This self care Sunday post has been created in partnership with WeDrifters and their gorgeous loungewear with anti-insect technology. There’s more info about WeDrifters at the end of the post plus a 20% discount code.
Self care is a real buzzword at the moment. It seems that for years we’ve all been taking care of our physical health but we’ve suddenly realised that taking care of our mental health is equally as important.
For a long time I actually avoided blogging about self care because I don’t like the way ‘self care’ is portrayed online. Everything I see on Instagram about self care is about lighting a candle, doing a gentle yoga class, having a bath, reading a book and having a pamper session.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love all of these things! But I don’t think of these things as self care, I see them as absolutely vital parts of our daily routines that should be as important as brushing our teeth.
I feel that making the act of having a bubble bath into ‘self care’ makes it seem indulgent and a special treat. It feels like something we should save for a special evening and it would be OTT to do this regularly. It seems almost selfish to have an hour to ourselves to relax and just focus on ourselves every single day. But why can’t this be an everyday occurrence?
Why can’t we go to bed early with a cup of tea, a bar of chocolate, a gorgeous candle and a good book every night? It doesn’t need to be reserved for the days where you’re exhausted and need a ‘self care Sunday’! Why not do this every night?
It wasn’t until I was interviewed by Elizabeth Dokhia for her podcast, The Good Life, that I realised that many aspects of self care were instinctive to me. I never feel selfish or lazy for putting myself first – particularly for an hour or two once the kids have gone to bed!
So this self care Sunday post isn’t going to suggest you go and run yourself a bath and put your feet up!
Self care Sunday is a very different concept for me and it’s all about doing the jobs that make sure I have plenty of time during the week to properly look after myself. I don’t want to spend my weekdays chasing my tail and not sitting down to relax until 10pm!
I want to go to a yoga class on a Monday and have a bubble bath on a Tuesday and have a romantic meal with Sam every night and read my book every single night of the week!
The definition of self care is ‘any action or behavior that helps a person avoid health problems’ and for me, this means spending one day getting myself organised so I have time for self care behaviours every single day. And that day for me is usually a Sunday.
Sunday is often seen as the day to relax, put your feet up, watch TV and have an afternoon snooze. Sunday is still a really relaxing day for me. I often spend most of the day in my PJs, drinking endless cups of tea and coffee and pottering around the house until all my jobs are done.
But once all of my self care Sunday jobs are done I feel so good and I know I’m going to have a great week. A Sunday well spent brings a week of content and all that…
So here are my self care Sunday jobs that make sure I have plenty of time to relax midweek.
Meal plan for the week and update online food shop
I try to have my online foodshop arrive on a Monday morning (and yes, I’m having to book it WEEKS in advance at the moment!) so Sunday is my last chance to update my shopping and order the food we actually need rather than just a bunch of random things I selected to secure my delivery slot!
Meal planning has been a massive game changer for me! I really enjoy cooking but I don’t like the never-ending pressure of deciding what our family will have for dinner. Trying to think of new ideas we’ll all enjoy makes me weirdly stressed. But now it’s something Sam and I will do together and I have a growing collection of gorgeous cookbooks I love going through for meal ideas!
How this helps with self care: Evenings are so much easier when our meals are planned. We never need to pop to the shop for extra ingredients and I’ll often prep dinner earlier in the day. Evenings are then stress-free and we eat earlier – leaving us all with more time to relax and unwind before bed.
Batch cook some lunches
I’m often at home at lunchtime (as I’m sure many of us are right now!) so I often think I’ll have plenty of time to prepare delicious lunches for myself but somehow I never do. If I didn’t batch cook some lunches then I’d end up eating cheese sandwiches and crisps every single day!
I usually batch cook things like soup, veggie pasta bake or 3-4 dishes for buddha bowls.
How this helps with self care: It means I eat a healthy lunch everyday and have more time to go for a midday walk or just relax.
Get all the laundry done and plan my outfits for the week
Sam is in charge of the washing in our house and it’s usually his job to put it through the washer and dryer – but then it’s my job to fold it and put it all away (which many would say is the hard bit!)
I prefer to let it all pile up and then spend an hour doing it all in one go so I do this on a Sunday.
