Caring for yourself means more than purchasing face masks at the store and sharing a bottle of “pink wine” with your friends while watching movies. Those activities may help for a couple hours, and your skin may be “glowing” the next day—but keeping a glow inside you, and having a high you don’t have to chase, tops all meaningless nothings.
Everyone needs a little push when it comes to putting herself first. With the stress of classes, maintaining a social life, work, etc., it can be easy to forget to check in with yourself to see how you’re doing. It’s the tiny steps that make a difference when going about becoming a better you.
Try This…
Get Up Earlier.
People like to sleep in, and that’s okay occasionally. However, getting up a little earlier each day will give you more time in your day. It gives you extra time to plan out your day, relax, and a chance to make your day a good one.
Eat a Healthy Breakfast
It can be difficult to build up an appetite in the morning but grabbing a snack and some water on your way out gives your body a chance to refuel for the day ahead.
Pushing things off for an extra day of relaxation causes chaos in the end. Think about how much better you could have made your assignment, or how much easier studying for a test could have been if you’d eliminated procrastination. Splitting up studying chunks and working on something consistently helps make information stick. When you don’t put off responsibilities, you not only gain a better understanding of the content, but it also helps you not charge seven lattes to your card (all because you wanted to “cram”).
Have The Power to Say No
There’s always something going on in a college town, and sometimes the fear of missing out gets in the way of unwinding. Even though it sucks to miss a party or an event, learn how to give yourself a break. You don’t always have to please people with your company if you just want some time for yourself. Everyone knows it’ll be the same story next week, just a different bar or a different house. So just unwind and have some you time, because you’re not missing out on much.
Cut Them Off…But Still Let People In
At some point we all must get rid of old baggage that stops us from being the best we can be. Think about it: How many times have we let someone ruin our happiness just because we’ve been friends with them for some time? It hurts to let the people go who we’ve gone through stuff with. I’ve had my fair share of letting people get away with entirely too much. As I’m growing up, I’ve noticed people start to change because they are trying to be responsible for themselves, and I have done the same. Sometimes people’s new life-paths don’t match your own anymore, and that’s not always a bad thing. Although, I would prefer to hangout with the same crowd out of fear of new rejection, I have to let myself grow, and you do too. To be successful it’s important to be respectful of others, but it’s also important to surround yourself with those who bring you up. At this point in my life, I no longer associate with those who aren’t focused on achieving their goals, or who aren’t supportive of me taking a break form partying to get my priorities in check. It’s okay to separate from people, work on yourself, and to re-build friendships later. When it comes to letting people go, it’s vital to let people in who want the same thing as you—who are new but offer a different meaning to your life than a shallow friendship.
And The Most Important Rule: Don’t Let Yourself Exist Just for Others, Make it Count for You.
