Scarleteen

This week, I'm taking three days for myself to do an at-home, self-care retreat.

You all know how it goes: I've felt tired, frazzled, stressed, and in need of some things to take the edge off that are about caring for myself. As plenty of you probably also know, when you go without that for too long, it can really jam you up.

Thus, my three days this week.

I sat down with pen and paper and wrote out what I intend to do during that time, with a focus on the things I know really help me chill out, re-center and just take very good care of myself.

For me, that looks like:
• A ton of yoga and meditation, two to three times a day, without any time limits on it; just the ability do do it for as long as I'd like each time
• Time spent outside
• Nothing but raw foods and fresh juices (I eat like this much of the time anymore, so that might sound like torture to some of you, but three days of nothing but raw is my idea of heaven at this point)
• Basic body-care/love stuff, like baths when I want them, lots of dry brushing, re-purpling the hair I make purple, soaking my feet, etc.
• Reading, and NOT work-books
• Trying to learn to nap (I have never accomplished this skill, not even as a kid)
• Time to play my instruments
• Time to snuggle with the dogs and my sweetie
• No-rush phone catchups with my closest friends and family
• Doing some artwork or writing just for myself
• Making the space I live in more beautiful, rather than racing to clean it
• Water: so much drinking of water
• Let's be real: sex is in there, too.

So, that's me. And I'm so, so looking forward to it, and know that doing something like this also helps me to get back in the groove with self-care more often around some of these things, even if I can't devote the same amount of time to them in an average week or day.

Whether or not you might have the ability soon to give yourself a self-care retreat of sorts, what would yours look like? What would be in it? Why not try making a list and keeping it somewhere so even if you don't have a couple days, when you've got a few minutes, and know you need some self-care, you can pull something off the list?

• A hot bath with a good book - an art book, with gorgeous pictures, no heavy reading
  Lots of time spent with my cats and kittens (yes, I have both)
  Eating lots of chocolate, which can be combined with...
  Baking
  Eating (some of) the products of my baking while watching Netflix
  Talking to people who I care about deeply