Best Self-Care Tips & Tools

Now more than ever, self-care and stress management are essential to our physical health, mental health, and overall well-being. That’s why we’ve refreshed our best self-care tips (originally published on our blog) to include new essentials for 2023 self-care. Now is the time to get the tools you need to prioritize your health and wellness so you can renew your energy, strength, and joy!

1. Use a prompted self-care journal.

Did you know that journaling can help reduce stress, increase mindfulness, and improve your mood? Guided journaling (or prompted journaling) is a great way to relax before bedtime for a better night's sleep. It's also an excellent way to jumpstart emotional self-care, mindfulness, and creativity, anytime, anywhere.

Try prompted journaling before you go to bed or the next time you start to feel overwhelmed or need a little “me time.” Top prompted journals for self-care include the Self Care Journal and the A5 Self Care Notebook.

2. Use habit-trackers for self-care and wellness goals.

To change your habits, it helps to understand them and how they’re triggered. Start by tracking your habits with habit-trackers, a dedicated wellness log, or wellness planner so you can turn your health and wellness goals into a reality.

These self-care tools help you not only understand habit patterns and triggers, but they also help pinpoint what’s working and what’s not, track your progress, log results, and set and achieve your wellness goals.

3. Boost your self-care and mood with daily gratitude.

Psychology Today reports that practicing gratitude can improve mindfulness, your mental and physical health, even your relationships.

Develop an attitude of gratitude and enjoy its stress-busting, health-boosting benefits using a gratitude journal or gratitude notebook. Both feature guided prompts, inspirational quotes, and reflection spreads that make it a healthy part of any self-care routine.

4. Reduce stress and increase self-care by planning on paper.

Reducing stress plays a big part in self-care. What if we told you that you can help reduce stress with just two things: pen and paper? You read that right! Planning on paper is one of the most effective stress management techniques. It feels good too!

Try using a paper planner, goal-setting journal, or even a notebook to plan out your day or week, and see how it can reduce stress while increasing your productivity, organization, and motivation!

Need help getting started? Check out How To Start Planning.

5. Prioritize self-care by scheduling “downtime” in your calendar.

Take the time you need to take care of yourself. In this busy climate, that’s way easier said than done. One way to ensure you get a little more time for yourself is to schedule it in your planner or calendar. That way, no matter how busy your day gets, you have time set aside to rest, reset, and recharge.

6. Reduce noise pollution in your home for a better self-care environment.

You may be surprised by how many times we alarm ourselves or fatigue our senses with all-day, intermittent alerts, notifications, timers, and more. This is especially important if you’re working from home or in a bustling environment. Consider choosing time windows to silence phone notifications, alarms, kitchen timers, and unnecessary sources of noise that can undermine your concentration, inner calm, and ambient peace. If you rely heavily on timers, try unplugging and using simple, tranquil timers like an hourglass instead.

7. Promote self-care with kindness.

Kindness is a powerful form of self-care. From helping others to showing yourself kindness, a little goes a long way (and can have immediate, mood-boosting benefits).

A simple, practical way to show kindness to yourself and others is to consider products that give back when you shop. That way, you get what you need while paying it forward (win, win)!

Discover more top self-care tools at erincondren.com — from wellness essentials to faith journals, LifePlanners, and so much more!