“As important as it is to have a plan for doing work, it is perhaps more important to have a plan for rest, relaxation, self-care, and sleep.”

– Akiroq Brost

September is the Self-care Awareness Month. While searching for some information on the internet, I came across this fact in the first week of September. As I saw this I fell in love with the concept that there is a month-long campaign to spread awareness about self-care.

Why Taking A 30 Day Self-care Challenge is Important:

In the everyday rush of life, the most important thing that we need to do and also the most forgetful thing we are supposed to do is Self-care.

So, if there is a month that will remind you how to take some time from the daily schedule and do at least one thing that will bring you closer to self-care, I think this is the best thing that can happen in the whole year. At least, you can make a planner and do some tasks on a daily basis to take care of your physical health and also your mental and emotional well-being.

As this thought came to my mind, I decided to take a 30-day self-care challenge for myself, and as soon as I decided, the first thing that came to my mind was making a calendar for the challenge. You can check my 30 Day self-care planner below.

Usefulness of Making A 30 Day Self-care Challenge Calendar:

If you are planning to take a month long self-care challenge for Yourself, the first thing you need to do is making a challenge calender with each day having one dedicated activity so that you can keep your consistency. It also helps you to remind how far you have come and you can also track your progress of the challenge. Troughout the whole month of September, I kept checking the calendar frequently and made sure that I do at least one self-care task every day.

My experience with this 30 Day Self-care Challenge:

As a result of this month long activities, today, on the last day of September, I am writing my own experience on how I gathered the courage to take charge of my own choices. Also, I realized that I found more clarity in my vision of the future with conviction and contentment. I found peace of mind amid the hectic schedule, and also I learned some beautiful truths about myself. So, I would like to share some of my tips and life hacks on how to approach one step closer to take care of yourself with some simple and easy yet effective activities.

So, challenge accepted? Come, let’s get started. Here is how you can take a 30-day self-care challenge for yourself by doing these activities.

Day 1: Write Gratitude Journal

Gratitude is a tool of self-care and self-love. Starting a new journey with gratitude is always a nice thing. Show your thankfulness to life and everything that makes you feel blessed. Write in your journal about seven things that you are grateful for. Start the challenge with a soft note of gratitude.

Day 2: Develop a new habit

In this 30-day self-care challenge, in the beginning, pick up a good habit and try to make it an everyday thing. Developing a new habit helps you find yourself in a new way. You will find something special in the habit and slowly, you will discover how this habit makes way to bring a big change in your life.

Day 3: Spend some time in nature

Nature has a healing power within. When you sit closer to nature, you will have a rejuvenating experience. The calm breeze, the serenity of the environment, the chirping of birds, everything helps you to find peace of mind.

Related: Spending Time with Nature to Find Peace of Mind

Day 4: Eliminate Your Stressors

Today, bring your journal and pen down the things that trigger you stress and sleeplessness in night. Think about the things that make you anxious, try to find out the reason behind your stress and anxiety. Find out some ways to get rid of them. This activity will help you in finding more clarity in your life.

Day 5: Start reading a new book

I picked up a book from myself of ebooks and started reading it, slowly, taking time to feel the words and thoughts. Reading helped me being still and calm. Today, read a few lines or chapters from a book.

Day 6: Take a long walk

Walking is always a refreshing activity. Today, you can take a walk to a nearby place like parks or gardens or playgrounds. You can walk to a nearby cafeteria to have a sip on your favorite cup of coffee. You can walk to the nearby market and have a carefree stroll. Or you can walk to the place where you feel at peace and spend some time by simply watching the surrounding. Today in your self-care challenge, give yourself a treat of calm and refresh your mind by walking for a while.

You can try Mindful Walking that helps in finding peace.

Day 7: Listen to music

Create a playlist of your favorite songs and listen to them on a loop. Spend at least fifteen to twenty minutes listening to your favorite songs. Music has healing power and listening to music is therapeutic. So, today, have a treat of musical sunshine.

Day 8: Have a good sleep at night

Having a peaceful sleep at night always remains on my priority list of self-care. Sleep is as important as working. When you take good sleep at night, this leads you to a productive day ahead. Forgetting the world, take a good night’s sleep tonight.

