10 Self-Care Weekend Ideas For Mind, Body & Soul After A Long Week

5 Seconds Summary:

  • Weekend is the best time to do a self-care routine and it is more than relaxing your body.
  • “Self-care is a mindset of a way of taking care of oneself in emotional needs on deeper level.”
  • Journaling, nutritious food, and be with yourself might be a great idea for taking care of yourself on the weekend.

After a long week, it’s finally time for self-care weekend. No, I am not going to ask you to do bubble bath (even though it is nice to have one) or go to a fancy dinner. 

What I mean is more on the self-care idea that intended to nourish our body, mind and soul this weekend.

Don’t get me wrong, it is not like having a bubble bath cancels out the idea of doing self-care, it certainly not. It just the act of self-care is so much more than physical aspect. 

As we focus on relaxing our body on weekend, the more important component of mind and soul sometimes left unchecked.

I too have this misconception. I initially thought self- care is for my body to rest over the weekend . So of course I lie down and rested, with phone on my hands scrolling the whole day. 

Do I fell better right after that? Of course no. and constant content consumption is definitely not an act of self-care.

The issue with too much content consumption is, it left me with more craving towards it. I know it’s because of the effect of dopamine. My mind craving for that dopamine hit to give me that short-term pleasure.

The result is me, feeling more lethargic mentally, more unmotivated, and dive deeper into the productivity slump that weekend.  

So friends, it’s about time for us to properly take care of ourselves and try the 10 self-care weekend ideas to nourish our mind, body and soul .

 

Self care weekend idea

“ Self-care is a mindset of a way of taking care of oneself in emotional needs on deeper level.”

1. Brain Dumping

self-care ideas, self-care tips

One thing I am quite certain people do on weekend is the constant scrolling on the phone. Try to stop the mindless scrolling and do a complete brain dumping instead. 

Taking care of your mind include remove the mess and clutter that has been longing the whole week

I use my journal and write every tangle mess inside my head into that blank paper. Sometimes when it is much on my head, I have difficulty to even write. 

So I sketch instead. Sketching does help with the process. Ruby Elliot, an artist use sketch to help her cope and feel relief with mental difficulties.

“Often when I’m feeling really down I’ll draw very silly things to take my mind off it all. Other times I might be feeling okay, but want to focus on something a little deeper or more serious,” she says.

2. Embrace the nothingness

self-care ideas, self-care tips

Enjoy the stillness and do nothing. Every day, we use our mind to think and our body to move, so it is fair enough to just do nothing on weekend as an act of self-care.

Just sitting in the living room and do nothing. Or better, be out in the nature and do nothing. Just stare at the wide blue sky and feel the breeze of the wind as it caressing your check. 

This simple pleasure usually left unnoticed as we are so ‘busy’ all the time.

Take some time to embrace the nothingness.

Since we are always occupied with something, the thought of doing nothing is a bit weird. But just give yourself sometime to adjust. Just breath and do nothing.

3. Stay away from the screen

self-care ideas, self-care tips

We are often confused when we said we want to relax and recharge, but we still constantly scrolling our phones. I’m guilty of it.

The phone won’t help us with relax & recharge. It never will. It have the ability to saps out your energy. Specifically social media.

Doomscrolling is the act of continuously scrolling through the social media or surfing the web. This has become a mindless habit.

The problem with doomscrolling is that it can perpetuates negative thought and negative mindset

“If you’re are prone to anxiety, depression or sadness, doomscrolling can be like stepping into quicksand. The negativity can pull you under quickly and can lead to panic attacks.” -Dr Albers

4. Be alone and get creative.

self-care ideas, self-care tips

This is a very crucial aspect in self-care. As an introvert, I crave being alone as my coping mechanism. Being surrounded by people especially strangers tire me out. Just be alone and enjoy doing things that you like.

By being alone, we are allowing ourselves to recoup, and distress. We can use the alone time to just do something that we enjoy like reading. 

Recently during the home quarantine, I start to do some doodling and sketching. I join one of Instagram’s live feeds and start to sketch. I never realize how calming it was.

Each stroke of the sketch is like releasing my rummaging thought, bit by bit. For someone who thinks a lot, sketching helps me with that.

Since I’m living with my family, I will explain to them first that I needed some time alone to just do my thing. I will just cave myself in my room for some time and get out when feeling recharge.

But it doesn’t mean you have to do something. If you want to be alone and take a nap, just do it.

5. Drink your favourite warm beverage

self-care ideas, self-care tips

Do not underestimate the power of warm beverages. Be it tea, coffee, or any sort of drink, if it helps to warm your body, it will eventually do you good.

Chamomile tea is a good choice if you want to relax. But for me, I love warm chocolate milk. The warm beverage it’s like a cue given to my body like“Hey, it’s okay, just relax.”

The act of drinking warm beverages is like among the first action-based habit of my self-care routine. The act of preparing the drink itself is self-soothing. 

