20 Gentle Ways To Take Care Of Yourself

Sometimes we expect too much of ourselves. Especially in this day and age where everything seems to be based around how successful we can be. It's important to take time for ourselves and to know our individual limits so we don't become overwhelmed, stressed out, anxious or depressed. And if you are already feeling the pressure of any of these, it is even more important to focus on your well being. Here are 20 easy and gentle ways that you can take care of yourself.

Accept yourself for who you are

The most important thing you can do for yourself is learn to know who you are, be proud of who you are, and love yourself. Don't be too hard on yourself, know you'll make mistakes and accept that you are only human. It's important to trust your instincts and know there's nothing wrong with you, you're perfect the way you are and you're doing the best you can and that is always enough.

Say no to things that aren't important to you

Having too much on your plate at once is overwhelming because you feel burdened to keep up with everything, and when you don't, it only drags you down. Give yourself permission to focus only on what's important and walk away from those unnecessary responsibilities that you've overcrowded your life with.

Write a gratitude journal

Write a few sentences a day of what you're grateful for at this time in your life. Doing this will allow you to focus on the positives each day and to really appreciate the little things. It's also a great tool to have to look back on when you're having a bad day and need a little extra inspiration or motivation.

Get enough sleep

Getting enough sleep is one of the most fundamental rules of self care. Our bodies need rest in order to recharge and replenish. Our minds need to rest in order to stay healthy and fresh. We often think that pushing ourselves to stay up later and finish one more task will help us feel less stressed and maybe it will in the short term, but in the long run, you're just pushing your body to over exertion. An adequate amount of sleep is really what will help you de-stress.

Eat healthy / Take vitamins

Eating healthy and nutritious meals may seem harder and more time consuming than ordering takeout, but it doesn't have to be. There's lots of recipes out there for quick meals and you can even spend a few hours one day making enough meals to get you through the week so you don't have that extra stress weighing on you every day. Getting enough nutrients will give you more energy, make your body feel better, and improve your mood. It's also important to take a multivitamin every day! It takes no time at all and it'll help your mind and body stay healthy (even when you opt for the processed, unhealthy meals).

Keep in touch with a few close friends

You don't need to stay in touch with everyone you know. People understand that life gets busy and socializing can sometimes take a back burner to other things. But it's important to keep in touch with the people you're closest too as they are what make you happy, they are what inspire you. Just the odd text message or phone call or coffee date every few days will help keep your spirits up.

Write positive thoughts or affirmations when you're calm to help you through the tough times

When you're in the middle of an anxiety attack or a dark moment you're not thinking straight and it's hard to remember all the positive things you have going for you in your life. So when you're feeling calm, take some time to write down what you want to remind yourself of during your difficult times. Write down why you're so amazing, a pep-talk to yourself, some ideas of what might help you feel better, any positive thoughts that will help you get through those tough moments in your life.

Walk wherever you can

It might seem more time consuming, but it's way more beneficial to walk instead of drive or take public transit! Not only does walking ensure you're getting exercise everyday, it also gets you outside, giving your body that well-needed fresh air and sunlight. All of this will release those feel-good endorphins inside you, making you feel happier, more energized and more focused.

Ask for help / Have a support group

Sometimes it's a hard lesson to learn, but the sooner you learn it, the more relieved you'll feel - there's absolutely no shame in asking for help! Don't underestimate the people in your life, chances are they want to be there for you, they want to help you. Even having someone else perform simple tasks like doing the dishes, cooking dinner, or doing the laundry can go a long way to reducing the extra stress that has being weighing you down. Your friends, family, and partner only want the best for you, they're on your team! If you need moral support, if you need help with everyday tasks, just ask! 

Don't stifle your emotions

I know it's easier said than done, but one of the worst things you can do is bottle your emotions up inside you. Yell, scream, cry, punch your pillow, whatever you need to do, just let it all out. I promise you'll feel better. 

Don't make any major decisions

Our minds work in mysterious ways. Often when we're feeling depressed or anxious we make rash decisions that seem like the best option at the time, only to end up questioning or regretting our decisions later when we've calmed down. It can take some self control, but save all your major decision making for when you've calmed down and can think clearer, especially if your decisions affect other people and not just yourself. 

Make time for rest

I mentioned the importance of sleep, but it's also important to just rest. Allow time each day for you to just be calm - don't think about work, don't think about the chores building up, don't busy your mind with watching TV shows, scanning the internet or reading a book, give yourself time to just be. 5 minutes of pure rest, actually doing nothing, will do a lot more for you than 20 minutes of scrolling through Facebook.

