Practicing self love on the homestead
Homestead burnout is real, folks, and self love can help! I decided I should be kinder to my mind (and my body) and compile a list of things I can do after a hard day on the homestead. If you’ve been there, I hope you find these ideas useful!
Table of contents
14 ways to practice self love after you’ve had a long, hard day on the homestead.
I’ve had a few setbacks lately on my homestead and, unfortunately, they’ve resulted in me frying up some frozen french fries and eating a whole container of mini brownies on my own. That’s not exactly the definition of self-love but maybe self-sabotage.
Take a bath or hot shower to practice self love
This is one of my favorite things to do and I do not do it often enough! The last bath I took I added some lavender essential oil and put on some music. I also had a good cry because it was just a difficult day. I got out of the bath, put on my favorite pajamas, and decided I was going to have a better day tomorrow.
Yoga and/or Meditation in order to love yourself
I’m sure you’ve heard it time and time again: “Yoga and meditation are good for you.”. I always believed it might be but never tried it, then I discovered Yoga with Adriene and it changed my world.
My goal is to practice yoga at least 3 days out of the week, no matter what, now. On particularly hard days it’s hard to get on my mat, but that’s when I know I’ll benefit from it the most. I challenge you to try it!
Put on your favorite CD
One of my regular self-love acts is listening to my favorite CD. Sometimes it’s a playlist from my Spotify, but usually, it’s one (or all!) of Josh Ritter‘s CDs. He’s my very favorite artist and his music lifts me up.
Pet your dog…or somebody else’s dog could work.
I never wanted dogs. WHAT!? I know right? I must’ve been the spawn of Satan or something. Okay, that’s a little dramatic but I really can’t believe I didn’t want dogs.
I have two wonderful dogs now and I can’t imagine life without them. Sometimes I joke and say that I’d give away my firstborn child if my dogs didn’t like her/him.
The point of this is that my dogs always make me feel good. Really, any dogs make me feel good. Random dogs that walk by me, videos or barking puppies, anything. I consider it self-love when I sit down on the ground and cuddle with my pups. All is well in the world then.
Bake Something
I’ve mentioned it a few times in past blog posts but I come from a family of bakers. My sister, mom, and I all find baking to be therapeutic. You get to take these simple, individual ingredients and add them together to make something truly wonderful.
If baking isn’t your jam, then you can cook something! I love to be in the kitchen, and not just because I’m a woman. #girlpower
Sew Something
If you don’t sew, I suppose this is completely irrelevant for you, but the next one isn’t! Sewing takes me to another world. Again, I get to create something out of practically nothing. After a hard day, I usually choose something I know how to make unless I’m up for a challenge still. It’s calming, in my opinion, to zone out and create by sewing something beautifully simple.
Draw or Color
Everyone can do this. Coloring can help you destress, practice mindfulness, and spark creativity. After you color, you can bake and sew a quilt! All jokes aside, I color or draw multiple times a month to quiet my mind.
Write down what you feel went wrong
Sometimes it helps to just get it down on paper. What went wrong? Could you have done something differently? What can you grow from? It’s a great way to become more self-aware and acknowledge that sometimes you make things a little worse than they are, without knowing it.
Buy a cute journal and keep it in a safe, private place. You can also return to your writings from time to time and reflect on how far you’ve come.
Go for a walk (or a run)
Okay…this is the hardest one for me. After a long day, all I really want to do is crash on the couch and watch some mindless television…and maybe gorge myself with fries and brownies. But I know it’ll get me nowhere good and quick, too.
Working out releases endorphins and that can help a great deal when you feel down and out. The hardest type of self love for me, but I know I’m always happy I did it when I do it.
Rub your feet
Another tool I learned from a Yoga with Adriene video! Rub my own feet? Are you crazy? NO! And neither is Adriene. It was a very odd sensation for me the first time I rubbed my own feet. I love having my feet rubbed, tickled, etc. I never thought to do it myself.
There’s a sense of overwhelming, all-encompassing love for yourself when you rub your own feet. I almost cried the first time I rubbed my feet, and Adriene said I would.
Harvest something from your garden!
I stumbled upon this one by accident. It was a long, long day on the homestead and I had some things that just needed to be harvested. Since I’d already put it off for about a week I forced myself to go out there with a stool and get to it.
I’m so happy I did! Sitting there, just my garden and I, the sun was setting, the chickens were quiet, and all was well in that moment. It made me realize I was too hard on myself that day. Tomorrow’s another day, so I looked forward to it…and then sauteed some fresh green beans!
Make a cup of tea
Y’all, I love tea. My mom used to have a coffee shop and she ordered the nicest, fair-trade teas. When she decided to close her cafe she gave me all her loose leaf teas and I couldn’t have been happier about it!
Pair this act of self-love with a bath and your favorite CD and you’ll forget all about that tough day you had.
Write down three things you achieved that day
You can do this one after you write down what went wrong! It can be very reassuring to write down three things that you ‘did right’ in a day. Some days I feel like nothing has gone my way, everything went wrong that could’ve, I did nothing right, and the list goes on.
I’ll sit down and write a few things in my journal that went right, take a breathe, and try to continue with my evening. You can make a cup of tea, write in your journal, and follow it up with a yoga session.
Stay off social media
Friends, this is the most important in my opinion. After a bad day, it’s so easy to pick up your phone or log on to the computer and zone out with some mindless scrolling. There are other things you can do to zone out that’ll be better for your mind and stress-levels. Social media rarely helps me on a bad day.
Actually, we’ll have a little confession session before I log off. My Sundays are supposed to be my cleaning days. Today (Sunday) I became consumed in Facebook and just scrolling through the internet, sitting on my butt all day!
I was in a terrible mood and didn’t know why, on the verge of crying, like watery eyes, and just didn’t know what was wrong.
So, I slowed down and realized I had done nothing but sit at the computer almost all day. I took a deep breath, did some yoga and meditation, and followed it with a hot shower. Writing this, I feel so much better because I slowed down and practiced self-love.
Have you started practicing self love?
If you try any of these or already practice them, I’d love to hear about it. Loving yourself and caring for your mental health is extremely important. If you have something you do to practice self-love that isn’t on this list, I’d love to hear about it down in the comments!
Great text and your whole blog, that I found a few days ago. I vote for numbers 1, 5, 11 and 12 (but coffee).
Thanks Katerina! I love coffee, too.
Is your last name green or did you just like the name green acres?
We actually live on a street called “Green Acres” and own 1.25 acres of land, so that’s where “The Green Acre” came from. One full acre on Green Acres St. and here we homestead. We played with the idea of “The Green Acre and a quarter” but stuck with just The Green Acre!
Thank you for this! As homestead farm-hers we often forget to take care of ourselves. And I often just draw a blank when I’m feeling burnt out or struggling around here. I’m actually taking an extended social media break for a while to help recharge and refocus. I’ll be picking a few more of these suggestions over the next few days!
You’re very welcome, Nichole. I love the “farm-hers” term! The same thing happens to me when I’m feeling burnt out or particularly struggling. I was working on a little thing I’m writing the other day and my fingers wrote “When I failed, I rejoiced because it meant there was something to overcome. The feeling of overcoming failure was far more surreal than the feeling of failure itself, and that’s what I kept in mind.”. After I read it back to myself I smiled. It was a thought I never had “out loud” but it was there in my mind. Social media wears me down, also. Often on the weekends, I stay away from it. It’s my way of a mini-recharge, just as you’re using it! I hope you find a rejuvenating wave of hope for the future steps of your journey and I’d love to hear from you again.