Self-care on a Budget
In this blog, I‘d like to share some tips if you live on a budget and cannot afford to buy much, join fitness clubs etc.
photo: Sam Dan Truong, Unsplash
Disclaimer
Many of these suggestions might not work for you if you have a mental illness or other health issues. For instance, many people with mental illnesses find it hard to focus and relax with meditation. Or if you are having serious sleeping problems and cannot change them, this might be a health issue, too. Please consider an appointment with your general physician or another professional about it.
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What is Self-Care?
According to the Oxford dictionary, self-care is the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one’s own health.
(Quoted from: Irisanya Moon: »Practically Pagan - An Alternative Guide to Health & Well-being«, p. 86)
Self-care is mainly about the following:
Nourishing, caring for and moving your body
Get enough rest and re-Energizing yourself (also relaxation)
Your social life (family, friends …)
And if you are a spiritual person, your spiritual life
When you look up “self-care” on the internet, in magazines, blogs or at your local bookstore or library, you can find plenty of material about this. And a lot of self-help books. And there are many people who make a living by selling self-care products or services.
Meditation
Plenty of information can be found online about meditation – you do not have to take courses or read books about it and you can do it at home, or if possible for you, even outdoors in nature. I‘d like to share some basics and various methods of meditation
Meditation can help to replenish energy and to reach a different, calmer or serene state of mind. People who meditate long-term and regularly, may notice positive effects on their mind and health. This has also been shown in several scientific studies. Visualisations and awareness practices can have similar effects. Meditation can also help to stay more focused and relaxed in your every-day life.
There are several ways to meditate: sitting, in motion, lying down or even standing. It‘s recommenddable to try different methods. Here are some:
Guided Meditations
These are very recommenddable for absolute beginners, because you can listen to a voice guiding you to the stages of the meditation, maybe accompanied by some soft background music or sounds from nature. This may keep your thoughts from wandering about. Guided meditation most often work with visualisation, like a »movie« in the mind. There are plenty of free guided meditations on Youtube and other platforms, as well as in some podcasts.
Here are my guided meditations on Youtube:
https://bit.ly/cavorta_meditations
Breathing
This is a quite easy method. Find a comfortable position, lying or sitting. Now just focus on your breathing. Do not change it, just watch it. You may want to combine this with counting each breath in and out.
Mantras/Chants
Choose a mantra or a chant and repeat it over and over again, quietly in your mind or out loud. You can sing it or speak it.
Here is a playlist with some witchy chants:
https://bit.ly/witchcraft_chants_playlist
Mantras: https://www.thelittlepine.com/99-mantra-examples-positive-life/
Walking meditation
Some people have trouble relaxing when they are sitting or lying still. They may find it easier to be in motion. You can do the walking meditation when you are outside, going for a walk – best in a quiet area, like a park or forest. You can also do it indoors, in your home. Walk slowly and focus on your steps. Feel how your feet touch the ground. Do not judge it, just watch it, one step after another.
What about the constant train of thought?
In some spiritual traditions, meditation is all about emptying the mind and stopping all thoughts. However, especially if you are a beginner you will most likely discover soon that the brain wants to be preoccupied with something all the time and sometimes thoughts even get louder when we try to calm them down. If you experience this problem try imagining your thoughts passing through your brain like clouds in a sky. Just observe them, do not react to them. You can also “tell” your thoughts that you will take care of them later.
Some more advice
If you try any of these methods – take your time with them and be patient with yourself. Meditation and similar practices cannot be learned within a few days, it‘s a matter of practice. Don‘t give up if you experience throwbacks. There will always be some days on which you will find it harder to focus or something else might come up. In that case, try again another day.
Yoga, Qi Gong, Tai Chi and more
If you feel you can relax better in motion, you might also try Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong or Pilates. All of these have in common, that the movements and postures are done in a slow and attentive way, often also focussing on breathing. Again, if it‘s not in your budget, you do not have to visit courses, join a fitness club or read books about these methods. There are several videos on Youtube with respective workouts, many of which are beginner-friendly.
Here are some examples:
Yoga:
Tai Chi:
Qi Gong:
Pilates:
There are also lots of fitness workout videos for beginners and advanced, with or without fitness devices, some specialising in exercises done while sitting, standing or lying down, or a combination of all of these.
I like the video series “Witchual Workout” by Laura Tempest Zakroff a lot and it’s beginner-friendly: The playlist on Youtube
Dancing
You might find that you can best calm down when dancing wild or ecstatically. In this case, I recommend music with monotonous fast drum rhythms which can bring on a trance-like state in which you can completely lose yourself to the music and your dancing. You do not have to go somewhere to dance, if you have a bit of space in one of your rooms (or can make some) you can do it at home.
