53 Simple Self Care Ideas to Prioritize Wellness in 2024
No matter how fast-paced or frenzied your life may get, engaging simple self care ideas can help you keep calm, stay centered and take care of yourself, even in the middle of the whirlwind!
The World Health Organization, or WHO, notes that self care ideas are important for improving the health of individuals, families and entire communities by offering empowerment over one’s own wellness practices. Self care activities provide a path to well-being anyone can travel, as long as they know the right steps to take.
With so much talk about the practice, you may have found yourself wondering at times, “What does daily self care look like?” It can be as simple as changing your patterns to include more thoughtful habits that help you feel and function better.
What are a few examples of self care? Glad you asked! We’ve assembled a list of our favorite simple self care ideas that will help you prioritize wellness easily and efficiently.
From deep breathing and eating more healthfully to taking play breaks and sharing meaningful moments with friends, you’ll find self care ideas to get you engaged.
Jump to Section
- What are the 8 Areas of Self Care?
- What Does Daily Self Care Look Like?
- Best Self Care Ideas for Physical Health
- Best Self Care Ideas for Exploring Your Creativity
- Best Self Care Ideas for Mental Health
- Simple Self Care Ideas at Home
- Best Tips for Building Daily Self Care Habits
What Are the 8 Areas of Self Care?
The 8 areas of self care are physical, emotional, psychological, professional, social, spiritual, environmental and financial.
These aspects of your daily life are interconnected, which means engaging self care ideas in a few areas can improve your overall outlook and provide a holistic sense of fulfillment.
You can use these categories as a guide for determining your self care goals and building on your progress.
What Does Daily Self Care Look Like?
Engaging in daily self care ideas can be as simple as introducing thoughtful practices into your daily habits to help you recenter and recalibrate. Even small activities can create notable shifts in your mindset and sense of well-being.
Once your self care ideas get rolling, it’s much easier to keep your regimen in motion. The self care ideas and activities on our list are a great place to start!
Best Self Care Ideas for Physical Health
1. Get Cooking
Not only is cooking a therapeutic self care idea you can practice daily, learning how to make dishes at home is a great way to improve your health.
With cooking classes in Houston, cooking classes in Seattle and cooking classes in Miami, there are expert-led courses from coast to coast to get you fired up for gourmet self care ideas with undeniable flavor. Check into cooking classes near you to find a course that works for you so you can start cooking those healthy high protein meals.
2. Go Gourmet Online
Creating and enjoying your own nourishing food is an excellent way to practice self care activities on a daily basis. But if you can’t make an in-person session, try online cooking classes for virtual self care ideas you can enjoy from almost anywhere.
Even if you’re new to cooking, you’ll advance your skills while learning to make incredible dishes.
3. Keep Healthy Snacks Handy
Temptation for indulgent treats abounds throughout the day, which is why having healthy snacks on hand is a must among your self care ideas.
A stash of nuts, dried fruit or veggie sticks kept within easy reach gives you access to more nutritious fare when hunger strikes, before sugar cravings take hold.
4. Breathe Deeply
Deep breathing with intention is much different from general breathing. It invites concentration and replenishes your oxygen stores to boost your focus and sense of well-being.
Even taking five conscious, belly-filling breaths a few times throughout the day is a self care idea that reaps great rewards.
5. Take a Walk
Even if counting your steps isn’t your thing, taking a walk of any length is a great self care idea to reset your mind and get your blood pumping.
A 10-minute stroll around the neighborhood can refresh your perspective and stimulate a gentle physical buzz when your energy is flagging. Bring a friend and double the rewards!
6. Seek Sunlight
Natural light helps stabilize your circadian rhythms, which can improve your sleep and increase levels of the happiness hormone serotonin.
Stepping outside to view sunlight is a nourishing practice, but even having a well-lit room provides a simple self care hack that can enhance your mood.
7. Try Aromatherapy
The scent of self care comes in the form of aromatherapy, a practice that uses fragrance to alter mood and well-being.
Having small bottles of essential oils lets you inhale pleasing smells like mint and citrus for an energizing lift, lavender to calm you down and rosemary to help you focus. Choose high-quality oils so self care tips and tricks are as effective as possible.
8. Jump Around
If you’re feeling a little sluggish but can’t hit your usual workout, jumping around wherever you are may be the next best thing.
Keep it joint-friendly by bouncing up and down on the balls of your feet without leaving the ground and swinging your arms from side to side. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how reinvigorated you feel!
9. Do Simple Meditation
Practical meditation as self care can be as simple as closing your eyes and listening to your heartbeat for a few minutes.