Day 9: Do some exercise

Working out is your next activity in this self-care challenge. Do some simple exercises to keep yourself balanced. This activity also helps you to be aligned with your thoughts and gaining fresh energy to start another day.

Day 10: Meditate

Meditation is an everyday task for me. In this 30 day self-care challenge, keep checking on your mental health and try to do tiny breathing exercises. It helps you to declutter your mind that plays an important role in getting a good night’s sleep. Meditate for at least fifteen minutes, keeping your mind free of any kind of thoughts. Take deep breaths and be calm.

Day 11: Take a bath

Today, you can go for a bath. Although bathing is a regular activity, today, give some more time for your bath. Take some more time for cleansing your body and wash your hair. Take the shower for a little longer, because this helps to make you calm and stress-free.

Day 12: Organize your work desk

Decorating your work desk and organizing the place help you to gain your energy back to work. This also helps you to improve your thinking capabilities and boosts your productivity.

Day 13: Watch a humor movie

Laughter has a magical effect on our minds. Laughing itself is a healer and it also helps in making us relaxed and relived. Today, watch a humorous movie and laugh out loud. Give yourself a treat of laughter and some joyful moments.

Day 14: Have a healthy breakfast

We all have breakfast in the morning. This is an everyday thing for us. But in the rush of life, we often forget to eat mindfully. Today, in your 30 day self-care challenge, have a healthy breakfast with fruits and salads or anything you wish to have on your breakfast table.

Day 15: Do nothing

This might be something not necessarily included in the routine, but you do need to rest your mind. Today, your self-care activity is the simplest one. Do nothing. Spend time watching nature, sitting lazily beside the window, seeing the change in the colors of the sky, or sipping tea in a carefree way. Keep aside all your to-do list jobs, and spend time with yourself by doing absolutely nothing.

Related: Finding Peace of Mind By Embracing the Art of Doing Nothing

Day 16: Write down your favorite musings

Have you noticed that you have reached the midpoint of your challenge? The first part of the challenge has been successfully done by you. Today is the sixteenth day of your self-care challenge. Now, take some deep breaths and look back. For the last fifteen days, you are on your continuous journey of taking care of yourself and doing some activities every day. But today, you have to sit down with a pen and paper, or preferably your journal. Write about a moment of your past years when you were very happy. Something that made you proud or feeling blessed or loved or cared for anything. Recollect your joyful moments and pen down your favorite musings.

Day 17: Spend time beneath the sun

Sunlight is a powerhouse of energy. When you spend more time in the sun, you absorb its power and the light helps in restoring positive vibes. Spend a day giving yourself a vacation somewhere where you will get enough of the sunshine.

Day 18: Try out a new place nearby

Today, take some time for a new adventure. On your morning walk or evening walk, try to explore a new place. You can try to explore a new corner of the city, you can try to observe your colony so that something new could be found out by you. You can visit a nearby coffee shop where you have never been before. Or a place where you wanted to visit for a long but it couldn’t happen for your busy schedule. Today, take some time to explore a new place nearby. After all, new things always excited us as children, and this joy of discovering something new will give you happiness.

Day 19: Do gardening

Nurturing plants heal the soul. Our baby plants are healers from nature. They have such a healing power that your mind gets relieved when you spend time in your garden by taking care of your beloved plants. The color green itself has a soothing effect. Today, in your self-care challenge, do some gardening activities and heal your mind, body, and soul.

Day 20: Take a breather

Wow, you have come twenty days far! This is brilliant. I am so proud of you for doing this challenge so beautifully. You are a brave soul, I know. Today, pause for a while and take some deep breaths. It’s always nice to stop and be slow in the walk of life. Be still, and inhale deeper. Then, exhale all your worries. Repeat this five times. You will feel fresh and peaceful.

Day 21: Do something that you love to do

This activity helps me a lot. Whenever I feel low, I do something that I love to do. This is an essential part of your self-care routine. Today, find out your favorite thing that you love to do when you feel sad or you do the thing as a leisure time activity. It could be gardening or walking, or cooking, or reading, writing, singing, dancing, painting. Anything you love to do for a treat with yourself. Do the thing today.

