how to create a self-care menu ☁️ 📝
(Also, a literal FISH fell from the sky. I'm not kidding.)
Let’s cut to the chase—
This past month has been a bit of a whirlwind for me.
It's hard to put into words, but your girl Kate has just been in a FUNK.
While life has always (and will always) throw the occasional curveball, this month has felt like one small “are you kidding me” moment stacked up one after another. A sick household, a teething babe, hormones from weaning, car troubles, technology glitches, losing work that I’d spend hours on, etc. etc. etc.
Just a lot of random small things compiling all at once.
(At one point, I shook my head and said “When it rains, it pours” unironically like a wise old man, ha).
story time—
Speaking of rain, I mentioned there’s been countless small, ridiculous “are you kidding me?” moments over the last month, but one takes the cake.
Picture this: I was already having a semi-chaotic morning, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, had just spilled my coffee (of course), and I hear a giant screech followed by a HUGE thud hitting my house.
I was genuinely scared.
I rushed outside to find a FRESH (and, um, mangled) SALMON fish splattered on my house. I kid you not. Looking up to the treetop, I deducted that my friendly neighborhood eagle had accidentally dropped its Lake Superior catch of the day. on my home. guts and all. HAHAHAH.
(To be honest, this was very cool and made me laugh out loud at how ridiculous life can be. Like, I'm already having a bad, chaotic, coffee-spilling morning, and a giant FISH just fell from the sky? Got it. Cool, cool.)
So, to sum it up— it’s just been one of those stretches of time where everything feels a bit harder than normal, you know?
And that’s life— the push. the pull. the ebb. the flow.
So, today’s post is inspired by those bad days, the tough weeks, the fish-falling-from-the-sky moments, and the “in a funk” times. We all have ‘em. They're sure not fun. But we CAN get through them. And a strategic approach to self-care can help get us there.
In this post, we will work together to create a TANGIBLE self-care “toolkit” that you can reference during life's ups and downs and the in-betweens.
Cheers to riding the waves (and taking care of ourselves through it all). Let’s do this!
how to create a self-care menu:
First thing to recognize— there is rarely a “perfect” time for self-care.
That's EXACTLY why we're making a choose-your-adventure menu for 0, 5, 15, and 30+ minutes options for self-care so that you can find an option no matter what time constraint you are under.
Because let’s face it— while self-care is often seen as a remedy for overwhelm, finding time can be a challenge.
We end up thinking “well that sounds nice, but who ACTUALLY has time for that???”
But I want debunk the myth that we don't have any time for it.
(Ahem, peek at your phone’s screen time to see what I mean ;) I promise you could borrow 10-20 minutes from that total per day to dedicate to purposeful self-care)
no matter how much time you have there is *something* you can do
The time *is* there —
But the reality is— it’s often not a big juicy hour-long chunk of uninterrupted free time (those can be so rare!), but moreso there’s a lot of 2-15 minute chunks that we can utilize to bring us back to a more peaceful version of ourselves.
So today, we are going assemble a list of things to do when we have 0 minutes (yes, really). 5 minutes. 15 minutes. and 25 minutes or more.
reduce decision fatigue—
I don’t know about you, but when I find an awkward chunk of free time (5 minutes in-between meetings, 15 minutes before Miles wakes up from his nap, etc.) I can get overwhelmed with all of the options for how to spend it…
and when that feeling strikes I often end up not doing anything at all.
The point of creating a “self-care menu” is to reduce the friction of how you want to spend your chunk of free time because you’ll have a concrete list of things that feel soul filling to *you*
It’s all about reducing the decision fatigue and making it EASY on ourselves to implement self-care— so the next time you have 20 minutes between meetings or 5 minutes in the car before school pick up you’ll have a clear list of things you can do to take care of YOU.
utilize both “types” of self-care —
When creating your menu, include “classic” self-care things that are for joy, peace, serenity, and treating yourself (skincare, journaling, meditating, etc.)
…but also add a few items that are a bit more practical.
Things that aren't the most ~relaxing~ to do, but they feel really good to do. For example: exercise, decluttering, accomplishing a task you’ve been putting off, etc.
For your self-care menu, I encourage you to have a blend of both the enjoyable and the adulting aspects of self-care so that you can pick and choose what “type” of self-care feels right in the moment.
grab your pen & paper
So, let’s jump in!
I encourage you to grab a piece of paper and a pen (or just the notes app on your phone!) and break down 5 categories sorted by time:
0 minutes,
2-5 minutes,
10-15 minutes,
20-30 minutes,
and 30+ minutes by heading.
Then brainstorm 5-10 different ideas of small things you could do within each timeframe to boost your mood and that really feels like self care to you. Start small and move up to longer chunks of time, and when we’re done you’ll have a fully completed self-care menu to reference going forward.
Below, I’ve started brainstorming a list of things to do in each time window, but again this is all about what feels like care to YOU.
If you like cooking, put making your favorite recipe on there. If you love journaling, write down some journal prompts. If you hate meditating, don’t put it on the list.
You get to decide what self care is, but here are some ideas to get you started:
0 minutes:
(Yup, that’s right. Self-care ideas that don’t necessarily add ANY time to your day! These are for the moments when you don’t really have extra minutes, but want to *reduce the stress * and *add self-care* to something you’re already doing— studying, cleaning the house, etc.)
Putting on a good playlist
Spraying a scent you love or diffusing essential oils
Take 3 deep breaths
Open the windows
Sip a cup of tea or beverage you enjoy
Do 5-10 neck circles
Adjust the lighting in your space
Repeat the positive affirmation “I can do this. I can do this. I can do this.”
Wear an outfit you love while doing the task
Lighting a candle