Just be more mindful of doing the process. Feel the warmth of the mug as we fill it with warm water, smell the beverage and stir it slowly.

By being more mindful during the process, we are acknowledging ourselves for the small win (making the drinks) despite we don’t feel like doing anything. 

This gives a sense of accomplishment that will create a dominoes effect for the following activity. The key is to be more mindful.

6. Move your body

self-care ideas, self-care tips

Exercise releases the happy hormone (endorphins), but I’m not gonna lie, that it is impossible for me to force myself to go to exercise (as I just want to relax) I feel like it creates such a burden and left me more stressed than before (drama much?).

But I promise myself. Even if I don’t exercise, I have to move my body. Just the simple stretch or if you prefer yoga, just do it. Do proper breathing in each move.

If the weather is nice just go out and have a walk. I usually dreaded to go out but once I’m out I usually thank myself afterward.

7. Reset your environment

self-care ideas, self-care tips

The environment we all live in is the direct reflection of our current state of mind. And most of the time when I feel like sh*t, my house usually will look like sh*t, Clutter environment will affect our mental states more than we expect it to be.

Clutter can play a significant role in how we feel about our homes, our workplaces, and ourselves. Messy homes and workspaces leave us feeling anxious, helpless, and overwhelmed.

Make it a point to start clearing and clean all the mess surrounding you. Start by doing small chores. Maybe just clearing the kitchen counter. Then, move to wash the mug. Again, small win gives a boost of confidence that we actually got this!

Related Post: Sunday Night Routine For More Organised Week

8.Take a long warm shower/ bath

Often time, when life gets rough and overwhelming the first thing that will get neglected, is self-care. When I’m busy, I tend to neglect this aspect. Not that I don’t take shower, but it’s just for the sake of doing it.

So for next self-care weekend session, take some time as you clean your face. Scrub and use a mask. Sometimes when I feel slight fancy, I will do the extra steps like massaging my face using gua sha. It feels so relaxing.

Don’t just clean the face. Massage the scalp as well. Do dry brushing to stimulate lymphatic circulation.

Appreciate the body that works for us every single day. Look at the rough spot on our feet that bear our weight, walking every single day, the dark circle for staying up completing the work that dried looking hair as they are always in a bun.

Take this time to thank them.

Then, put on your most comfortable clothes. Now you’re more mindful, clean, and smell nice.

9. Cook nutritious meal for you

self-care ideas, self-care tips

My go-to meal on weekend is usually fast food. But don’t you seriously hate the crappy feeling that you’ll get immediately after you consume it?

So these days, I try to at least eat real, nutrition-dense food or at least order a proper meal. Green smoothies are the quickest way to get nutrition to your body. These days, I emphasize my probiotic intake.

Why bother about nutritious food? As long as I’m well fed, I will be happy, right?

It’s because we have another living thing inside our gut. The microbiome.

“if your gut microbiome is imbalanced (dysbiosis), then your overall mood can be affected. That’s because the activity of your gut bacteria affects stress and anxiety — a balanced microbiome can improve your stress resilience, but an imbalanced one can affect your mental health. “

The gut-brain axes have bidirectional communication between our nervous system and the gut microbiota. By consuming more probiotics (Greek yogurt, kimchi, sourkraut) we are doing our good bacteria a favour.

Or to make it easier, you can take these probiotics as a supplement to your diet.

10. Reflection & Journaling

self-care tips, self-care ideas

Reflection and journaling is such an important aspect for self-care weekend. You can try ask question to yourself regarding your current situation.

Why do I feel such a way? Am I stress right now?

Is it because I feel so much resistance it leads to a feeling of overwhelms and translates to complete self-induced paralysis?

By trying to identify why and how you get to where you are right now, it’s easier to create an action plan. And maybe just reassurance you can give to yourself, that this bad kind of feeling will pass, and you will get better.

We give advised all the times to the people that we love, but the toughest is to give ourselves our own advice and actually listen to it.

That is why I keep this reflection as the closure of my self-care weekend activity. With a clean body, mind & soul, its like I’m like giving a cue for myself, that I am ready.

Related post:

  1. Journaling For Beginners: How To Get Started In 5 Simple Steps
  2. How to start creating a personal journal prompts for beginners (5 practical steps!)

The reflection and brain dumping at the first step of this routine are different in the sense that reflection requires me to analyse my feeling and the trigger of my stressor,

whereas brain dumping is more like dumping everything inside my brain without any thoughts or anything.  

Right-click, put it in a dustbin.

One extra part that I like to incorporate in this part is the gratitude list.

It’s the one habit I try to incorporate into my life so I can shift my perspective into a more positive one. And I realize that when I have more gratitude, I feel lesser frustration and disappointment.

The gratitude list, my friend. Have a try and thank me .

Self-care is self-love. Allow ourselves to take a break from the never-ending cycle of life that constantly needs our attention and care. 

There you go 10 self-care weekend ideas for mind, body and soul after a long week.

How about you? What is the your idea on self-care weekend? Share with us your thoughts.

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