One of the many, many wonderful things about getting older, wiser and more independent is developing the capacity to care for yourself. A prerequisite to catering to myself was discovering who I am — something that I’ve been addressing in various posts and videos related to spirituality. In any case, I am far from the first person to underline the importance of treating yourself well, but what I realized over the past year was that not only could I do the minimum it takes to take care of myself, but I can also do little things to bring experiences of luxury, joy and deep sensual pleasure into my everyday experience. Such pleasurable amenities and experiences include:
- Treating myself to aromatherapy in the morning.
- Figuring out what scents I love and making my own custom perfume with notes of rose, jasmine and ylang ylang.
- Doing yoga at the beach.
- Placing vases with my favorite flowers around the house.
- Lighting a dozen candles.
- Playing my favorite music on kick-ass speakers.
- Getting enough sleep.
- Styling my hair simply and beautifully everyday.
- Keeping spring water on my bedside table.
- Washing my face with all natural soap.
- Wearing lipstick. This might sound weird, but I sometimes avoided lipstick in the past because it annoyed my exes.
- Only dating people who are cool with lipstick.
- Being able to make my favorite drinks at home (whisky sours and kir royals).
- Working out.
- Getting regular massages.
- Making time to be creative (songwriting, singing, writing).
- Always making sure I have a fresh towel to step on when I get out of the shower.
- Thrifting.
- Keeping my clothes laundered, dry cleaned and ironed.
- Learning how to make my favorite restaurant recipes at home.
- Watching Mooji videos via Apple TV on the flatscreen in my livingroom.
- Getting Gelish manicures in my favorite colors.
- Spending time with cherished friends.
- Spending time in nature.
- Making coffee in the morning the way I like it. I have a weird thing where I tell myself that I’m providing “coffee service” . . . for myself . . . which kind of makes me feel like I’m getting VIP treatment at the Ritz Carlton. I know it makes no sense, but it works for me.
- Making sure my skin is fully moisturized, head to toe, with my favorite oils (usually Sweet Almond Oil).
- Getting my eyebrows waxed or plucking them myself.
- Stretching on a daily basis.
- Keeping my closets organized, color-coded, etc. so that I always have easy access to something gorgeous to wear.
- Keeping a cigar or two at home (usually an Arturo Fuente . . .)
- Making sure my bedroom is uncluttered, clean, welcoming, comfortable.
- Buying my favorite condiments (i.e. pepper jelly, sandwich spread, soyaki, hot sauce, olives, peppers and so on and so forth). I always knew I loved sauces and condiments (even more than food itself), but I rarely purchased them until recently. Happiness quotient has increased accordingly.
- Keeping my lips moisturized with all natural balm.
- Exfoliating regularly.
- Brightening my space with home fragrance.
- Using cloth napkins at home to add a touch of luxury to every meal.
- Covering my serving trays with beautiful, colorful, embroidered mats.
- Serving myself Ayurvedic chai with a pretty tea set.
- Keeping a rotation of fresh fruit and my favorite snacks on hand.
- Stocking up on soft, inviting fabrics: silk blouses, satin robes, terry cloth.
- Using a laundry bag to protect my “unmentionables”.
- Doing my own pedicures when I don’t feel like going to the salon.
- Keeping Dead Sea salts and special soaps (i.e. “Bee Pollen” or “Rose”) in my shower.
- Attending to and caring for oft-overlooked parts of the body (i.e. earlobes, belly button, ankles).
- Making regular appointments for medical check-ups.
Perhaps the most important thing I’ve done for myself is staying in touch with my own feelings and desires. I make sure to set aside quiet time for reflection, relaxation and meditation so that I can be guided by heart in the present moment.
What about you? How do you cater to yourself? What little/big things do you do to make yourself feel like a million bucks?
Aware of Awareness 
This is an amazing list. I will have to seriously think this over. I rarily, if ever cater to myself. I’ve found that for the majority of my life I’ve catered everyone else. It’s only been recently that I’ve decided to put myself first. Thank you for posting this. It’s inspiration for me:)
I’m glad this inspired you! We all deserve to experience comfort, beauty, joy.. Your list may look different from mine, but try to think of what you would like someone else to do for you if you were away on an exotic vacation.. Then do some of those things for yourself! Or: what are your favorite things, foods, drinks, fragrances, sounds? How can you bring more of them into your everyday life? Visit a thrift store and see if they have any of the kinds of things you love – then you can spoil yourself and save money too!
Reblogged this on isismoon1180's Blog.
Thanks for reblogging!
I think sewing and creating is the main way I take time for myself. Thrifting is also a great pastime. Since cutting of my hair two years ago, I’ve had to put more energy into taking care of it and styling it. That combined with sewing and thrifting have led to an overhaul in the way I feel about my appearance in such a positive way. Something as small as taking time to apply my favorite lipstick seems like a given instead of a waste of time.
Yay.. creativity is a huge way to nurture yourself and your spirit.. so glad that you’ve had a positive transformation in how you feel about your appearance.. ditto with me.. thrifting has allowed me to dress fabulously every single day (even several times a day if I have different events/things to do 🙂 — and hair styling is also very important.. I went au natural 6 years ago, but did not really get the hang of how to style it easily until last year.. and also yes on lipstick! I only wear very cheap lipstick because it happens to be what I like and I love getting what I want for cheap.. I receive lots of compliments too, and I’m always like “this cost me 99 cents, baby..”