10 Essential Self-Care Tips for a Healthier You

It’s important that we’re all prioritizing our health where we can. Whether it’s the small things like drinking more water, to getting a good night’s sleep every night by going to bed at the same time. These self-care tips all contribute to a healthier and happier you.

However, achieving all of that is easier said than done. In order to focus on your self-care in 2025, you need to find ways that it can fit into your current lifestyle and busy calendar. Here are ten essential self-care tips that you can work on in order to achieve a healthier you. 

Some might not be as easy as others will be, but the more you can incorporate into your life, the better!

1. Try to get a good night’s sleep

When it comes to looking after your well-being, the amount of sleep you get and the quality of that sleep will certainly impact the way you feel whether it be mentally, physically, or both.

With that in mind, you should be trying to get a good night’s sleep every night. That’s at least seven hours of sleep. If that’s not what you’re getting right now, you might want to switch up your routine in order to get a good night’s sleep in. That could be going to bed early or getting up a bit later than you usually would.

If it’s the quality of sleep you’re struggling to get or you find yourself having difficulty falling asleep, change up your environment. This might be investing in blackout blinds to keep the room as dark as possible. You might want to look at playing white noise to block out all the sound that might be waking you up in the night or while you’re trying to sleep.

2. Drink more water

Water is a really important part of your health because as humans, we’re made up of mostly water. If you’re not drinking enough water, then chances are it’s good to make you feel more lethargic and tired. You may also be prone to more headaches as a result of not drinking enough throughout the day.

A good way to ensure you’re drinking plenty of water every day is by spending money on a water bottle that tracks how much you drink. When you fill it up and see how much you’re drinking throughout the day, you’re likely to feel more inclined to drink more if you’re not seeing much being drunk.

You should be drinking around a liter or so of water a day in order to feel fit and healthy, so make sure that’s the case. If you don’t like water, then you could always look at flavoring your water in different ways. This could be with fresh fruit or vegetables for example. You could always use a cordial or artificial flavoring that will make your water taste great. 

3. Do physical activities that you enjoy 

We all need to do at least twenty-five to forty-five minutes of exercise a day. It’s good to help get the heart pumping blood around the body and to keep your body active in general. However, you shouldn’t do exercises or sports that other people have recommended you do, if you don’t enjoy it.

Finding the right sports and exercise is a great way to get into shape without it feeling like too much of a struggle. With that being said, look at what exercise or sports classes excite you the most. If you’ve not found anything that brings you joy, then it might be a case of experimenting some more and finding what you love eventually.

When you find something you love doing that’s a great exercise for the body, it’ll no longer feel like a chore or struggle. Try to find someone that you can do your workouts with as that can provide you with the motivation you’re after.

4. Manage your stress

Management of stress is definitely something to be mindful of when it comes to looking after yourself. When it comes to your self-care, you should look at where that stress in your life is coming from and what you might be able to do to remove that stress.

This could be stress within the workplace or a relationship that’s turned toxic and causing you unwanted stress that wasn’t there before. There will be stress that you can control and others are just part and parcel of life.

Where the stress cannot be removed, you should find outlets that help to counteract and balance out the stress you feel. When the stress doesn’t need to be in your life, like toxic relationships, consider cutting them out in order to benefit your mental health.

5. Make use of meditation and alternative medications

Meditation can be a great way to relax and stress from life’s challenges. This is something that many people do on a regular basis, typically in the mornings once they’ve arisen from their sleepy slumber, or at some point in the evening as they wind down for bed.

With meditation, you’ve got an opportunity to take a moment or two to relax and reflect. With such busy lifestyles, it can be hard to slow down or even take a breath sometimes, especially when it comes to career-driven individuals.

The use of meditation alongside alternative medications like cannabis can be a great way to combine the two and deliver fantastic results for those who want to improve their well-being in general. Cannabis is known for promoting self-care, mindfulness, and relaxing the body, beyond its typical psychedelic properties that most people would know it for.

6. Write in a journal or diary

If you’re someone who enjoys writing, then you might want to consider writing in a journal or diary. This is a great way to relieve your mind of all the thoughts and feelings you may have built up for some time over the course of the day or week.

We often tend to keep our thoughts and feelings locked away internally and that’s not always the healthiest approach when improving your wellbeing. You may find that journaling or having a diary will help to improve your state of mind as a result.

Journaling is less of a commitment than writing in a diary, so it’s worth weighing up both of them and considering which one is more your style.

7. Take the time to pamper yourself every so often

Taking the time to pamper yourself every so often is definitely something you can do more than you might be doing now. A lot of people don’t find the time in their day to pamper themselves and so often find that they’ll avoid doing so in favor of perhaps prioritizing other people instead.

It’s been said that you can’t do your best when you’re pouring from an empty cup, so it’s imperative that you take the time to pamper yourself and provide the self-care that you need in different ways when it’s required. Whether that’s a bubble bath during the weekday or going away with a family member to get away from the hustle and bustle of life itself.

8. Avoid fad diets but focus on moderation

Fad diets are never going to do your body any favors, which is why you should look at fad diets as a practice that doesn’t often work as well as you’d like it to.

It’s all about eating food you enjoy but doing so with a focus on moderation. Moderation is going to help you eat more healthily and without having to sacrifice anything that you really love.

When it comes to moderation, look at your plate size and consider reducing your portion sizes so that you’re not filling yourself up too much but enough that it curbs your hunger and keeps you full for long enough.

9. Practice gratitude 

Gratitude is something that is always important to practice. It can often be forgotten how blessed life can be, even when there’s a lot of bad stuff going on at the time. It’s great to take stock of what you do have and to be appreciative of that in life where possible.

With gratitude, it’s good to note down what you’ve achieved, and what you have that you’re grateful for and then keep this somewhere close by to reflect on when you can. A gratitude board or journal can work well, or simply add it to an ongoing note via your smartphone.

10. Don’t forget about the connection

Connection with other human beings is important. Whether you’re an introvert, an extrovert, or an introverted extrovert, everyone needs connections in life and social interaction to feel human again.

You should therefore find the time to make time with your friends, family members, work colleagues, and anyone you have a close connection with. These relationships are helpful not only for your mental health but for making life fun and exciting.

Self-care is an important part of living a long and healthy life. With that in mind, try to focus your attention on self-care this year for a healthier you and one that is happier too.