If you’ve been reading Fashion Mumblr regularly for a little while now, you’ve probably noticed the topics of self care and mindfulness creeping into a lot of blog posts recently. It’s a hot topic at the moment, with the millennial generation busier, working harder and longer than ever before, the importance of taking time out to re-energise ourselves is becoming more important than ever.
Self care is as simple as it sounds, it’s simply to care for oneself. It sounds easy, so why don’t more of us practice it? We spend time prioritising others – relatives, friends, co-workers, at the expense of our own well being. The result being that we are never truly present – even during an afternoon spent with our nearest and dearest sometimes we aren’t really there. Are thoughts are elsewhere. Does this sound familiar?
If you’re super busy, always thinking about work, it’s hard for the mind to come down from this level and be mindful of the current moment in time – so taking time out to care for ourselves is more important now than ever before if we truly want to enjoy life and live it, not just work through it.
During a recent trip to Amsterdam, I took an afternoon away from the planned activities to just indulge in myself. I switched off from work and took two or three hours just to pamper and relax. Making myself at home in the incredible Pulitzer Suite within the Pulitzer hotel, I documented my whole pamper routine in today’s video over on my YouTube channel, centred around my indulgent shower routine with the Palmolive Gourmet Shower Creams.
The Palmolive Gourmet Body Butter Shower Creams are designed with indulgence in mind, making them perfect for an evening of self care. With the luxurious scents of Strawberry Touch, Chocolate Passion and Vanilla Pleasure, there’s one to suit every sweet tooth, giving the body and mind an indulgent shower routine thanks to the velvety rich creamy formula which nourishes the skin, and the spa like fragrances that linger on the skin long after you leave the shower.
The shower used to be my place for thinking; I’d mentally run through my to do list, plan a blog post, think of new video content – away from the distraction of my phone, my inbox. That meant that even when in the shower I wasn’t escaping work – my mind was still ticking over, no down time. Now, I make a conscious decision to make shower time a time to indulge myself. I try to focus on just my breathing – an almost meditative shower experience if you will! With a shower product as pampering as the Palmolive Gourmet Body Butter Shower Creams it’s lovely to focus on the senses, enjoy the moment, instead of wasting it with the mind just thinking about what emails you need to write as soon as you’re dry and dressed again.
If, like me, you like to be productive at all times, and the thought of ‘wasting’ 20 minutes in the shower just thinking of nothing seems totally ridiculous, then hear me out. It’s scientifically proven that meditation and giving our busy minds a rest can actually make is more productive. It’s like pressing a reset button and enables us to be more creative, more energetic, thanks to a fresh way of thinking. Focusing on our breathing releases bad energy, stress and anxiety which can help us to think more clearly and improve our focus, meaning that by investing these minutes – whether in the shower or any other moment you can steal for yourself – is actually enabling us to work harder and better in the long run.
To begin with, it can be hard to realise when we need to practise self care. It’s hard for us to step back and recognise when we are strained mentally or emotionally, and sometimes we don’t recognise the need to step back and replenish ourselves, but mental health (just like our physical health) needs to be tended to! Your body will tell you when you need rest – it could be a migraine, an illness, fatigue – don’t ignore your body! Try listening next time and not popping a paracetamol and ignoring it, hoping the problem will go away while you carry on dealing with your workload.
Next time you’re feeling knackered, worn out, try practicing self care. Whether through a pampering and indulgent shower routine, meditation, or anything that allows you a few minutes away from work and other stresses, give it a go to see how it helps you to relax and refer yourself both mentally, physically and emotionally.
Do you have a favourite way to practise self care?
This post is kindly in collaboration with Palmolive
xoxo
