Self-Care Day 20

Wake Up 15 Minutes Early

I’m not at all a morning person, but I’ve kind of made myself one in the last year or so. I’m sure many of you can appreciate during this pandemic finding “alone time” when EVERYONE is home. ALL. THE. TIME.


My answer was to drag my butt out of bed an hour earlier in the morning. I use the “quiet time” to read or get some work done when I have something I need to think about with less distraction.

It can be 15, 30, 60 minutes earlier. You might need baby steps, just creep your alarm back 5 minutes each day or week. What will you do with your extra time?

Self-Care Day 19

Create a Bucket List

How many of you have an actual written/typed-out bucket list? Or are you like me, where “things I’d like to do sometime in this lifetime” just sort of rattle around in your head and maybe you remember them, maybe you promptly forget them?

Writing down your dreams and goals can be an important step in actually accomplishing them. Plus, you won’t forget to watch for the opportunity to check that item off your list. If it’s randomly floating around in your brain, you’ll probably only remember it at weird times when you can’t do anything about it. 🙃

Like your accomplishments list, your bucket list can be as simple or as fancy as you like. Add another page to the file on your computer, grab a new color sticky note, or whip out all those scrapbooking tools you got!

However you do it, just get them written down where you can see them occasionally and remind yourself what you’re working so hard for!

Self-Care Day 2

Make a Goals List

“Resolutions” make me cringe-y. Most don’t last a month for me. So, this year, I’m thinking about some goals. Yes, fitness is among them, but other stuff, too. Like, you know, self-care. Business goals. Have more fun. Make more art.

If you kick @$$ at resolutions, you go, you rockstar! If they freak you out, maybe just take this beginning of a new year to set a few goals for yourself. Make small ones, like setting your alarm a little earlier, or big ones, like a trip (pandemic willing). Give yourself something to look forward to, rather than something you HAVE to do.

30 Days of Self-Care

A Self-Care Reset for the New Year

Happy New Year! I don’t know about you all, but I’m a bit of a mess from the last couple of years, and I was inspired to create a way for myself and any of you who want to do a self-care reset to get started.

There are a lot of self-care checklists out there, but a lot of them are geared towards just moms or include more “pampering” stuff than actual self-care. So, I scoured the interwebs and found the parts I liked the most, threw in a few of my own, and ideas from friends.

Now, I’m pleased to present “30 Days of Self-Care” – a self-care reset from Birch Tree Wellness. I will share one a day through January. They will be on Facebook, Instagram, and my website. At the end of the month, I’ll also create a checklist of all 30 so you can use it as a reference throughout the year.

An important tip: Don’t stress yourself out trying to self-care yourself. You don’t have to do them on the exact day I post them. It’s okay to skip a day. It’s okay to skip the ones you don’t like. Just do what you can and what speaks to you. That’s part of the process.

Notably, you won’t see “get a massage” on this list. That’s kind of a given, but also I tried to keep this list mostly free or minimal expense. I know you’ll get a massage if that’s what you need.

Let the self-care begin!