Even if you’ve never tried it before, meditating lets you turn your attention inward to recalibrate your natural rhythms whenever you need a reset. Any excuse to shut out the world for a moment is a self care win.
10. Take a Hike
Tie on your boots, find a trail and set out on a hike for a solid self care idea that combines nature with exercise. Whether you spend silent time listening to the world around you or queue up your favorite tunes or podcasts to enjoy along the way, the walk is bound to do you good.
11. Find Water
Water in all forms is a healing element that provides a litany of self care ideas you can engage on a daily basis.
Take a soothing shower or fill up a bath and have a soak, drink your eight eight-ounce glasses every day, find a water feature or natural source like a river or brook to spend time around — however you can include water in your self care practices, lap it up!
12. Eat the Rainbow
Nutrition couldn’t be a more critical self care idea for regulating your internal sense of well-being. Consuming a variety of fruits and vegetables in an array of colors throughout the week will provide the right vitamins, minerals and micronutrients to help you feel settled yet energetic.
13. Prioritize Sleep
As part of the top 10 self-care tips for everyone to follow, getting proper sleep may be the most crucial. Dedicating rest time is essential and requires some preparation.
Try designating a wind-down period after supper that gradually reduces your activity so you can hit the hay early enough to get seven to eight solid sleep hours.
14. Limit Your Sugar and Caffeine
It’s easy to depend on stimulants to get you through the day, but reducing sugar and caffeine consumption can have a balancing effect on your energy levels.
Enact this solid self care idea by slowly backing away from sugary snacks and high-caffeine drinks in favor of herbal teas and healthier fare to find your centering point.
15. Change Your Temperature
Stabilizing the temperature of your home or workspace offers a self care idea with instant benefits. A cooler environment can assist in more restful sleep, while staying warmer while working may provide the comfort you need to stay productive without shivering.
If you can’t control the thermostat, be sure to dress for comfort based on the climate you’re in.
16. Go for a Check-up
Going to the doctor when you feel bad is a no-brainer. But getting regular check-ups even when everything seems fine is a self care idea for women and men that no one should compromise on.
An annual exam will help you keep ahead of anything that needs addressing before it gets out of hand. And if everything is in check, then you have a yearly reason to celebrate!
17. Get a Massage
Releasing physical tension through massage is an age-old self care ritual that has never gone out of style. Set up a regular spa visit to get the kinks worked out and consider it an investment in your health rather than a luxury.
If the expense is too great, think about asking for massage gift cards for birthday and holiday gifts.
Best Self Care Ideas for Exploring Your Creativity
18. Make Art
Working with line, shape and color lets art become part of your self care idea arsenal. Learn from experts via art classes in NYC, art classes in Chicago, or art classes in Atlanta, cities where art is a healing part of everyday life.
Seek out art classes near you wherever you are and let your creativity guide you to a better sense of self. Engage your whole family in these fun self care ideas for adults and children to share!
19. Play With Clay
Pottery has been loved for millennia as a creative outlet with practical applications. Include pottery classes in Columbus, pottery classes in the Bay Area, and pottery classes in Austin among your creative self care ideas, or check for pottery classes near you in cities and towns around the U.S. You’ll have soothing moments that end with exciting art pieces!
20. Party With Paint
Painters of all capabilities can turn their self care ideas into colorful celebrations thanks to paint and sip parties. Gather a few friends and reserve your seats for paint and sip in Cincinnati, paint and sip in Washington, D.C. or paint and sip in Phoenix to explore easy-to-recreate images with guidance from expert artists.
With a paint and sip near you, you have self care ideas that incorporate snacks and beverages into the mix!
21. Keep a Journal
There’s something uniquely healing about being able to write down your inner world that makes a self care idea literally anyone can tap into.
Buy yourself a series of attractive journals and treat them like self care gifts that help you document your thoughts and feelings over time. It’s a great method for tracking your evolution.
22. Start a Vision Board
Putting your plans into the world using vision board ideas will help you visualize your goals more clearly, whether they’re personal, professional or creative.
Collect bits of visual inspiration as you find them and adhere them to foam core or poster board for a physical self care idea, or use apps like Pinterest or Canva to create digital boards you can carry with you.
23. Make Curated Playlists
Arrange your favorite music into playlists that complement your moods and attitudes to make your self care ideas sing!
Make one that energizes you, one that calms you down and one that helps you stay focused while working. No worries if the songs happen to overlap, as long as they work for you.
24. Arrange a Joy Collage
One of the most useful collage ideas in the self care arena is the joy collage, a collection of images that remind you of what makes you happy.
