What Is Classed As Selfcare?

It’s #SelfcareWeek ! And it’s got me thinking, what do we actually think classes as selfcare? For me, I typically start thinking about face masks and bubble baths. And well yes that can be classed as selfcare; but as amazing as those things are, there are hundreds of other things you can do. And over the last few days, I’ve been partaking in a few of these myself.

The thought for this post came to me whilst I was walking home from the gym; it occurred to me that even though I think of lots of luxurious things as self-care, there are lots of small things I do for myself that make me feel good, and these count too.

Here’s a few things I’ve been doing for myself that aren’t always considered self-care:

• Going to the gym, and doing what I want there, if I don’t feel like doing the stair climber today, I just don’t do it and I refuse to feel guilty about it!)
• Buying myself a hot chocolate when walking home after going to the gym.
• Putting on my moisturizer.
• Listening to the Peptalk app (I highly recommend this one for when you’re commuting and walking anywhere, it’s a great motivational tool!)
• Watching videos by Glamour, Ladylike, As/Is and the Try Guys.
• Self Affirmations.
• Watching Nikkietutorials (believe it or not I watch Nikkie’s videos when I’m at the gym and they make me so happy!)
• Cleaning my room.
• Playing with makeup.
• Putting on makeup when I’m not going anywhere!
• Lighting scented candles.
• Having a bubble bath.
• Unfollowing any social media profiles that make me feel bad about myself.
• Watching my favourite films.
• Cooking my favourite food.
• Singing in the shower.
• Talking to friends.
• Finishing work ON TIME.
• Related to the above – not looking at work emails when I’m off work.
• Making myself a great breakfast.
• Blogging.
• Painting, drawing and being creative.
• Getting 7/8 hours sleep.
• Wearing thermal socks.
• Using a 99p face mask.
• Chatting to my sister.
• Seeing my Niece and Nephew on FaceTime reeking havoc in my sisters house.
• Driving round to look at Christmas Lights when they go up.
• Making myself a cup of tea.
• Meeting up with friends for a chat/food/movies (basically spending time with the important people in your life)
• Wearing my favourite clothes.

Honestly the list could go on and on. I love selfcare, sometimes I do still feel selfish or guilty for spending time on ourselves, but we really shouldn’t. We’re stuck with ourselves for life so we better take care of that person we see in the mirror.

And at the end of the day, if something makes you happy and feel good, it’s probably your own version of selfcare. We’re all different so it’s impossible to say that one thing will work for everyone; telling someone to go take a bubble bath to relax if they hate having baths is pretty pointless. It’s a personal thing.

Some of the things in my list you might not consider to be selfcare, but for me, they are. Just doing one small thing for yourself a day can make such a difference to your mood and wellbeing. And myself from a year ago would say something along the lines of “I’ll start next week or in the new year”, but that’s not how I think anymore, the time to start is now.

That’s all from me today, I’m off to go get myself a hot chocolate and sit in a blanket with a book. Have a great weekend lovelies! You’re all amazing!

Love,

P.S. The UK Blog Awards are now open for voting! It’d mean the world to me if you could vote for me my lovelies!! 

Giveaway Time!

Hello my lovelies!! At the beginning of the month I surpassed my first big milestone on here which is 100 followers! And all I can say is thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your support and I love how much my online family has grown over the past few months.

To say thank you to you all and show you how much I appreciate you, I’m doing my first of many giveaways!

There’s a big prize and a runners-up prize; and they’re all little things I love using and a few things I’ve yet to use myself!

The big prize up for grabs is:

• A journal.
• Cute washi tapes.
• Glow shot tissue face mask.
• Ideas notebook.
• Secret woodland colouring book.
• Cute pencils.
• Cute pens.
• Heart candle.
• Pack of three mini notepads.

The runners-up prize is:

• ‘A thought a day’ (for 3 years) memory journal.
• Pack of cute mini gel pens.

Here’s what everything looks like my lovelies!

You can enter the giveaway by commenting on this post with what you like to do to relax at the end of a long day or what you love about reading/writing your own blog if you write one.

