Self Care For The Self-Sufficient | Homestead Wellness

Self care is a must, especially when you work so hard making a living and a home! Do yourself a favor learn how to take extra care of yourself while prepping for winter.

Self Care Tips For A Blissful Homestead

Autumn is here, and winter is definitely just around the corner! As the weather becomes colder our nutritional requirements, mood, and energy may naturally change with the season–some even suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), which is common when we’re cooped up indoors and not getting as much sun.

Luckily, we don’t have to snuggle up and hibernate just yet! Now is an awesome time to set new goals for self-care, start a new wellness routine, or patch up what you have been practicing. The holidays will be here before you know it, and focusing on self care now will help you stay on track and start your homestead’s new year on the right foot.

What Is Self Care?

Self care is a vital way of helping us boost our overall well-being. It is anything we do that helps us maintain mental, emotional, and physical health. This includes things like exercise, hobbies, relaxation methods – these are all examples of self-care endeavors. Self-care will help us feel relaxed, healthy, and ready for whatever life throws at us.

Why Is Self Care Important?

Self-care is essential for me within these months of autumn as I start to slow down and finish off what has been a busy year. If I’m not sane, strong, and healthy, how can I move through life productively and happily? How can I ensure everyone and everything in my homestead thrives?

Each of us can find many reasons why we should prioritize self care. And here are the main reasons why I give it some time even with all the prepping I have.

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1. It Helps Me Manage Health Problems

I find self care an effective way of managing mental or physical health problems. Every time something makes me feel tired, lonely, or depressed, I use self-care to acquire more energy to fight off an overwhelming feeling of restlessness. It also helps me keep my blood pressure in check. Self-care aids me in finishing my daily tasks as well as it gives me a little motivational push.

2. It Helps Me Rejuvenate

Just like many other people, I use self care to de-stress and unwind after a long day in my homestead. Giving myself a luxurious bath with my favorite homemade bath bombs and taking a nap during the day brings back wonderful childhood memories that lighten up my mood, and it gives me a second wind for the rest of my daily chores.

3. It Keeps Me Healthy

Physical exercise can be an excellent form of self-care — it burns off negative energy, it helps boost physical strength, and it breaks us up from things that stress us out.

However, self-care is not all about physical stuff. Giving some time to do something you really enjoy, like cooking, reading a book, or gardening is also an awesome way to separate our body and mind from the stressful things in our life.

That is why as early as now, I’m already starting my winter gardening and prepping my homestead for the challenges cold weather brings.

Self Care Strategies

Take some time or as little as ten minutes of your day to do at least one of these simple self care strategies for you and keep yourself sane in the coming cold winter months. I’ve been doing these for as long as I can remember, not only during autumn, but I find it much needed when the frigid cold months are fast approaching.

1. Create A Time For Self Care

Set a time every day to practice self care. Regardless of it being just a few minutes, or an hour or two. Have a date with yourself and accomplish something that helps you feel easy and relaxed.

2. Keep It Simple

Don’t get crazy when setting goals for yourself. It’s essential to consider your current schedule and responsibilities when you are creating new goals to achieve. Making reasonable goals and then adding from there is a more beneficial strategy in a long run.

Keeping a mindset of all or nothing does help me in setting reasonable and obtainable goals for myself and my homestead. I’ve learned from the experience of trial and error that I function well with more reasonable benchmarks, and this guarantees my practices are manageable and I am working at a level where I don’t get easily beat down.

3. Practice Deep Breathing

This is a no-brainer, right? That is the whole purpose of this practice. Stand, sit down, anything, and if you can close your eyes, do so. Breathe in for 3 or 4 seconds. Hold it for around 6 or 7. Then, breath out for 8. Repeat. This will help clear your mind, reduce stress and anxiety, and recharge your spirit.

4. Stretch

Don’t forget to stretch! You can do this anywhere and anytime. It’s taking a short break while you are at something. Simply raise your arms up and above your head and breathe. Incredibly simple and easy, but it will help you feel much better once you’re done.

5. Declutter Simple Things

Don’t overthink this! It can be anything (rusty nails, broken glass, random paper, etc.) sitting around giving you no joy and purpose, get rid of them. It doesn’t have to be a whole lot either, it can only be as little as a handful of clutter. It doesn’t have to require tons of thought behind it, it just needs to go.

6. Look For 5 Beautiful Things

Look around you. Find 5 beautiful things that can uplift your spirit. If you think you have plenty, don’t get overwhelmed because it will become tiring. Find the simplest! It could be the way the sun is peeking through your kitchen window, the way your child or grandchild’s smile lights up a room, or the way your pet begs for treats. Anything you can find beauty in, list them all.

7. Take Note Of Your Emotions Right Now

We have a tendency of letting our emotions take charge with our action. This is a bad idea and more often than not it will become a challenge. Yes, our emotions are part of us, but we don’t need to let them dictate and control our actions. When you are having a terrible day, acknowledge it, feel it, and let it go.

This must not be deeply involved. Relax, sit down, write down your current emotions, and let them go. You can have it in sentences or just one word, it doesn’t matter. What matters most, is you acknowledge and let them go.

8. Nourish With Seasonal Food

Autumn is one of my favorite seasons! My garden is overflowing with great produce and I know for sure the markets as well are packed with fresh and delicious vegetables and fruits. Dark leafy greens, squash, beets, apples, stews, and soups are all perfect places to get started.

Autumn is the best season to spend quality time in the kitchen cooking your favorite comfort food. It’s the best time to savor warmer meals prepared with love.

Make sure to set aside a couple hours each weekend to prepare some of your favorite food for the week. This is an incredible way to take care of yourself and align with the reward and the vitality of the season. You’ll have food to enjoy at your homestead for the whole week, or food to bring to work.

Looking for hearty #soup recipes to warm you up on #ChristmasEve? Check out our ideas on HOMESTEADING.COM (link in bio)! 😉

A post shared by Homesteading (@homesteadingusa) on Dec 22, 2016 at 3:15pm PST

9. Laugh And Find Joy

Laughter is the best medicine and a nourishment for the soul! It can transform any negative energy into a positive one. So, read a comic strip or watch a funny video. Find something that will make you genuinely laugh and go for it! At the end of the day, it is the little things that bring us true happiness, so focus on them.

10. Stay Connected With Yourself

As leaves start to fall from the trees, the plant’s energy goes back where it came from. Our lives reflect that feeling of establishing when we set aside an opportunity to connect to the innermost parts of ourselves.

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Spend a wonderful afternoon in nature, enjoy a cup of tea, or take a moment and reflect. There are numerous ways which we can connect with ourselves and consider what gives our life meaning. Autumn summons us to slow down and examine our hearts to find out where we need to go from here.

Want to know where to begin with your self care? Check out this helpful video from How to Adult:

Autumn is a beautiful season to give your self care strategy some evaluation and embrace the wonderful things autumn has to offer. It doesn’t have to be time-consuming and super complicated. And, there’s no better time than now to start acquiring the amazing benefits of self care and love. Happy Homesteading!

What are your self care strategies? Are you feeling ready for winter? Let us know what your thoughts are about these self care strategies in the comments section below.

Up Next: Winter Season | Finding Joy In Winter