Spend time finding online photos, gather magazine pages and print pics from your phone, then create a cardboard-backed collage for a visual reminder of how much happiness surrounds you!
25. Grow Plants
Growing plants is a unique self care idea that helps you shift your focus to other living things that require care. Crafting a flourishing garden or an overflowing herb pot can offer a sense of natural wonder that stimulates your happiness hormones.
The air-filtering properties plants offer your space is a self care bonus!
26. Create Something Sensual
Self care ideas that bring your special someone into the process can be incredibly soothing. Get intimate with your partner with adult game nights for two or schedule a session of arts and crafts for adults that let you explore one another in body, mind and spirit. It’s self care that reaches outward.
27. Draw, Doodle or Color
You don’t need talent to use drawing or doodling as a creative self care idea. The mere practice of letting your pencil swoop and swirl across the paper is a release that activates your intuitive side, giving your analytical side a rest and putting you in a state of flow.
Options like Zentangle apply structural discipline to easy-going creativity for a mix that can help you find a better rhythm.
Best Self Care Ideas for Mental Health
28. Text a Friend
Leaning on others seems like an obvious self care idea, but many people are uncomfortable burdening their closest pals with their troubles.
Finding friends who understand when your text asking for help comes in is a spirit-lifter worth taking a chance on. You can do the same for them when they need it for a self care circuit that’s right at your fingertips!
29. Keep Cozy
Tucking in and resting is one of the easiest self care ideas you can engage in. All it takes is clearing off some time to settle down and read a book, watch a favorite show or play with a pet to get yourself in a better state of mind.
It’s a simple entry for your list of top 10 self-care tips you can work into your daily schedule.
30. Establish a Quiet Space
Find a place to just sit in silence is a self care idea you can enact just about anywhere. Look for an empty conference room at work or set up a corner at home with a comfortable chair and escape into the peace as often as you need to.
You can even use your quiet space to work on creative hobbies, read or simply shut down for some much-needed alone time.
31. Choose a Mantra
Choosing a mantra, a reassuring phrase you can repeat to yourself throughout the day, is a great self care idea for women and men who could use reminding that all is well.
You can decide on a message that applies to your specific situation or keep it general so it works in a variety of challenging moments.
32. Use Positive Self-Talk
Your body is listening to your brain all day long, responding to your thoughts and feelings about yourself. Why not feed it positivity rather than doubt and negativity and see how enriching your self-talk can be?
Think of what you might say to encourage a friend and use that vibe as a guide for replacing the less-than-supportive inner voice with one that cheers you on.
33. Work Out Regularly
The simple act of regular exercise three or four days a week can stimulate a wealth of mental self-healing, thanks to an increase in joy hormones and helpful brain chemicals.
If you’re up for hitting the gym, try classes that spark excitement to keep the energy flowing. For easy at-home workouts, fire up online yoga or cardio routines you can launch whenever you find free minutes in your day.
34. Establish Boundaries
On an interpersonal level, psychological self care often takes the form of creating boundaries that make sense for you and your feelings.
It may be challenging at first, but deciding what works for your well-being and what doesn’t is an important part of being able to control your overall wellness. Try writing down ways in which you feel others around you may overstep and research workable methods for explaining your feelings.
35. Help Others
Stepping out of your own situation to provide aid to those in need is an excellent way to engage mental health self care. It can be as simple as helping a neighbor or supporting a friend in need or as complex as committing to volunteer opportunities on a regular basis.
You’ll have the chance to think constructively for a while, helping you recenter. Find the form of help that works for you and give it a try; there’s always someone in need who’ll appreciate your assistance.
Simple Self Care Ideas at Home
36. Take a Nap
Breaking up the day with a power nap can help you feel ready to tackle your next task. If your schedule allows, incorporate a small block of time into your self care ideas and catch a 15- to 20-minute snooze, the ideal length for waking up reenergized without feeling groggy.
37. Make a Gratitude Jar
Written reminders of why life is good are an easy self care method that anyone can use to spark gratitude. Write all the reasons for joy and thankfulness on strips of paper and keep them in a jar on your desk or your nightstand for a collection of verbal self care cues.
When the self doubt or anxiety hits, simply shake up the jar, pull out a strip at random and remind yourself of why life is better than you might think.
38. Celebrate Your Successes
Why wait for others to celebrate your successes when you can jump in and do it yourself? Whatever you consider to be a victory, work in a little treat or some sort of simple, fun ritual to add a party vibe to your self care ideas — even if you’re the only one on the invitation list. Of course, there’s no reason not to ask others to share in the joy!
