09/24/2025
Day 24, time for another stress buster.
THE CHALLENGE 🌿
Do any fun or relaxing self care activity you enjoy. It can be anything, just make sure it is refreshing for you. Tell us what you chose in the comments!
If you don't have a go-to activity, consider trying on of these:
✦ Take a bath (add epsom salt or magnesium flakes for a health boost!)
✦ Drink your favorite tea
✦ Read a book
✦ Stretch
✦ Do a fun hobby
✦ Listen to your favorite song
✦ Get a massage (sorry in advance to the spouses of this challenge's participants😅)
✦ Deep breathing
✦ Grounding
✦ Get some sunlight
✦ Take a nap
✦ Do a spa activity (nails, hair, makeup, foot bath)
✦ Sing or play an instrument
✦ If your gym has one, go sit in a whirlpool bath or sauna
WHY THIS HELPS ✨
❃ Short version - Self care lowers stress and improves mental health. This is a hard challenge for people pleasers, but it might be the most impactful.
❃ Long version - If your first thought to this challenge was any of the following, you will especially benefit from this challenge -
➤ "I don't need self care"
➤ "I don't deserve it" or "I haven't earned it"
➤ "There is no time"
➤ "I will feel too guilty"
➤ "It is not my day off"
If I had to guess, I would say you probably spend a majority of your time taking care of other people's wants and needs but very little time paying attention to and meeting your own. How did I do? 😬
Serving others is wonderful, keep it up and please don't read this and think "Tianna told me to stop." However, some of us forget that we need to also be attentive to our own bodies and our own legitimate needs, relaxation and fun being two of them. Taking just a few minutes per day to spend on yourself can be very enjoyable AND an important habit to maintain your health!
"How would that make me healthier?" I am so glad you asked. It goes back to your nervous system, which is your body's security system. When our needs go unmet, our bodies begin to feel threatened and down-regulate certain processes in favor of survival processes. Digestion, reproduction, and sleep, for example, become much less important to your body if it thinks you are unsafe. It can focus on those things AFTER it has received the "all clear."
When we tell ourselves that there is no time for us, that we are not worthy of good things, that we don't matter like everyone else does, that we are not allowed to slow down because there is too much to do, we send signals of threat to the nervous system. It feels unsafe and begins to enter the survival response. However, if we take some time to slow down and intentionally do some self care, we can begin to tell ourselves "I matter too." This simple mind shift can do WONDERS for your overall health. Your nervous system can calm down knowing that you are going to take care of yourself too, not just others.
HOW TO DO THIS REGULARLY ❖
If you are a people pleaser who has a hard time "getting around" to self care, the best thing you can do is put it on your schedule and tell someone else who will keep you accountable to it. You will find every excuse to not do it, thinking you are lazy or too busy, so you will probably need some help, and that is okay. It gets easier over time. Start with maybe just one time per week if it makes you feel uncomfortable and increase it over time. Eventually, shoot for at least a few minutes a day!
People worry that they will go overboard with it or neglect others as a result of taking care of themselves. If this is something you are worried about, then I highly doubt that will happen 🤣 but if you are worried, that is another thing you can get accountability on. Ask someone you trust to let you know if you are spending too much time on yourself and not enough on others.
See you tomorrow!
