When it comes to self care, everyone seems to be focused on a routine and while having a self care routine is great, it only scratches the surface. Before you focus on a self care routine, it’s important you to take a step back and focus on building a self care practice.

What is a self care practice?

It refers to the mindful, ongoing approach to taking care of yourself. It’s less about specific tasks and more about maintaining an overall lifestyle or mindset of self-compassion and wellness.

The difference between a self-care routine and a self-care practice lies in their structure and mindset:

A practice encourages a holistic and evolving relationship with yourself, where you check in with your needs regularly and adjust accordingly.

Unlike a self care routine, a self care practice they can vary based on your needs at the moment.

Example: You may meditate on some days, take long baths on others, or go for a nature walk when you feel the need to disconnect. The key is the ongoing commitment to listening to what your body and mind need, without the rigidness of a routine.

A self care routine should be secondary to your self care practice. A routine helps you maintain consistency in taking care of yourself. It often includes tasks like exercise, meditation, skincare, or journaling.

What is a self care routine?

A self-care routine is a set of consistent, organized activities that you engage in regularly to take care of your physical, emotional, or mental well-being. It’s structured and often happens at specific times or intervals.

Routines are typically done daily, weekly, or at some scheduled frequency.

Example: Every morning, you do yoga for 15 minutes, drink a green smoothie, and journal your thoughts. This structured approach helps keep you on track.

However, when you fall off track this can bring up the consistency problem which we cover in “Figuring out what consistency means for you.”

Do you need both?

The most important thing when it comes to self care is having a self care practice.

This is because you need to cultivate an overall attitude and approach to taking care of yourself and know how to cater to the whole of your self foundation.

It’s important to know how to be able to respond to your needs in the moment, because based on your self care style or which stage of life you’re in, you may need something different at that time.

Both are valuable, and combining them can lead to a balanced and fulfilling self-care experience. However, we highly recommend focus on building your internal foundation first.

How to build your internal foundation?

In this membership, we give you the knowledge and tools to be able to learn how to build your self worth and cultivate self love.

To start building your foundation, you need to understand the building block for which self worth is built on. We will explore that in the next section.