Be okay with a little mess

A little mess never hurt anyone. When you're feeling overwhelmed in life it's easy to let things like doing the dishes and keeping the house tidy go by the way side but that's okay, nothing's wrong with that. Don't feel bad about it, you can clean up at any time, but for now, just let it be and instead focus on the things that are important. 

Break up your chores or habits into smaller tasks and just do one each day

A long list of things to do is overwhelming and stressful and can really dampen your mood when you can't get everything done. Your life is meant to be lived and enjoyed, you shouldn't feel like you're constantly trying to keep up. Try breaking your routines up into smaller chunks - wash your hair one day, shave your legs the next day, sweep the floor one day, clean out the fridge the next day. By doing this you'll be able to stay on top of everything more easily, and you'll feel more accomplished when you cross off your chore for the day and know that now you have time for yourself.

Get sunlight

One of the best things you can do for yourself is go outside and fill your mind, body and soul with some natural light. Sunlight is proven to increase your mood and if you spend a lot of time indoors under artificial lights than it's even more important that you get that daily dose of sunlight.

Do some easy exercise like yoga

Not every likes yoga, and that's okay, but some light stretching or walking or other exercise you enjoy can go a long way to improving your mood. Exercise releases endorphins in your body so your mind automatically feels a little happier, a little clearer, and a little more focused.

Create routines to keep you on track and make things easier 

When we're going through a rough patch the simplest tasks can become extremely difficult to accomplish. Creating some routines will help you get through those tougher times. Try spending one afternoon making all your meals for the week, forgo wearing makeup or do your hair in the same simple way each day so you can focus on other things, set out all your outfits for the week so when you wake up you can just get up and go without worrying about what to wear. Little routines like this go a long way to getting rid of those little daily stressors that weigh you down.

Take a hot bath with aroma therapy scents or candles

A hot bath is one of the most relaxing things you can do. Use some calming bath salts and light your favourite candles and allow yourself to indulge in some well needed 'you' time.

Take the weekends off

It's important to make time for yourself. We've become too focused on work and money and being the best that we forget to just live, to just be us. Allow yourself that important time to just do what you want to do. No matter what you do during the week, allow yourself those two days on the weekend to have fun, recharge and just do you.

Drink tea, not coffee

I'm not just saying this because I'm addicted to tea, I promise. But caffeine dehydrates you and the effects of it only last so long, meaning eventually it'll cause you to become tired again, and too much can make you jittery and anxious. Tea is a comforting drink and as mentioned in one of my other posts, it actually has natural properties in it that help decrease your anxiety.

How Drinking Tea Can Help You Feel Less Anxious

Anybody who knows me knows that I have a healthy obsession with tea. I love all kinds of tea and I can usually be seen drinking it at any time throughout the day. Not only do I love the flavour and aroma, but I'm also always cold so having a cup of tea does wonders to warm me up from the inside out - ultimately making me feel more alert and alive.

But I also love tea because of the sense of calmness it instills in me. I've always associated coffee as a beverage that people enjoy on the go, but having a good cup of tea requires you to slow down and have a break from your busy schedule. Because of this, I've always seen drinking tea as a way for me to relax, unwind, and calm down.

As it turns out, tea actually has properties within it, an amino acid called L-Theanine, that help you with this very process. So if you're interested in a bit of scientific research on how drinking tea can help you with your stress and anxiety, read the article below. (The original article is from Onomea Tea Company. 

Self Medicating Anxiety with Tea? by John Lee 

Reducing Anxiety with Theanine 

Making the case for a cup of tea…an amino acid in tea may be just what you need to feel less anxious. 

Whether taken as a supplement or in cups of tea, l-theanine is safe and helps many people reduce stress and anxiety. Research shows that l-theanine induces alert/relaxed thinking states, reduces your fight-or flight response to stressful events and helps protect the mind from stress-linked thinking and memory deficits. 

What Is L-Theanine? 

L-theanine, or theanine, is a water soluble amino acid that’s found in tea leaves; it’s also available at higher concentrations as a dietary supplement (one dose equaling roughly 10 cups of tea). When you drink tea, l-theanine passes through the blood-brain barrier and affects the brain directly. L-theanine shares a very similar chemical structure to the neurotransmitter glutamate – which is a transmitter involved in learning and memory. Consuming theanine increases the production of GABA and dopamine. 

How Does It Induce Relaxation? 

