Self Care Habits for Wellbeing in Good Times and Bad

Image of letters spelling self care for Self Care Habits for Wellbeing in Good Times and Bad

Self-Care Habits for Wellbeing in Good Times and Bad

Using your happy days to prepare for your hard days seems like a waste of energy, right? But it’s when the seas are calm, and things are going well that you can build a sturdy life raft to get through the storms. 

People shutter the windows and prepare their home before the storm to ride it out as safely as possible with as little damage as possible. Not that you should be waiting for doom, but let’s be real, life happens.

This pre-storm prep idea goes for your mental, emotional, and spiritual health as well.

The time to build self-care habits and practices that will support you through tough times is now.  

You don’t need much inspiration or many mindset tips when your life is going well, right? When you’re gliding along in a happy season and things are going well in your life, you feel good naturally and you’re probably not inclined to spend time on self-care and ways to feel better.

I get it, but here’s where wellbeing preparation matters most: having daily go-to mind, body, and spiritual self-care practices in place in the good times means you’ll be in shape to help yourself get back up when you hit the tough days. And, no matter who you are or what your situation, rough patches and stormy seas are inevitable.

It’s much like exercising your body and maintaining a level of fitness.

It doesn’t happen overnight; it takes your commitment to healthy daily habits. You have to move your body daily, stretch, flex, be active on a regular basis to get to and to maintain your physical body.

For what? It’s not to look good in your jeans. You build healthy habits to maintain your physical fitness so you can improve your health, strength, and mobility and so you can reduce stress. You do it so you can enjoy life, like taking vacations, a swim at the beach, a bike ride at the boardwalk. You do it so you can keep up with your kids, and so you can bend over and garden, shovel snow, or carry groceries.

Your emotional, mental, and spiritual fitness are similar. You must commit to daily habits, like you would by going to the gym, to create practices that nourish your soul and keep you feeling emotionally prepared, flexible, and resilient for when you really need it – for when the proverbial poop hits the fan.

Why Focus on Your Wellbeing in Good Times?

When hard things happen in your life is when the strong foundation you’ve built, your life raft of sorts, will save you and keep your head above water. You have to be mentally and emotionally flexible and able to react, process emotions, and feel hard feelings. Your ability to get through difficult circumstances, even horribly painful and scary events, with your spirit intact depends on how well you have built up and been practicing self-care and energy management.

Having a foundation of self-care practices that you do regularly (when you’re happy and all is well) is critical to preparing you to not only survive, but to overcome, and sometimes even thrive, during stressful times.

Happy seasons – when you’re in fun, predictable, calm, and joyful times – doesn’t require much processing. You have no trouble accepting the good stuff… a raise, enjoying praise, being lavished with love and attention, right? It doesn’t require a second thought. No need for overanalyzing. No black holes of despair and self-doubt come into your vision.

“Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” – Dalai Lama

On the other hand, your mental and emotional wellbeing is put to the test when life takes a tough turn. It can be hard to accept difficulties and disappointments.

We all go through emotional distress in different ways, but for nearly everyone, there is an initial period of high anxiety, fear, shock, and deep emotion to move through.

How able you are to keep moving forward through a rough season and process your changing emotions and get to the other side – which is where grace, acceptance, love, healing, and growth are – is often dependent on how well you’ve nourished self-care habits during the happy seasons.

So, whether you are in a happy season or a season of distress, there’s no time like the present to get snapping on self-care practices and what I like to call thrive habits.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle

What Are Thrive Habits?

Thrive habits are those practices that make you feel a little more grounded, confident, secure, and safe, and naturally shift you into a higher vibration, (aka, a more positive mood and energy) than before you did them. Your thrive habits may be unique to you but there are some favorites that nearly all of my clients agree helps them build and strengthen their mindset muscles and bolster their foundation of self-love.

“Every storm runs out of rain.” – Maya Angelou

In no particular order, here are a bunch of popular and effective thrive habits:  Gratitude journaling; a walk outdoors; listening to music that makes you feel energized; yoga, tai chi, or breathwork; doing crafts you love; decluttering a part of your home or office; planning a trip; reading  daily jokes or inspiring passages from a book or website; getting 5-10 minutes of early morning light on your face; stargazing in the evening; daily prayer or meditation; prioritizing quality sleep; taking a break from social media; finding ways to volunteer to help others; grounding; taking an evening bath with candles, essential oils, salts….

There are so many ways to help yourself feel better – the possibilities are endless!

What makes them thrive habits is that when you intentionally do one or more of these activities, you can feel a noticeable shift in your mood, attitude, and energy.

“Self-care is how you take your power back.” – Lalah Delia

Getting in the practice of regularly flexing your self-care muscles through thrive habits and noticing how you’re able to shift your own mood are literal lifesavers. Always refreshing, but especially vital when you’re under stress.

I use my own go-to thrive habits to help me not only cope with challenges that come up in my life but also to give me the courage to grow and expand despite them.

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” – Buddha

So don’t wait for the storm to come, get going with creating your daily thrive habits today my friend! Start flexing and stretching your mindset and self-love practices to boost your overall wellbeing and keep yourself in tip-top mental, physical, and spiritual shape for whatever comes your way. <3 – Marlene

 


Want support? Need help figuring out how to cope, how to love yourself enough to create habits that help you thrive or need some support with how to build up confidence to manage stress in your life – book a free consult call with me to see how we can work together.


For ideas on how to get an immediate lift to your mood and energy – download my Free Energy Clearing Cheat Sheet here.

2 thoughts on “Self Care Habits for Wellbeing in Good Times and Bad

  1. SO true!! More than ever, I have learned how important it is to maintain a healthy, strong, resilient core especially as I age. The major life events that come our way particularly in these later years – are fast and furious. Graduations, weddings, layoffs, downsizing, career milestones, deaths of parents/siblings, medical emergencies within our families,etc. If you are imbalanced overall, it will be especially hard to navigate these times. I agree with you , Marlene, self care is even more important. Kind of like when you are on the airplane and the instructions are “in an emergency, make sure your oxygen mask is securely fastened before you start helping anyone else”.

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