3 Ways to Treat Yourself Guilt-Free

When you are a hardworking, responsible woman, sometimes you just need to kick back and treat yourself for managing to maintain the status quo. Whether you like to indulge in a manicure and pedicure once a month, or perhaps sit having coffee reading the paper on the weekend, rewarding yourself is an important and necessary aspect of self-preservation. However, self-care is often put to the bottom of the to-do list and is accompanied by feelings of guilt. Here are 3 ways to remove the guilt from treating yourself.

1. Remind yourself self-care is a necessity

When you continually place others before you, you can begin to suffer from exhaustion and feel fatigued. You need to remind yourself that to carry on meeting the demands of your partner, children, and boss, you need to be physically and mentally capable. Taking time out is not neglecting your responsibilities, rather it is a reward for meeting them.

2. Reward chart

Just as children have reward charts, set your own chart and give yourself a gold star once you have completed your goals – just make sure that you have thought about a fabulous treat at the end! If you loathe deep cleaning the house, reward yourself a star. If you hit your sales target at work, reward yourself a star. If you can physically see that you have earned your goal, you will appreciate the hard work that you do, and so deserve this treat!

3. Budget for it

Next time you review your personal finances, make sure that you budget in saving for your treat. Often financial constraints prevent you from treating yourself to what you would really like; however, once you realise that it is necessary, you will be able to make sure that you can afford the treat that you deserve. Review your spending and make cuts where you can, purchase discount household goods, take your own lunch to work rather than buying from a café – your lifestyle doesn’t have to be thwarted, your spending habits just need to be tweaked.  

Your self-care is as important as all of the other roles that you do. Taking time for a hobby or a sporadic treat helps you to recharge and rejuvenate and gives you a fresh perspective on life. It’s easy to neglect looking after yourself, but if you do, the consequences can be huge.

• Overload and burnout

When you push yourself beyond what are safe limits, you risk suffering from burnout, and that means that you feel that you can’t take anymore, and so you give up. Self-care helps you to avoid getting to that point!

• Stress

To some extent, people can thrive on a small amount of stress; however, there comes a point when stress is prolonged and becomes the norm. The physical and mental effects of being continually stressed can be long-lasting. Self-care helps to reduce the risk of stress impacting your capacity to function!

• Lack of focus

If your brain doesn’t have time to reset and recharge, your ability to focus on the task at hand reduces. You need to give yourself a break so that you can view life with a fresh perspective, besides, your brain is at its most creative when it is relaxed. Self-care helps to refresh the mind.