Five ways to self-care that won't cost you a rupee!

When I think of self-care, the image that pops up into my mind is that of face-masks captioned with #SelfCareSaturday. It got me thinking, we get so caught up in our daily schedules that we need a holiday or the weekend to care for ourselves. This post is about five ways, through which you can incorporate self-care daily, without spending a penny. Happy reading!

1. Stop and Stare: Recently, I took a few classes on Photojournalism. The professor asked us to showcase a few pictures we had clicked. When I went through my camera roll, all I could see were selfies and pictures with friends. So, I made a conscious effort to stop, stare and observe things around me. 

       

This is a blurry shot of the man but I love the picture, as it depicts a Mumbaikar's rushed lifestyle. I saw this beautiful wall painting on Marine lines station and stopped to take a picture of it. This man looked at me and then looked at the wall to see, what's so special about it that I needed to take a picture and then sped down the stairs to catch the next local.

    2. Be aware of your social media usage: Don’t get me wrong I love Instagram and Facebook, but lately I found myself scrolling aimlessly, stalking friends and minutes later landing onto completely different accounts. I tried setting a one-hour timer to monitor my usage but conveniently ignored and continued to scroll on. When time spent on Instagram started affecting my college work and made me compare my life to others, that's when I decided to take a break. I disabled my account to focus more on myself.

                 

                                               Gif credit: Tenor

3. Do more of what makes ‘You’ happy: This may sound clichéd but it actually helps. For me this means going to the beach. Whatever my mood, the beach always lifts up my spirits. 

Gif credit: Tenor

On days when I’m too lazy to go to the beach, I play some of my favourite music like a Prateek Kuhad song when I want to relax or a Bollywood song from the 2000’s like ‘It’s the time to disco’ when I want to feel pumped up and get in the mood to dance.

4. Exercise: I haven’t been able to keep up to this as regularly as I would like to. But whenever I do, it puts me in a happy space. As we all need a little motivation to exercise rather than just watch another episode of Brooklyn Nine-nine on Netflix, here’s how you can get that push to hit the ground running:          

      Start a social media challenge.  One of my friends puts up a post every day when she exercises with the hashtag #Run and the number of days she has been running for, which holds her accountable online, when she misses her workout. As well as inspires others to workout.

Pic credits: Nidhima Taneja

Get a workout buddy, a friend you could get fit with or if your schedules don’t match,simply send pictures of your workout or call to remind the other person to do a 30-minute drill.

5.    Organize: I’m unorganized most of the time which gets me late. On the days when I am organized, I take a slow train, do not rush for a cab and reach college before time which makes me feel relaxed. I have decided to do this more often. The saying, ‘When you look good you feel good.’ really works for me. So, I am going to take small steps like planning my outfits for the week on the weekends, so in the mornings I don’t have to then spend a good 20 minutes finding something decent to wear.

Gif credit: Tenor

These are some of the ways I plan to take care of myself that won't burn a hole in my pocket and keep me sane in this madness called Mumbai. I would love to hear some of the ways you take care of yourself in the comments below.