Hello Everyone,

Hope you all are doing well. As New Year is coming, I thought I will share something which can help you in planning your 2020. I have finished my ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ book (written by Stephen R. Covey) series recently. One of the activities is to ‘Sharpen the Saw’ which revolves around taking care of ourselves, taking care of the four dimensions of our body (If you haven’t read the post, give it a read here).

In this post, I will give you some ideas on self-care activities, of course, this list does not include all the activities, and you can add more at your convenience. It is just to help you in making a list of self-care activities so that you can incorporate them into your life as soon as possible.

The first dimension of the body is ‘Physical Dimension.’ Here is the list of activities you can do to take care of the physical dimension of your body:

As the physical dimension includes taking care of the physical body which involves exercising, we will talk about a good exercise routine first.

For Endurance-

• Walking
• Running
• Jogging
• Skipping rope
• Running the stairs
• Dancing- can include Zumba and aerobics
• Kickboxing
• Play- Sports like football, basketball, badminton or simply playing with a child or your pet dog (this means playing outdoors)
• Circuit training- Just open YouTube and look for 15-30 minutes exercise routine without any equipment. And there you are with so many options to choose from.

For Flexibility-

• Stretch your body
• Yoga
• Aero Yoga- If you want to learn something new.

For Strength

• Weight lifting- with equipment (you can join a gym for this)
• Body weight lifting- exercises like pushups, pull-ups, squats, planks, wall sits, lunges, donkey kick, superman, arm circles, crunches, Russian twist, bicycle and shoulder bridge. There are so many variations to these exercises that you won’t ever get bored.

Moreover, one has to follow a good diet and sleeping schedule to fully take care of the physical dimension of our body.

The second dimension is the ‘Spiritual Dimension.’ The activities which can help you in taking care of your spiritual dimension are-

• Meditation
• Reading poetry or some inspiring books
• Reflecting on your actions and their tuning with your goals
• Lighting a candle
• Spend time in nature
• Cleaning the house
• Visiting places like temple, gurdwara or mosques (Wherever you feel at peace)
• Listen to instrumental music or any other kind of music.

The motive of the spiritual dimension is to give yourself time and space to reflect on yourself, your actions lately. So you can do anything which gives you peace.

The third dimension is the Mental Dimension. The activities which can help you in taking care of your mental health are-

• Reading
• Journaling
• Writing
• Planning (your future or tasks you have to do)
• Visualizing- visualize your future the way you want, visualize every detail of it. This will help you in rejuvenating yourself and you will feel motivated to take actions towards your goals.
• Sit outdoors
• Stargazing
• Watch sunset and sunrise
• Walk barefoot in the park
• Listen to music
• Take yourself out for a date with yourself.
• Be a tourist in your own city.
• Spend some time in a garden or nature.
• Spend time in any art.
• Go for a photo-walk (down the memory lane)
• Try a new activity
• Puzzles- Crossword puzzles, Sudoku, Scrabble, Word search, Jumbled letters any puzzle which interests you.
• Read something on a new topic- Educate yourself, choose a topic about which you don’t usually read and read about it. Expand the area of your knowledge.

Remember, mental dimension is like mental exercises for your brain, so do it for your brain.

The fourth and the last dimension is Social/Emotional Dimension. Though this is a dimension on which you can perform on a daily basis, I have still made a list of some activities which you can do once in a week.

• Spend a good time with your family members- spend quality time with your parents, partner and siblings, you can go for a family lunch, or visit a new place. This will help you in working on your relationships with them.
• Call a friend- Call a friend with whom you haven’t had a good talk for a long time. Talk with them, laugh out at old memories and plan to make some new ones.
• Give attention to little things- Remember in a relationship it’s the little things which matter. Help your loved ones in need, take care of them and make sure to express your love with your actions from time to time.

And that’s it, these are the self-care activities which I could think of. As I have said earlier, you can definitely add some more activities to it, or remove some from your list. This post is just to give you an idea about activities which you can perform to take care of the four dimensions of your body. You will notice that sometimes, one activity overlaps in two or more dimension. But isn’t it a win-win? I think it is, so make a list for yourself and try them out in the New Year.

I will see you with the next post, till then, Keep celebrating Life!

With Love,

Komal

Tangled Tourista

Tangled Tourista is an online diary, which is about travel, food and books. Here you will read about book reviews and suggestions, tested travelling tips and about new cafes and restaurants around and their reviews.