You can enter through my Instagram or Twitter too!

To enter on Instagram, comment on the insta post with two friends names so they can enter and follow me! And to enter on Twitter follow my account, retweet the giveaway tweet and tag 2 of your friends so they can enter!

The winners will be picked at random and will be announced on the 13th October at 10am! Good luck everyone and thank you again for all of your support. I love writing content for you all and I’ve got some great ideas planned.

Love you all!

10 Cheap Things To Buy Yourself For Self-Care

We all know that feeling when pay day hits; you know, the feeling you get when that little voice in your head says treat yo self! You deserve it! And then you go and buy a load of stuff that you forget about until you’re surrounded by loads of mystery packages.

I’m pretty bad for buying stuff that I don’t need when pay day hits, and I always forget about budgets and keeping track of my spending habits, which is until the week before pay day where I don’t stop checking my bank balance.

This is why I’ve decided to create a list of 10 presents you can buy yourself for a treat which are great for some self-care without breaking the bank! And they’re all available on Amazon!

Lets get into it!
1 . Success & Inspiration in a Jar. £14.99

Because who doesn’t need a little pick me up every now and again? These are little quotes, inspirations and motivations to give you a boost every day for a month and are great for if you’re having a bad day and need a little positivity boost!
2 . Mini Elephant Shaped Candles Gift Set. £5.11

These are just so cute! They are all scented as follows: Purple is Lavendar, Green is Jasmine, Pink is Rose, Red is Strawberry and Yellow is Lemongrass. These would be great for when you have a big bubble bath to relax!
3 . BiC Coloured Pencils. £10.00

Coloured pencils are always a good treat, and are necessary when you buy the next gift for yourself!

4 . Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom Colouring Book. £7.19

Colouring isn’t just for little kids; it can be really therapeutic and great for mindfulness. I personally love tuning out and doing a bit of drawing, so being able to chill out and just colour is great!

5 . Bath Bombs Gift Set. £8.99

Bath bombs are great for going with those cute elephant candles and these are a great gift to buy yourself and forget about. They come in a cute box so it really is like getting a present in the post!

6 . Bluetooth Shower Speaker. £17.99

This one is a little more pricey than the rest but still less than £20. And is great if you’re like me and love singing in the shower!

7 . Bumper Retro Sweet Selection Box. £11.50

Sweets and chocolates are a great way to do a bit of self-care; and retro sweets are so yummy! This should keep you going for quite a few weeks too, and are great for a movie night!
8 . Weighted Fitness Hula Hoop. £12.99

We’ve all heard a million times about how exercising is good for our mental health as well as our physical health, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun! Which is why I’ve put this fitness hula hoop in here!
9 . Glow In The Dark Star Stickers. £11.99

I’ve had these for quite some time now, and they’re just plain great. I will warn you though, I stuck all of mine above my bed on the ceiling and it took about 1/2hours in total. But the result in completely worth it! Especially as someone with mental health challenges, these really help my mind settle when I’m trying to get some sleep.
10 . Burt’s Bees Tip and Toes Kit. £9.99 in the sale and £12.99 usually

Finally, good ole Burt’s Bees! Because who doesn’t like stuff from Burt’s Bees?! A great way to take care of yourself is with a bit of pampering, and using things like this are a great way to distract yourself from any anxiety or panic thoughts.

So that’s it for this weeks post! I just thought that a little bit retail therapy never hurt anyone? Well at least these prices won’t! And the majority of these can be bought with prime so you get free next day delivery!

And remember, no matter whatever some people may say, ‘self-care is not selfish.’

Have a great week everyone! Let me know if you decide to get any of these gifts to yourself! Love,

Ways to De-Stress

Life can be pretty stressful at times, and there are times where it can be hard to know how to deal with it. Now, there’s good stress, and then there’s bad stress. I find that I can function when I’ve got good stress; but as soon as that turns bad.. Well that’s a different story.

I’ve not always been great at managing my stress (I think we all have those days where nothing goes your way), and I’m definitely still working on getting better at managing my stress levels, but the past few months I’ve learnt a few things that are helping me to manage stress. So maybe they’ll help you too.

