Valentine’s Day is a day of happiness, togetherness, and love. However, for some, it can also bring anxiety, loneliness, and depression. Whatever you’re feeling on this holiday, we’re here to tell you: 1) Your feelings are valid; and 2) You deserve to feel good about yourself and have great day. Without doubt, one of the best ways to feel good about yourself is to take good care of yourself.
At evolvedMD, we’re intentionally thoughtful about cultivating a culture around self-care and well-being so that our employees can be their best selves in both their personal and professional lives. Today, we’d like to invite you to join us in a day of showing ourselves love through a series of self-care activities. Read below for activities, the benefits of each one, and a simple challenge to go with it.
1. Stay Hydrated
While you may reach for that bottle of red wine (and that’s okay) nothing shows love for your physical and mental health quite like drinking water and staying hydrated. We’ve long understood that drinking water is good for you, and that dehydration has been linked to a litany of physical and mental health problems across the board. That makes this self-care tip a no-brainer to kick off your day of self-care this Valentine’s Day.
Benefit: Drinking water can improve mood and lower the risk of anxiety and depression.
V-Day Challenge: Drink half your body weight in ounces today.
2. Treat Yourself to a Dinner Date
Whether you’re stressing over booking a reservation or just want to avoid busy restaurants altogether, you can still nourish your mind and body with a cooked meal at home. Hit the grocery store—or boot up Instacart—and get ready to cook up and nosh on a delicious, energizing meal. Go ahead and light a candle and dim the lights as well.
Benefit: Eating healthy boasts numerous benefits including a boost in mood, improved brain function, and better overall self-esteem.
V-Day Challenge: Cook yourself one of these healthy Valentine’s Day dinner recipes.
3. Do Yoga
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Courtesy of Erik Osland, evolvedMD’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner, practicing yoga is a great way to ease into the day and fall into a more relaxed sleep at the end of the day. Whether you’re advanced or a first timer, anyone can do yoga and reap similar physical and mental health benefits.
Benefit: Practicing yoga creates mental clarity and calmness.
V-Day Challenge: Do a 10-minute morning yoga session with Kassandra, Erik’s favorite yoga instructor.
4. Go Outside
Wherever you are in the world, we don’t want you locked up inside all day if you can avoid it. Spending more time outdoors is critical to enhancing your overall well-being, and all it takes is just 10 minutes of your day. Go before work, during your lunch break, or after work—it’ll feel good to get some fresh air.
Benefit: Going outside can improve attention, lower stress, and enhance your mood.
V-Day Challenge: Go for a stroll through the park, hike in the wilderness, or ride a bicycle.
5. Express Your Gratitude to Someone
Gratitude makes the world go round, and practicing it regularly is consistently associated with greater psychological and emotional health. Best of all, there is a near infinite number of ways to express gratitude whether it’s saying kind words, making a scrapbook, buying someone lunch, or making a playlist of their favorite songs.
Benefit: Showing gratitude can make you more optimistic and lead to lower rates of stress.
V-Day Challenge: Show gratitude to someone you care about with a self-care gift from this list.
6. Write Yourself a Love Letter
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Positive affirmations are statements that can help you overcome self-sabotaging and negative thoughts. Standing in front of a mirror and saying “You are kind. You are beautiful. You deserve to have a great day,” is one way to do this. Journaling is another easy and affordable way to replace negative thinking patterns with more positive ones.
Benefit: Journaling regularly reduces stress, regulates emotions, boosts memory.
V-Day Challenge: Write yourself a love letter in your journal today.
7. Reach Out to an Old Friend or Family Member
Showing others that you care and are thinking about them will in turn make you feel warm and fuzzy, too. Sure, you can shoot them a text with a Valentine’s Day gif, but we think it will do you some good to hear their voice—we guarantee they want to hear yours, too!
Benefit: Talking on the phone can relieve anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
V-Day Challenge: Call up an old friend or family member. If possible, pay them a visit and tell them how much you appreciate them.
8. Make an Appointment with Your Therapist or Primary Care Physician
As a behavioral health integration company, we’d be remiss if we didn’t include this one in the list. Therapy offers a broad array of benefits for all of us and it’s always helpful to talk things through with an unbiased third party. If you don’t have a therapist or are struggling to find one, make an appointment with your primary care provider for a health check—they may be able to connect you with a therapist, or better yet, they offer behavioral health treatment right next door in the same building.
Benefit: Seeing a therapist can help you cope with anxiety, depression, relationship issues, and more.
V-Day Challenge: Book an appointment with your therapist or primary care physician.
9. Enjoy Silence
Self-care doesn’t have to involve busy activities. Simply sitting in and appreciating silence can be beneficial to your overall health. Sit with your thoughts, listen to the peaceful sounds of the world around you, and block all that extra noise out of your hectic day.
Benefit: Silence can stimulate brain growth and relieve tension
V-Day Challenge: Sit in silence for 20 minutes and reflect on your day.
10. Sleep
You’ve had a busy day taking care of yourself and participating in challenges, now get some sleep – you’ve earned it.
Benefit: Sleep can improve creativity and problem solving, lower the likelihood of depression, and increase life expectancy
V-Day Challenge: Get 8 hours of sleep tonight.
For more self-care ideas and tips,
check out our curated list from the evolvedMD team.