Easier said than done
If you are a working family (Wo)man then it can seem like you are the last on the priority list. Life seems to be a series of acts, Act one, is the young time when you are too stupid to realise how good you have got it. Act two is often the responsibility of caring for a family which brings the constant background hum of worry about your children or money. Act three involves trying to find out who you are and what you actually want again now that your children have left home. Whatever act your life is currently in maybe you should consider the next three points to give yourself a little 'Self Care" starting this week:
Mental
Work in progress
Be a 'work in progress', this requires a lot of self honesty and introspection! Write a list of what you don't like about yourself and work at home and work to change these bad traits bit by bit until you can look in a mirror and start liking yourself a little more. Self improvement brings it's own rewards
Time for yourself
Take up a hobby, painting, flower arranging, construct plastic models or do a nightschool one night a week but it important for you to have a 'Thing'. Hiding on a toilet reading on your phone until your legs go numb does not count.
Escape Technology
Take some time away from technology for a while especially an hour before bed. Don't have any blue flashing lights from charger plugs in your bedroom in fact make the bedroom a technology free zone. Buy an alarm clock instead of a phone as these distractions often hinder getting off to sleep and maybe how soundly you sleep altogether.
Physical
Time for excercise
If you hate the gym or exercise in general (and many of us do) buy an audiobook and get a good bluetooth headset and walk five miles every week day. It is surprising how quickly the walk goes when you get a great audiobook. You get a double whammy in that you get some mental time away from your day and you get some calories burned. If you have a dog trebble whammy!
Couch to 5K
If you like the thought of running but you need morivation and you are overweight and/or unfit then try the national 'Couch to 5K' meeting groups in your area. These national meeting groups meet twice a week and you start by walking together in a group then you have 100 meter slow jog then walk again. Over the weeks you jog a little more and a little more until you are running 5 kilometers after 9 weeks.
Static Excercises
Try doing some pressups before you go in the shower in the moring. Try starting at 5 and adding one more every day so that after the first week you are doing 11 pressups. You can build up from there but if you are aching one day dont extend your number until you feel fit enough to do so.
Oportiunistic Excercises
If you have the opportunity in the day to take some excercise do it. For example don't take the lift when you can walk up the stairs. Get off the tube or bus maybe one or two stops before you need to and walk the rest of the way home (Maybe listen to your audiobook)?
Financial
Trivial debt
Trivial debt is the worst kind of debt and hard to get out from under. If you have multiple store cards and credit cards with debt on all of them then you need to stop the rot asap. The hardest thing is to start talking about it as these debts are held in the ' 'Taboo' talk area of your brain so if you don't mention it then it does not exist. The problem is that it does exist and it eats away at you until you do something about it.
1. Stop living beyond your means and start a list of your outgoings and incomings and see what you can do without. Swap providers for utilities, stop eating takeaways, take sandwiches to work and don't buy coffee from an outlet even consider a move to a cheaper area with lower rent e.t.c as any reduction will help.
2. Get another form of income to help increase your ability to pay off your debts. Sell on ebay, work on Saturdays even start a dog walking service anything to bring in extra money.
3. Work out what the most costly card is with regard APR (Annual percentage rate) of repayment. Pay the minimum possible to all the other cards and concentrate on paying this one card off first. Once the debt is clear on this one card cut it up with a pair of scissors then start on the next highest card and then the next until it is all clear.
Pension
None of us feel like we have enough money to put aside especially if you have a family. Maybe you don't have enough to put away for a regular pension so the best you can do for now is pay your mortgage this is at least something that will guarantee a return over 25 years. Also, if you have a workplace pension scheme you may want to pay a little more each month as this really does add up over time and £10 or £20 extra a month can mean a lot to the end result as a pension.