1. Staying positive. This one can be hard at times, but I’ve learnt that finding the good side to every situation (although it may be hard to find at times..), makes me feel better about whatever is stressing me out, and it makes me remember that things could be worse. I also found that the whole ‘fake it till you make it’ can come in to play with this one, sometimes you just don’t feel like being positive, and that’s totally ok! You can always fake a smile in the meantime, and I found that on days like that, after about 15 minutes of putting on my happy face I’ve completely forgotten why I was stressed in the first place!

2. Do something active. Running on the treadmill or doing a quick HIIT (high-intensity interval training) workout tend to do the trick for me. All your focus is going on the exercise that you’re doing so you forget about what was stressing you out, and the endorphins you get are great

3. Have a bath. Or shower. If I’m stressed out, a big bubble bath with candles, chill out music and a magazine (and sometimes a glass of something yummy..) make me super relaxed and I can wash away all the stresses on the day down the plug hole. This one’s perfect for the end of the day. If you’ve not go a shower then don’t worry, you can still de-stress here too. If I’m in a hurry or it’s the start of the day, I found having a hot shower, blasting tunes, dancing and singing my heart out in the shower does wonders! Sometimes I’ll turn the shower to freezing at the end, and yes I know that it sound insane.. But you get loads of endorphins and adrenaline from the cold burst and it completely wakes you up for the day!

4. Listen to some music. Whenever I feel stressed I put on some tunes that I can’t help but sing along to and make me smile or I put on some chilled out music and let that take me away. Having a dance around the kitchen or my bedroom always makes me feel better, especially because I can’t dance at all, I look a lot like a toddler dancing tbh.. So I often end up laughing at myself, which is a huge stress reliever!

5. Yoga. Now I know you’ve probably heard this one a million times before and are sick of hearing it, but after I finally gave this one a go and stuck with it for a few weeks I couldn’t get enough. Now, if you’ve tried this and it’s not for you, then that’s ok too. I’m certainly no yoga connoisseur, and I mainly stick to the beginner and intro stuff, and that does the trick for me. Sometimes just laying down and focusing on my breathing helps.

6. Do something creative. For me, I love being creative, and I can’t really turn that part of my head off, it’s just who I am. But when I get stuck into something creative, I go into what I call the ‘creative black hole’ and that’s where I tend to lose track of time, space, stress and anything other than what I’m working on. Once I’ve ‘resurfaced’ from what I’m doing, I feel refreshed and have usually forgotten what was bothering me! The good thing with this one is that not only do you relieve some stress, you also can make some awesome artwork and creative pieces! (Let me know if you want a post about my artwork in the comments below!).

7. Talk to someone. This can be anyone who you feel comfortable with. Family, work friends, your boss, your best friend or even your pet! Just getting the thing that’s stressing you out actually out of your head can do wonders, I am lucky that I very close to my mum (she’s like a best friend, super cheesy I know..) and my work friends and I know I can tell them anything without judgement and the fear of being told to just ‘stop stressing’. After all, that’s what friends and family are for; supporting one another. If you don’t feel like you can tell anyone about what’s bothering you, you can always try writing it down on a piece of paper and then throwing that paper away. It sounds silly, but this one does work. I don’t know if its the thought of the worry or stress coming out of my head or the throwing away part, but just try it. It works.

8. Lastly, have a laugh. I know this one sounds like if can be hard. You’re probably thinking: “Vickie, if I’m stressed out, why would I feel like laughing?!”. Well, here’s the thing, you won’t. Not to begin with, what I tend to do is put on some of my favourite stand-up comedians on the telly and have a watch and they never fail to make me laugh. Or put on funny YouTube videos. And if that fails, then google ‘funny cats and dogs’ and that should make you smile.

So there’s a few of the things that work for me. Naturally you can modify and change these to make them work for you, these are simply what work for me. I hope this helps you out if you’re having a stressful time!! If you try any of these out please let me know how it goes; and if you do anything creative send me photos of your creations @worldsweights on twitter!

Love,