Day 22: Cook a meal

Have you tried any new recipes in the last few months? Today, try something new to cook for yourself. Learning some new recipes and how to make them perfect, will also help you in digital detox. You can spend some time with yourself by experimenting with the newly learned recipes. You can taste something new, you can give your taste buds a treat of delicious foods. What could be a better way to gift yourself a dose of self-care today? Try a new meal and surprise yourself.

Day 23: Burn some scented candles

Who doesn’t like sweet fragrances? When you burn scented candles in your room, the smells of the candles can uplift your mood instantly. You can also sit in front of the candles and meditate for a while. Meditation with scented candles will help you in calming down the restlessness within and you will find the bliss of mind.

Day 24: Buy some flowers for you

It’s always nice to gift yourself some beautiful things to feel loved. Today, buy some flowers for yourself and put them on your work desk or decorate the room with these flowers. You can also pick them from your garden and put them on a vase to decorate the house. Gift yourself some bright flowers and let them make you smile.

Day 25: Watch the night sky

Watching the night has always been one of my favorite things to do. Tonight go to the terrace or stand on your balcony, and spend some moments watching the starlit sky. Spend some quiet moments with yourself. Be silent your only friend, and converse with the stars.

Day 26: Take a social media detox

These days we are so inclined to social media. Using these platforms for the whole week so vastly and randomly on a regular basis, slowly we forget that we do need some time to spend with ourselves. Today, your self-care task is finding that me time. Take a social media day off and keep away the gadgets for the digital detox. Rather, do some activities that make your soul happy and you feel light. Instead of checking others’ virtual posts, create your own lovely memories. Taking social media off helps you in restructuring your thoughts and you will find peace of mind.

Related: Unplugging Yourself from the Digital World and Connecting to Yourself Mindfully

Day 27: Sit with colors and draw

Today, give yourself a treat of happiness by doing some creativity. Bring a paper and some colors. Sit in a lonely corner of the house and draw anything that’s coming to your mind. Whatever your heart wants to draw. Be it a flower, a bird, a fruit, a kid playing in the rain, or a rainbow. Something with colors. Just sit and draw it.

Day 28: Use Affirmations

Affirmations always help in restoring faith in yourself. They are very useful to uplift your mood and having faith in your abilities. In your 30 day self-care challenge, today your task is using some affirmations. You can say them or you can also write them in your journal. I have some affirmations for you. Try these:

I am okay.

I am happy.

I am nice.

I am brave.

I am loved.

I am working on my growth.

I am working on self-care.

I am working on self-improvement.

I am doing progress in my life.

Everything is working as it’s meant to be.

Everything is fine.

Now, take a deep breath and release your stress.

You will feel calm.

Day 29: Mindful Journaling

Have you noticed that you have come twenty-nine days far in the self-care challenge? I am sure you must have. Today, take a deep breath and sit with your journal. Slowly start remembering all the activities you have done in this challenge, from Day 1 to Day 28, and keep writing about your experience. You can write about how you felt while doing that task or if you have come across something beautiful during the task or something that you have learned from the task. Write your reflections on this month-long self-care challenge in your way.

You can try Mindful Journaling that helps in finding inner calm.

Day 30: Thank Yourself, You Deserve It

Today is the last day of your 30 day self-care challenge. You started the challenge with a note of gratitude, and now, end the challenge with another one. But this time, do it for yourself. Today, thank yourself for becoming aware of your well-being and making the conscious choice to do something everyday as a means of self-care. Thank yourself for the concern that you have grown inside for the purpose of healing your mind, body, and soul. Thank yourself for everything you did in this one-month challenge. You deserve your own gratefulness, friend.

Appreciate Yourself for Taking This 30 Day Self-care Challenge:

I am sure you had a fantastic time with yourself by doing these tiny acts of taking care of yourself. I must confess, doing something consistently for a whole month takes courage and commitment. I am proud of you for showing love and concern for yourself and finding some time to take care of your mind, body, and soul. I appreciate your commitment and I feel happy to see that you have taken a step towards self-care. I appreciate you for being such a caring and loving soul. But it’s not about me, it’s all about you. So, pat on your back for taking this self-care challenge for yourself and give yourself a treat for this success.

Make Self-care A Habit:

Now, make a routine for your self-care activities and try to come back here very often because you deserve to be cared for by yourself. Only then, you will be able to take care of your loved ones and spread love to the world. Make this a habit.

Stay happy, stay healthy. Take care!