Nine Ways You Can Invest In Yourself Today

Investing in yourself can be hard. Adult working life is hard, tiring and work-filled – it often feels like running on a treadmill, non-stop. It’s challenging to look after yourself, get proper rest, and live up to the impossible beauty and health standards set by society and social media. ‘Self care’ culture has created a branded image of what it means to look after yourself – one that is often unachievable. This being said, there are ways you can readjust your attitude to health and wellness and self care. Here are ten ways you can affordably, reasonably invest in yourself today!

  1. Focusing On The Essentials

When push comes to shove, having time for every single thing becomes impossible. Your life is full of obligations, distractions and seemingly important endeavors. But when you pare down to the basics, you’ll realize how many things you didn’t need in the first place. If you feel yourself becoming burned out or exhausted, focus on the essentials. 

Make yourself a list of all your daily responsibilities, big and small – from showing up to work, to taking care of the kids, to brushing your teeth, to cleaning your home – then list them in order of absolute priority. Find the essentials and do them with pride, but try to pare down your extra responsibilities to the minimum. These will help you focus and be less stressed out about your packed schedule!

2. Don’t Over-Plan

As a society we are obsessed with planning our life’s trajectory. At what age do I want to get married? At what age do I want to have children? Reach my career goals? Buy my first house? Get my dream car? Reach my goal weight? Planning is useful and can make us feel in control, but over-planning can take over from the actual living part of life. Plus, over-planning gets in the way of enjoyment when things don’t go to plan. If you don’t reach one of the goals you set for yourself, you can feel dejected, upset, downtrodden and like a downright failure.

Over-planning applies pressure to your mental health which is unhelpful and detrimental to your day to day life. The best laid plans of any person will go awry; do not hold yourself up to an impossible standard, but instead, plan gently and learn to assume that things will go wrong somehow or some way. 

3. Living In The Present

Just like over-planning, living outside of the moment allows life to pass you by without even seeing it. If you’re always obsessing over the next new thing, the next goal, or the next project, you’ll never learn to enjoy what you have right now. Taking the time to breathe and be present is essential in order to love life to the fullest.

How can we achieve this? Honestly, nobody fully achieves true presence. It’s impossible to perfect, particularly with the distractions of our smartphones in place. However, trying to live in the moment means lingering an extra few seconds on a lovely moment; appreciating the small things in life, and revelling in the fortune and family that surround you every day.

4. Take A Social Media Break

Social media is in the very fabric of our existence at this point. Businesses and individuals alike are tied inextricably to its pull – we live and breathe it, using it daily to post our photos, opinions, and promotions online. Social media can be really fun, but it also creates a sense of social pressure, particularly for young people. Plus, these apps are designed to be addictive, increasing your scroll time and creating more revenue. Before we know it, we’re scrolling before bed, when we wake up, during mealtimes and at work. 

Try to take a break from social media. You can make it a challenge – set yourself a time period for which you will delete social media apps from your phone. You will be amazed at how quickly you do not miss these apps, and how much time you have on your hands!

5. Get Back Into Reading

With our increasingly busy lives and our phones as extensions of our limbs, there is not much time left for reading. Plus, scientists are discovering that the immediacy of our lives – immediate access to news, information, friends and family using technology – has lessened our concentration span. This means we are less likely to spend time reading and broadening our minds.

If you used to be an avid reader but have lost your motivation for it, you’re not alone. Thousands of people are in the same boat as you. Try getting slowly back into it – a few pages a night before bed of an interesting book you’ve always been meaning to read. If even that is too much for you, try audiobooks! Then you can consume literature on the move, while driving or running.

6. Getting Into Plants

Investing in yourself doesn’t always mean making financial or health decisions. Sometimes investing in yourself is about creating space in your life for relaxation and tranquility. Plants and growing help center your mind and create a peaceful feeling. Psychologists say that the color green helps your brain release relaxing chemicals and hormones, helping you to feel calm. Plus, houseplants look beautiful in your home space and are cost-effective additions to your life!

If you want to go one step further, try to grow your own food. This can start with simple things like herbs, and once you’ve gotten the hang of it, you can move on to vegetables and fruit. This is a super satisfying hobby which you can share with your friends and family – plus, it encourages good diet and healthy living.

7. Listen To Your Body

This is a crucial step to self-investment. Listening to your body sounds easy – sleep when you’re tired, eat when you’re hungry – but this basic human habit has become clouded when work culture and family pressures get in the way. Often, we push through our tiredness, we eat when we are bored, and we over-stretch our brains. 

Listening to your body means being in tune with your needs, and responding to them.   Intuitive eating, a practice which focuses on eating food only when your body asks for it and acknowledging which foods make you feel energized and which ones make you feel worse, is increasingly popular nowadays. Likewise, if you need sleep, sleep – don’t push through for the sake of ‘the grind’. Listening to your body will help your health and happiness in ways you can barely imagine.

One key facet of listening to your body’s signals is recognizing and acknowledging pain. This could be specific physical pain which you’ve chosen to ‘push through’, such as a painful tooth, a twinging knee or a chronic headache. In actual fact, it could be an infected tooth, a torn ligament or a stress migraine which needs attention and care. Similarly, emotional pain, from your past or present situation, is not to be ignored but faced head on. This kindness towards yourself and your body will be rewarded with healing, and further health in the future.

8. Concentrate on Health, Not Appearance

This is vital to help you with your mental and physical health. Social media and impossible Hollywood standards of beauty make us feel inadequate when we don’t match them. These pressures cause people, particularly women, to engage in unhealthy dieting, pills, teas and exercise regimes which are designed to drop weight, not actually increase health. These short-term quick-fixes are unhealthy and bound to fail once you go back to your normal routine.

If you feel you are unhealthy and want to make a change, try to concentrate on how you feel, not how you look. Many people who look stereotypically toned and healthy are not actually mentally healthy, and can be engaging in dieting which doesn’t benefit their body either. Your organs and brain are more important than a picture on Instagram – focus on these, and you will unlock your full potential and enjoy a healthier life.

9. Start A Passion Project

Even if your life feels full to the brim, you might be able to get more enjoyment out of your time. If you have a passion such as art, singing, sport or gardening, you can explore it by starting a passion project. This could be a solo journey, like training for a marathon or attending art classes, or it could involve family, friends and members of the community. Doing something you love just because you love it is a satisfaction like no other.

Conclusion

Investing in yourself is about finding ways to help the future you do well. This means facing your demons, making room for calmness and focusing on what makes you feel good, happy and strong in your life. With these tools, you are equipping your future self with health, happiness and a great approach to life!

Speak Your Mind

*