Here is a one of my pagan music playlists, especially for dancing:
https://bit.ly/pagan_playlist_dancing
Going for walks, Jogging, Nordic Walking
Now this might be tricky if you live in the middle of a big city, but many neighbourhoods have at least a small park. Try to regularly go for a walk if this is possible for you. Maybe you have a dog you have to walk? Or maybe jogging is your thing? Or Nordic walking? Some people also enjoy fitness exercises outdoors, at least in the warm months.
Bicycle rides
If you have a bicycle, that’s great - you can use it for all sorts of purposes and simultaneously train your body on a regular basis.
Bathing and showering
Taking a bath can be very relaxing. If you do not have a bath tub, taking a shower can be relaxing, too, especially with warm water instead of cold. You might want to use bath oil or shower gels with relaxing essential oils in them, like lavender, rose, patchouli, ylang ylang, neroli, bergamot, sandalwood or lemon.
Massage
While elaborate massages can only be done by professional masseurs or people who have learned it otherwise, you can always do a head massage with your fingers or massage your own fingers and hands. If you have a friend or beloved one who is up to it you can ask them to massage your feet or your neck and/or shoulders and back. Massages can be done with or without oil or body lotions, naked or with your clothes on.
There are also video tutorials online, here are two examples
Hand massage:
Back massage:
Acupressure
Acupressure is a great way for releasing stress, it may help against a bit of pain and you can do it on your own. One of the most well-known points to do acupressure is massaging your temples when having a headache.
Here is a video tutorial:
Sleep and Power Naps
It cannot be said often enough that you need to get enough sleep in order to stay healthy. Scientific studies show that ca. 7 - 9 hours per night works best for most people.
Some people also feel refreshed after power naps in the afternoon. Maybe that is something you can do on the weekend every now and then? Power naps should ideally not last longer than 30 minutes and shouldn’t be taken too late in the day because otherwise you might have trouble falling asleep at night.
Hydration
There are lots of recommendations on how much you should drink daily (and what). Best find out what works for you. Please do not drink a lot of green or black tea or coffee, but also water or herbal teas. Best cut short all soft drinks or other beverages with a lot of sugar in them (fruit juice can contain a lot of sugar, too). Here is another tip: If you often forget to drink something during the day, put a bottle of water somewhere where you can easily reach it or see it often. It doesn’t have to be special water, tap water is fine.
Social Media and the Internet
For some people, social media are an important way to connect with others, for instance over shared interests or because they are part of a marginalized group or for other reasons. Many also inform themselves online about what goes on in the world or their city. I guess you probably heard or read the Advice “Take a break from social media” or “Turn off your cell phone” more than once and this might not work for you.
However, I would evaluate how you feel about your time spent on social media or surfing the internet. Do you feel like you are addicted to it? Likes or hearts for posts, tweets, pictures etc. can raise your level of the “happiness hormone” Dopamine, it’s like a short and instant gratification - but that feeling mostly doesn’t last long and most social media are built in a specific way in order to “seduce” the users to spent a lot of time there. The documentary “The Social Dilemma” shows this.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11464826/
And also evaluate your “bubble” - are there people in it who are full of negativity, are there toxic persons? Are there people you would avoid in your offline life? Maybe you can find ways to stay away from them and create a social media bubble for yourself which gives you more joy?
If you live on a budget, the huge world of advertising may constantly show you lifestyles you cannot afford - which might make you envious and cause frustration. To avoid this, maybe use a free adblocker, like this one - https://adblockplus.org/en/
If your experiences with social media are rather negative or if you feel like you only surf them because you are bored, maybe consider taking short breaks from it now and then. Maybe you can do some of the methods for self-care mentioned here instead? Or try limiting the daily amount of time you spend online or turn off the notifications in social media. You can also use apps or browser add-ons for this which blocks websites temporarily.
Spirituality
If you are a pagan, polytheist or witch - or tend more towards new age spirituality or more than one of these, there is so much out there. Like for self-care, there are plenty of materials - products, books, courses, workshops, talks and more about these topics.
On Social Media, many people show how they live their spiritual life, for instance altars, cooking, baking, spells, artworks or else. But there are also some ways which are free (and cannot be shown, or not as easily) - for instance praying, writing prayers or poems (or in a spiritual journal or a book of shadows), dancing, chanting or singing. All of these can be simply and easily done at home without buying anything.