to go on a mad health kick like this. It does not mean it will automatically make you super happy but I do think it is good to keep an eye on even if you do have a few more healthy meals during the week than you usually would. You can still treat yourself! I still have a takeaway every now and again which definitely puts an even bigger smile on my face!

Surround yourself around good people

Just because you are working on yourself does not mean that you should shut yourself away from people. The photo above is me with my best pals, Charlie, Jack, Rosh, Sam and Amir who I can honestly say have been there for me during the darkest points in my life. Making sure you keep people like this in your life will help you to get where you want to be. Good people in your life will want you to look after yourself, help you along the way and see you have success within your life. Do not settle for anything less than this. Opening up to friends can be difficult but don't forget the people that care about you will always want to help and this can be in many different ways. Positive people, positive mindset.

Treat yourself!

Yes, treat yourself! Treating yourself to even something little like your favorite takeaway or if you are feeling extra generous treating yourself to something even better like some clothes, a new phone literally anything! (I would treat myself to a Moncler jacket every week if I could but that is definitely not possible!) All joking aside, treating yourself does not have to mean spending loads of money, or even any money at all. I think it is always good to be realistic about what you treating yourself to as if this is done too much it can be easy to rely on this too much and that is dangerous, financially or just making yourself happy from always purchasing materialistic items or a holiday, that is not how life can be. These can of course make you happy but this is not a long term fix. Trust me I have been there. But like I said, you should definitely treat yourself every now and again, for sure!

Always tell yourself what you like about you

It is sadly so easy to tell yourself all the things that you don't like about yourself, I do the same a lot even to this day. Please do not be hard on yourself, as easy as it can be when your mind start to wonder and overthink. Think of this right now, What do you like about yourself? It could literally be anything, anything you want it to be. It could be that you are a kind and caring person, the way you look after family and friends, your dress sense, how hard you work at your job, it could be absolutely anything. Keep those positive thoughts somewhere for you to always see. Write them on your phone, on a piece of paper, just somewhere that when are you beating yourself up and have negative thoughts of you. Go back and read them. You are great and I want you to remember how much of an amazing person you are.

I hope looking after yourself is or does become an extremely high priority for you all if it isn't already. I'm sure we will come back to this one later down the line. For now, enjoy this lovely weather and smile for another blessed day. Stay safe!