I also like to plan my outfits for the week and hang up 6-7 outfits on my rail. I used to hang up ‘Monday’ ‘Tuesday’ outfits etc for each day but I’d often change my mind because of my mood or the weather so now I just hang up a selection. I actually don’t do this enough but my week is always so much better when I feel good in my clothes! When I wake up in the morning I usually just reach for something warm and cosy and spend my day in a baggy jumper and cosy jeans but it’s nice to have a proper outfit put together!
How this helps with self care: I don’t feel the need to spend my evenings doing the laundry as I know it’ll all get done on Sunday! Mornings are easier when my outfit is already planned and I generally feel better each day when I’m wearing an outfit that makes me feel good.
Tidy the house
OK, not always the most fun of the Sunday self care jobs but it feels so good when it’s done! I also think it’s a really good habit to get the kids into and they’ll help tidy up because, let’s face it, 90% of the mess is theirs!
How this helps with self care: I feel so much calmer when the house is tidy. And we have fewer things getting lost or misplaced when the house is tidy so that leads to fewer morning meltdowns when we can’t find shoes and hats and book bags!
Plan out my week – for work and personal and the kids
I like to create a really simple plan of what I’m doing each day. I used to overcomplicate this and try and plan out my day minute by minute! But now that I’m more relaxed about it I find it much more useful! It makes it easier to see which days are busy and which are quiet and helps me see what I need to plan in advance.
How this helps with self care: It generally makes me feel calm when I have a plan for the week but also stops me overcommitting or having lots of social plans on one day and nothing else for the whole week. It also means I have some kind of activity or job for everyday which I find really useful during these long lockdown days as it can be easy to go for days without really doing anything.
Make some fun plans for my free days
Another reason I like planning out my week is because it encourages me to make plans. If I can see I’ve got nothing on Thursday then I’ll ring round my friends and see who’s free and wants to join me doing something fun.
If I don’t plan ahead I often don’t do anything!
How this helps with self care: Social plans are SO important for our mental health. Many of us are in and out of local lockdowns right now so it isn’t as easy to see people so this is making it even more important for me to make plans that are within government guidelines (which basically means lots and lots of countryside walks!)
Clear my inbox + reply to messages
This will definitely be one for the self employed people! I like to do this on a Sunday partly because it’s nice to start the week on inbox 0 but mostly because no one replies on a Sunday evening! There’s nothing worse than ploughing through your inbox and getting as many replies as you’re sending so you don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere!
How this helps with self care: Honestly, clearing my inbox makes me feel so much calmer than any bubble bath ever could!
Have a big family walk, a Sunday roast and a movie
And finally, it’s not all about life admin and household jobs! In our family, Sundays are always for big walks and Sunday roasts.
It’s a lovely time to spend together as a family – but it also leads to a few afternoon naps on the sofa which then gives me some peace and quiet to get all these things done! I also do a really simple Sunday roast which involves a ‘cook in the bag chicken’ and a lot of frozen veggies! Sunday dinners don’t need to be complicated!
How this helps with self care: Exercise, outdoors, family time and a delicious dinner. Come on, what’s not to love about that!? I also think it’s really important to make big walks a normal part of the kid’s lives and something they continue to do when they’re older too.
WeDrifters
As I’m sure you’ve seen, I’m wearing my gorgeous WeDrifters loungewear in these pics and I just love them. I wear them to bed but I also wear them around the house during the day!
They were originally designed for travelling after the founder, Naudia Salmon, had the idea of insect repelling sleepwear while she was travelling in south east Asia.
Ahhhh Naudia, I feel you! I was eaten alive by mozzies while I was travelling in Asia and these PJs would have been a dream back then!
So Naudia created premium sleepwear made from soft bamboo and with anti-insect technology. It’s all unisex and comes with socks, feet stirrups and thumb holes to ensure you’re totally covered!
They’re the perfect travel PJ as they’d be just as good during a long haul flight as they would be during a mosquito infested adventure! But for now, I’m pretty happy wearing them around the house while I tick off everything on my Sunday self care list!
If you’d like a pair of WeDrifters PJs or you’d like to gift them to a loved one for Christmas, I have a 20% off code for you! Just use SCMONICA20 at the checkout to get 20% off.
