How to Make Daily Self-Care Easy AF
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Anyone ever come along and given you such a simple answer to what you thought was a super complicated problem - and it worked so well that it blew your mind? And then you were like, “Oh my gawd, how have I never thought of this? My life has changed forever and I can’t stop talking about it.”.....?
No? Well, maybe not so dramatically. But I’m sure I’m not the only one.
Let’s go back a few years…
Enter: me… and my frazzled, stressed, anxious self, binging on content created by the amazingly beautiful, thoughtful, exciting Amy Young, whom I had stumbled across on insta (where all good things come from, duh).
She was clear and focused and said all the things I couldn’t figure out how to express and she is here to bring down the mother fucking patriarchy but in such a feel good, sense making way that even the malest of male chauvinists would think, “Yeah, that makes sense, let’s do that. Burn it all down.”
So anyway, I found her and was all fired up (okay, actually, I was drowning in a sea of early postpartum angst and depression) laying on the floor of my living room with a tiny baby rolling around beside me, bindging on Amy’s IG content… when she’s suddenly talking about this thing called the sacred six.
What is The Sacred Six?
Thanks for asking!
Here it is: the sacred six is the idea that you choose six activities (a la, self-care) that connect you to yourself, help you feel grounded, etc. and you do these six things every day. They are sacred in the sense that you make them a priority and do them every damn day - no matter what.
And in true me-form, I set out to create the best and most potent sacred six items for myself. An hour workout, salads for every meal, getting up an hour before the baby…
~ Insert graphic of a Boeing 747 crashing into the Andes mountains. ~
I eventually realized that I was not doing this right. I went back and re-watched all of her content because, hi, i’m obsessive and wanted to nail this self-care shit.
It finally occurred to me that these six things had to be simple enough and easy enough for me to actually do every day without killing myself, because… self-care.
And that these things were not set in stone. I make this shit up as I go. And that’s okay. In fact, that’s as it should be.
So if I’m barely hanging on, which I was, then maybe my six are, like, drinking a glass of water and brushing my teeth (yes, I know that’s only two, but some days my six is two and we just deal, okay?).
And then when I feel like my head is on a bit straighter I can maybe bump it up to three cups of water and a shower. You get the idea.
Things being “simple enough” and “easy enough” to actually do each day was contingent on what actually feels simple and easy - which will change with whatever season of life you’re in.
Also, as I’ve learned by stripping it all down and making it as easy as absolutely possible, the small things are usually the most powerful - because they are the ones you’ll stick with. And consistent self-care is more effective than occasional, fancy self-care. (Read that again.)
Consistent self-care is more effective than occasional, fancy self-care.
Make it Easy and Then Make it Easier
When I got pregnant with my second child, I came back to this idea of the sacred six and let myself get really stupid simple. Instead of 3 cups of water a day, I just said “water”. That’s it. Just remember to drink water… however much I can.
Instead of creating a whole yoga program with specific 45 minute practices every day, I said “workout”, for any amount of time, in whatever fashion felt good that day. I could go for a walk or do yoga or whatever.
(Spoiler alert: I ended up doing cardio kickboxing. WHAT?! Yeah. And I'll talk about THAT in future posts. Hold on the line.)
You get the idea, right? Make it eeeaaasssyyy… and then, like, even easier.
In part, it was a whole lot of me backing the truck up and letting go of control, trusting myself to do things in the moment: “movement” instead of “35 minutes of cardio on Friday at 10am”.
Self-trust, baby. It’s big. It’s hard. And yet, the literal most easy thing in all of life. It will change you.
What My Sacred Six Look Like Today
And now? My second child is almost two years old and to this day, I’ve held on to the same sacred six that I did at nine months pregnant:
Water
Tea
Vitamins
Workout
Meditate
Prioritize Rest
Do I have an idea of HOW MUCH water I should drink in a day? Sure. I aim to drink three of my 32 ounce water bottles (I’m bad at math, you figure it out).
I do have a specific tea I drink each day, which I’ll talk about at another time because - boring. But it’s good for me and I need it. Same with vitamins.
Workout? You guessed it, sometimes yoga, sometimes kickboxing.
Meditation, well, I’ve been doing the same 10 minute morning meditation video for years with zero goals of doing more and making it harder because this is self-care and it’s fucking working for me right now so hold on to it.
Prioritizing rest is actually the hardest one for me. It’s not always about actually sleeping, but sometimes it is and I’ll talk more about that another time, too. But the whole point is that these are my ridiculously easy and simple sacred six that I’ve had for years.
You Don’t Have to Be Perfect
Full Disclosure: I don’t always do all of them.
I try to but some days are crazy and it just doesn’t work. But I end the day and let it be done. There is no sticker chart to keep score here. This is for me, each day, not collectively. There’s no prize at the end of the week. My prize is sanity and a brain that doesn’t always feel like it’s working against me. My prize is having a clear cut plan on those days when I wake up and feel like my brain is, in fact, launching a full fire attack on my entire life.
On those days - the really hard ones -I default to these things and tell myself “Okay, just do these things and let the rest of the day go.” …knowing that if I can just do these things, I’ll be fine and I can move on to the next day knowing that I’ve done what I needed to do to take care of myself when everything felt like shit. #iykyk
And then…?
So. That was a long way around introducing this idea of the sacred six. If you want to hit up Amy Young, she has a highlight on her IG account called Sacred Six and she does a much better job than I do of explaining things and also she’s just amazing at all the things.
Your turn!
What are your sacred six? Or 10 or 2 or just 1? Drop ‘em down in the comments or hit reply and let’s chat about all the easy-as-hell ways to take damn-good-care of yourself.
“Some days my six is two” is the perspective I need right now - I loved everything about this
Amy, I love this. It’s a formalized version of my own self care program that I have actually stuck to FOR YEARS much to my surprise. Simple gets it done. Water, draw, exercise, vegetables, hygiene, and a one house chore minimum (bc order begets order for me so cleaning is self care). This newsletter is wisdom!