One way it promotes relaxation is by reducing sympathetic nervous system activation in stressful situations. When stressed, your body goes into fight or flight mode – heart rate and blood pressure spike, respiration grows shallower and more rapid, pupils dilate and perspiration increases; your body gets ready to fight a threat or flee the scene! Chronic sympathetic nervous system over-activation is unpleasant (you feel stressed out!) and can lead to serious health problems, like cardiovascular disease or dementia. 

But theanine can help: Studies show that people who take theanine prior to stressful situations have a decreased sympathetic nervous system response to that stress. 

What Other Benefits Does It Have? 

Theanine has neuroprotective effects – it protects the brain from excess glutamate toxicity. 

It is an antioxidant and it inhibits lipid peroxidation. Both black and green teas have strong antioxidant properties. It works as a cancer fighter and anti-tumor agent. Theanine can increase the effectiveness of some chemotherapy agents. 

Side Effects or Long-Term Health Concerns? 

L-theanine is very well tolerated. People have been drinking green and black tea for a very long time without experiencing health problems. In rare cases, drinking too much tea can lead to digestive upset or nausea. Animal model studies show that even at very high doses, sustained ingestion of theanine causes no significant adverse effects. 

*However, a typical cup of coffee contains between 2 and 3 times as much caffeine as an equivalent amount of black tea. If you’re already a coffee drinker, swapping out a cup or two per day for a few cups of brewed tea shouldn’t cause any noticeable differences. 

How Much L-Theanine in a Cup of Tea? 

Researchers at the University of Bristol experimented to find out how much l-theanine you’d find in a cup of normally brewed commercial tea. They found that longer brewing times led to higher quantities of the amino acid, but on average: 

A typical 200 ml cup of brewed black tea contained 24.2 mg of l-theanine (+ or – 5.7 mg). 

A typical cup of brewed green tea contained 7.9 mg (+ or – 3.8 mg)

L-theanine supplements are typically sold as 200 mg doses, so if you drink 8 cups of black tea per day – or many more cups of green tea – you’ll get the same quantity of the amino acid as you’d get by taking a supplement. 

If you want to get very serious about extracting the maximum quantity of l-theanine from each pot of tea, then follow the advice of researchers from The University of Newcastle in Australia, who tested various extraction methods to see which yielded the best results. They say, to get the highest possible amount of L-theanine: 

Steep tea at 80 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes

Use a water to tea ratio of 20 ml per 1 gram

Steep tea that is between 0.5 and 1 mm in particle size. (Crush the dry tea leaves if larger to get the most theanine out of the leaves). 

Research Supporting L-Theanine for Relaxation

Theanine vs. Xanax? 

Researchers in Australia compared 200 mg of theanine to 1 mg of Xanax. Subjects were given either theanine, Xanax or a placebo during either a resting task (baseline) or a task that provoked anxiety.

Theanine worked better than Xanax to induce relaxation during the resting task, though neither theanine nor Xanax had any significant effects during the anxiety task. 

L-theanine supplements are typically sold as 200 mg doses – or 8 to 10 times as much as you’d get from a typical cup of brewed black tea. So would you experience any relaxation effect after drinking just a couple of cups of tea? 

To find out, researchers in the Netherlands took EEG measurements of healthy study subjects from 45 minutes to 105 minutes after ingesting 50 mg of l-theanine (approximately 2 cups worth). 

They found that even at this moderate dose, compared to subjects given a placebo, those given l-theanine displayed significantly more alpha brain wave activity. 

Alpha waves signify an alert but relaxed brain. 

Theanine to Protect Against Stress-Linked Memory Problems 

Chronic elevated stress can harm your memory. The theanine in tea may protect your brain from this negative consequence. Some very recent animal model research (June 2013) shows that theanine protects the brain against stress-caused memory impairments – probably by defending against the toxic impact of stress hormones. 

A group of rats were divided into two experimental conditions. One group received three weeks of pre-treatment with theanine and the other group did not. After three weeks, all rats were put under severe stress. Control rats experienced stress-caused visual memory impairments but rats pretreated with theanine did not. Rats pretreated with theanine had a much smaller corticosterone level increase than control rats, which likely explains the differing results on the memory tests. 

Theanine to Block Stress-Related Blood Pressure Spikes 

Some people experience more significant blood pressure increases during periods of high stress.Researchers in Japan ran an experiment to see what effect theanine had on stress-related blood pressure increases. 

Study subjects were given a placebo or 200 mg of theanine and then tested on mental and physical performance under different conditions: at rest, under psychological stress and under physiological stress.

Compared to placebo, theanine lowered blood pressure increases associated with stress situations.This effect was greatest for subjects who experienced the greatest change from resting blood pressure to stress-situation blood pressure during placebo trials.