39. Schedule Breaks
It may sound overly structured, but scheduling breaks throughout the day will help you carve out time to step away from busy activities to recenter and relax.
Add them to your work calendar to block out time or use your smartphone alarm as a reminder. Even a small kitchen timer on your desk set can serve as a break-booster.
40. Go It Alone
Sometimes solitude is the best self care idea of all. Have a selection of solo date ideas handy and plan a self care day on a regular basis to reaffirm your ability to be alone without being lonely.
The more time you spend in your own company, the more you can practice enjoying your alone time.
41. Play Games
Play is not only a crucial self care idea, it’s also critical for disrupting anxiety, clearing your mind in an enjoyable manner. A quick round of your favorite card or video game offers a sense of accomplishment and lets you focus on external stimuli for a while. And if you can make time for game nights with friends, so much the better!
42. Dim the Lights
Reduced illumination during key times of day is a classic self care idea that the overstimulated modern world is rediscovering. Before bedtime, spend an hour or two with the lights dimmed to get your senses acclimated to rest.
You can even create a dedicated candlelight hour to add a magical glow to your space.
43. Log Off
Too much online activity can short-circuit your self care ideas without you even realizing what’s happened. Set a timer to remind yourself to disconnect after supper so you have a chance to unwind in the analog world every evening.
Better yet, turn off notifications on your social media accounts and designate a set time to check them to keep the online creep-in to a minimum.
44. Minimize Your Plans
There’s no reason you can politely decline an invitation or two (or several!) if it serves your notion of self care. Choose a day of the week or month that works best for you and declare it a self care day, where your only commitments are rest, relaxation and restoring your sense of wellness.
45. Make To-Do Lists
Making to-do lists is a quick and simple self care idea that helps you empty your brain and minimize anxiety, freeing you up to focus on more important things.
Jot down tasks for work and home and post it somewhere visible so you can check items off as you complete them.
46. Share Your Feelings
Bottling your emotions can have all sorts of negative impacts on your psyche. Finding like-minded, compassionate friends who’ll let you vent is a crucial self care idea that gives you a safe space to release the pent-up energy.
Being there for them in a similar way when they need it means this self care provides a dual benefit.
47. Document Your Goals
Keeping a list of goals in a physical or digital notebook helps remind you of where you’re headed, lets you confirm your progress and gives you a chance to recalibrate when necessary.
Write them in a journal or notebook to start and use voice notes on your smartphone for updates so you won’t forget your progress. It’s a simple self care idea that helps you advance and evolve to a happier, more fulfilled you.
Best Tips for Building Daily Self Care Habits
48. Start Simply
Going too big or too complex with your self care habits in the beginning can make continuing the practice seem daunting.
Starting with small, easy-to-implement habits will give you a sense of accomplishment that inspires dedication and leads to more growth. Even an easy change like going for a walk every day will get the ball rolling.
49. Be Kind to Yourself
No need to berate yourself if you find it challenging to get started or stay consistent. A gentle reminder that everyone engages self care at their own pace is enough to keep you mindful that you’re doing the best you can.
Encourage yourself like you would a friend and soften the message during the rough patches to keep the process uplifting.
50. Build on Your Progress
The energizing effect of self care is a great wave to ride toward new and exciting forms of self care. Be open to expanding what you’ve started and try different activities to keep yourself nourished body and soul.
There are limitless ways to engage in self care, and the ones that work are the ones that are right for you.
51. Track Your Progress
It can be encouraging to see how well your self care ideas are working. Take note of what helps and what doesn’t so you can follow your progress and make changes when necessary.
You might even find a friend who’ll be open to check-ins to make sure you get an objective view of your self care and how well it’s working.
52. Keep Going
Once your self care practices become habits, you can continue your routine for as long as it feels right. If your situation changes, keep an open mind to altering your discipline and introducing new techniques to address your evolving needs.
And if something isn’t working or you encounter a setback, give yourself a chance to breathe, recalibrate and figure out a new direction in which to move forward.
53. Partner Up
Finding others to share your self care practices is one of the most reinforcing strategies for keeping on track. Enlist significant others, friends, family and colleagues and create a self care circle that celebrates the joy of improved well-being. You may find that self care is more fulfilling when you have a crew to evolve with.
There are as many forms of self care engagement as there are humans to engage them. The methods you choose to take care of yourself may not resemble the techniques used by people in your circle.
As long as it activates your sense of well-being, your self care practice is the right one for you. In fact, sharing self care tips and tricks with friends and family is a great way to help each other keep your shared wellness top of mind.
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