Self-care favourites
Treating yourself with the love and care that you need has become a focus for many people. The realization of the hustle and bustle of everyday life, stress from work, caring for loved ones and mentality of “keep moving forward” takes its toll and treating it seriously is something that most of us are no longer taking lightly.
I heard the saying “If you don’t take care of yourself now, your body will force you to later.”
And that has been a goal of mine over the last year or so; check-in with myself and see how I am doing mentally and physically. With my new habit, I have found some key items and tools that have helped me unwind when I’m stressed or refocus when I am overwhelmed and I wanted to share them with you in case they may be something you want to add to your weekly routine.
1 . My tried and true all-time number one loyal ally is a good book. This year I start ranging into the self-help genre and I was lent this book by Markie called ‘Untamed’ by Glennon Doyle. It is a “self-help” style book which I felt gave me advice that I truly resonated with (especially being a woman and having a more quiet personality - I have never been someone to draw attention to myself or speak my mind). Reading her intimate memoir spoke to me and the message “live your life deeply and live it with passion” truly stuck with me. I always recommend picking up a book and reading as form of self-care but if you have a chance to read this book, DO IT!
2. Bath bombs - now hear me out, I have never been a person that found enjoyment from sitting in a bathtub and previous bath bombs I tried had left me feeling underwhelmed. I also maintain the goal to use natural and local products and that’s when I came across Ecovana. I had received a bath bomb in my event-box from the Rise and Resilience Event last year and I loved it! Also another place I love to shop locally for bathing goodies is The Swinging Soap that opened up near my old workplace. I love every fragrance I’ve purchased thus far and they neither irritate my sensitive skin or are heavily fragrant. If only the water in my bathtub could stay hot for more than an hour (am I right? hahaha).
3. Over the past year, I have upped my facial routine big time. Since we chat about a variety of subjects, I brought up to Markie how I especially suffer from puffiness in my face in the morning and closer to bedtime and she drew my attention to Gua Sha facial tool. After being gifted one from Wolf & Rebel, my facial routine has drastically improved. Placing it in the freezer for about 2 minutes then sweeping it across my jawline, under my eyes and across my forehead in the morning and before bed has helped tremendously aside from also being just so darn relaxing.
4. With the mission in mind to treat my body better and limit the amount of chemicals I put in and on my body, one of my main goals is to cut out ibuprofen and Tylenol for pain management. I have been quite the skeptic about essential oils actually being as effective as some have proclaimed, so I figured there was no harm in trying them. I went to Saje and bought their Pocket Farmacy kit that contains the pep-halo, immune, eater’s digest, stress release and pain release. Each one has done what they promised to do, the natural herbal scent can be a bit much sometimes but these have been great to carry around in my bag and use when needed. I also gifted one to Markie for Christmas last year and she swears by the pep-halo stick for headaches!
5. What goes great with a bath bomb filled bathtub or curled up on the couch reading? A delicious scented candle hahaha. I am a little bias since my all time favourite scent is vanilla bean but depending on my mood I do enjoy floral or citrus scents as they can really elevate my mood. So Hum candles are a wonderful addition to my self-care routine. They craft hand poured soy candles out of Lakeshore, Ontario and every scented is absolutely wonderful.
6. BONUS. Weighted eye mask. The perfect tool to up your nap game with the bonus feature to heat it to relax tension or place in the freezer for a cooling treatment whenever needed that we snagged from Wolf and Rebel. Markie purchased one a while back and loves using it to relieve stress and tension.
I hope this all helps you up your self-care game and find some inner peace on those long and hectic days! Also we are always looking for recommendations for other self-care products, so if you have any please let us know!
Your forever learning self-care expert,
Savannah.