Self-care budget
Give yourself the same care and attention that you give to others and watch yourself bloom. ―Unknown
👥 Serves: 1 person
🎚 Difficulty: Easy
⏳ Total time: 11-30 minutes
🥣 Ingredients: A small budget
🤓 Wholebeing Domains: Positive Emotion, Rest
💪 Wholebeing Skills: Abundance, Calm, Happiness, Liberation, Pleasure
Self-care budget
📝 Description
Create a self-care budget.
Changemakers give so much of themselves to others and their worthy causes, that it becomes all too easy for number one to slip to the side. Consider the great Audre Lorde who said, “caring for myself is not self-indulgence; it is self-preservation”. Lorde needed to feed her soul and tend to her needs to be able to put pen to paper – and the results were no less than remarkable. It is the same for changemakers, in order to show up and be the best person for your cause, it is vital you make space for personal self-care.
There are plenty of incredible free ways to care for yourself, from going for a long walk, eating nutritious meals, having a bath, reading, and prioritising good sleep. If you lack inspiration for free ways to cultivate self-care, check out our recipes “3 good things”, “Affirmations for body positivity”, “CBT strategies to help you sleep”, “Creativity through boredom”, “Dialogues with Nature”, “Digital goodies”, “Hardwiring happiness”, “Immune sequence (morning)”, “Mindful colouring”, “Nurture your compassion roots”, “Raising meditation”, “Seizing the day”, “Tea meditation”, “The gratitude alarm”, etc.
In addition to all these free wellbeing practices, we encourage you to create a self-care budget to help you reveal what is truly important to you from a wellbeing perspective. A self-care budget allows you to listen to what your mind, body, heart, and soul need to find peace in a chaotic world. It teaches you that it is okay to indulge and invest in yourself and reminds you that self-care is not selfish.
This recipe has been created by our wellbeing content writer collaborator Marissa Del Mistro.
👣 Steps
Step 1 – Determine your self-care fund (5’)
Take 5 minutes to review your income and monthly budget to assess what money can be allocated into your new self-care fund. If it means cancelling a subscription you do not use, do it!
By setting money aside for self-care, be it €50 or €200, you can listen to whatever your soul needs that week/month. If you have no idea on how to set up a budget, check out our recipe “Tips for financial budgeting”.
Step 2 – Allocate the budget (10’)
The fun part! After determining your budget, listen to what you need to relax and recharge. Some options include:
- A relaxing massage
- A day at the spa
- A dinner at a restaurant with friends
- A session with a therapist
- A new workout/dance class
- A cooking class
- A new movie/documentary at the cinema
- A new book
- An appointment at the salon to get your hair done
- A pedicure/manicure
- A train ticket to explore a neighbouring town/village
- An art class
- A tea / wine / food tasting experience
- A visit at a farm to pet the animals
Step 3 – Make time for self-care (5’)
Aside from your regular (free) self-care routine, take 5 minutes to schedule time in your calendar for your special self-care treat.
Consider making it an event. Celebrate your self-care time and let your loved ones (or fellow changemakers) know. This will help you assert your boundaries, especially if you are leaving work to attend your self-care session. Let your colleagues know your phone will be off and you won’t be reachable within a certain time (if this is an option for your line of work.) Hopefully, by doing this, you will also inspire your changemaker colleagues to prioritise their self-care, too.