At CasaOne, we believe Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to celebrate every kind of love. While you might be spending the day with your S.O, your friends, or even your folks, we thought we’d drop a gentle reminder to celebrate your lovely self too. When you think about self-love, it may sound frivolous — but truth be told, ‘self-love’ is far from just a trending hashtag on Instagram, conjured up to get us to share selfies.
In fact, practicing self-love, and having dedicated self-love rituals can be all kinds of meaningful and rewarding — not just during Valentine’s season — but through the year. Valentine’s, however, happens to be the perfect time to talk about therapeutic self-love practices and tips that you can implement into your lifestyle and fall head over heels in love with yourself.
As effective as they are, we’re not just talking about hot water baths or lighting a few candles. There’s so much more to self-love, and we’re excited to delve into it for you. So, here’s CasaOne’s list of recommended self-care tips and rituals.
#1 Getting enough and a little extra rest
Let’s begin with the most underrated act of self-love — getting rest. We’ve been conditioned to think that rest is “earned” after a long week of hard work. In reality, though, it’s something you deserve every.single.day. Regardless of how manic your work is, you need breaks through your day and sleep at the end of it, for at least 7-8 hours. If you’re the kind of person who finds joy in canceled plans, you’ll love our little tip of extra TLC and rest over the weekends. So, take time to do absolutely nothing, be in the moment and enjoy the stillness of it all.
#2 Indulge in a skincare routine
We know what you’re thinking: this isn’t a beauty blog. But here’s the thing — skincare is an act of self-love. A daily skincare routine can be soothing to the soul and can give your skin that ultimate glow-up. What’s not to love? Your routine does not have to consist of ten fancy steps — you can keep it fairly fuss-free and easy to follow with just three or four steps, both in the A.M and P.M. Light a candle while you indulge in your nighttime skincare routine, and we promise those sweet dreams will be on their way!
Note: If you suffer from acne, eczema, psoriasis, or any other skin condition, be sure to consult with a dermatologist before you begin with a skincare routine.
#3 Say ‘yes’ to self-love by saying no
The new normal we really want is normalizing saying ‘no’! We’ve made great strides when it comes to making saying ‘no’ mainstream conversation, but we personally struggle with making this a practice in our lives. Prioritizing yourself (and your sanity, in many cases) shouldn’t be anything but a no-brainer. So if you’ve got to say no sometimes, go right ahead and do it!
#4 Dedicated screen-free time
This Valentine’s Day, treat yourself with some screen-free time. Doomscrolling can be gnawingly addictive, and boy, we could use a break from it all. Begin with cutting down your daily screen time by five minutes, and over the course of a week, bring it down by half an hour. A hack that works wonders is putting your phone on airplane mode post-8PM and locking it in your closet. We’d suggest using that time doing something that sparks joy — rustle up something to eat or curl up with a book ‘cause those text messages and Insta DMs can wait!
#5 Intentionally carve out time for something you love
Been meaning to pick up a musical instrument or a new sport? Or just looking to get regular with exercise or reading? If there’s something you wish you did more of, intentionally set aside time for it. You don’t need a fancy app for this, just a reminder on your phone or your calendar app will help you remember it and plan your day around it. Sometimes the simplest solutions work the best, don’t they?
Self-love isn’t always about expensive meals or decadent massages — more often than not it’s just a daily ritual that can make a world of a difference to your life and make you fall in love with yourself. After all, only once you love thyself, can you love thy neighbor, right? (We might’ve made that up, but you get the drift!)