When you think about self-care rituals, what comes to mind?
Many women, especially those of us with ADHD, often ignore self-care because it can feel impractical, inefficient, expensive, and self-indulgent. Or because we can’t sit still long enough to receive “self-care” nurturing.
For many people, “self-care” evokes images of spa days, mani-pedis, luxuriating in a warm bath, exercising, or taking a nap. But the realm of self-care activities isn’t limited to these activities.
Self-care doesn’t need to be expensive. Nor does it even need to involve rest.
In fact, some of my favorite self-care rituals are active, practical, and utilitarian. For example, exercises is a cornerstone of my self-care regimen. But it’s not the only form of practical self-care.
5 Practical Self-Care Rituals
My definition of self-care is any activity that helps me keep my nervous system regulated and takes care of future-me.
Here are 5 practical rituals outside of working out that fit this definition of self-care and are staples in my daily and weekly rituals.
(1) Meal Prep
On the weekends, I like to block time for doing some basic meal prep. This assures me that I’ll have healthy meal choices that are quick to assemble even when I get busy.
It’s a lot easier to get dinner on the table quickly when the pieces are already prepared.
My meal prep may include making full meals, preparing things to freeze for a later time, or just cutting up vegetables and roasting them so I have the components of a meal ready to assemble.
For example, I love sweet potatoes, so I’ll often peel and dice 5–6 sweet potatoes and roast them. Then I have them available as a side dish or to add to rice bowls or other meals.
(2) Doing Laundry
For many people, especially women with ADHD, laundry is one of those chores that can feel tedious and boring. A necessity of life that we’d rather not have to deal with.
Like meal prep, laundry is not a once-and-done activity. You always have to do it. So it can feel especially challenging because the dopamine from the reward of finishing it isn’t long-lasting.
But what’s worse than doing laundry is not having my favorite leggings available to wear because they’re sitting in the laundry pile. I often pair this with meal prep or listening to a podcast, to give me some stimulation.
And when it feels like a huge mountain to climb, I remind myself that I will have nicely clean clothes — a gift to my future self.
(3) Time Blocking My Coming Week
When I create time over the weekend to review my schedule for the week ahead and time block my week, it helps me physically, mentally, and emotionally prepare for what’s coming.
I take time each weekend to review what’s already on my schedule, important meetings I need to plan, and what projects need to get done. I also review when I might need to plan extra time to rest and recover. I’ll also create my time blocks for working on those projects.
If I’m especially on point, I might even plan a rough outline of my content plan for the coming week.
Taking time to do this up front reduces the amount of time I spend spinning wheels during the week wondering where to go and what to do.
(4) Organizing
There are two sides to my brain: the side that likes everything clear and clutter-free, and the side that needs everything out so I can see it. For many women with ADHD, out-of-sight is out of mind, which can result in forgetting about important tasks and missing deadlines.
As a result, I often have a lot of piles of things laying around by the end of the week. Over the weekend, I take an hour to sort through the piles, put away what I don’t need, and put things back in their place.
When you’re well-organized, you know where things are and you have access to what you need when you need it without spinning wheels looking for it.
(5) Cleaning
I love the feeling of walking into a clean kitchen or bathroom, or walking into the bedroom to see the bed nicely made. Taking a few minutes each day to straighten up helps me keep my nervous system calm. When you take care of certain tasks daily, they don’t build up into big tasks.
Here are a few concrete rituals I incorporate into my daily routine:
- I make my bed every morning when I get up.
- I keep a rag in the bathroom so I can wipe down the sink and counter in the morning and evening after I brush my teeth.
- I wash my dishes or put them in the dishwasher after each meal, and I put them away at night.
None of these things takes more than a few minutes, and they are easy to include in my daily routines.
The Common Thread of Practical Self-Care Rituals
These five rituals are all practical tasks that you may already have in a category of “things I need to do” or “things I should do.”
Perhaps for you they are in a category of “things that fall through the cracks.”
It’s easy to dismiss the need for them — until you are scrambling around looking for something you need at the last minute, which makes you late and causes you to feel unnecessary stress.
Or until you get caught working late and you don’t have healthy food to eat at home, which causes you to spend money on takeout or reach for something that won’t truly nourish you.
What these rituals all have in common is they
- help keep my nervous system regulated;
- reduce the need for decisions in the moment, freeing up executive function that I can use for bigger tasks;
- take care of future me.
What are your favorite self-care rituals?
What practical self-care rituals do you incorporate into your day or week? Share in the comments — I’d love to hear.
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