For World Doula Week, Try These Self-Care Tips

Everyone can benefit from self-care, but many of us are too busy to make time for ourselves. No one knows about self-care better than doulas, who are trained to provide mothers with advice, support, and comfort at childbirth. For 2021 World Doula Week, March 22- 28, try these self-care tips from a doula.

It’s important to identify what self-care looks like to you. What activities are restorative for you? If you’re straining yourself to go to the gym every day to work out when you hate doing so, you’re draining yourself even further. Try to find a form of self-care that works better for your life.

Make sure to be flexible and forgiving in your efforts to care for yourself. Don’t beat yourself up for not sticking strictly to a specific method. If you decide you want to watch a movie and relax for your self-care time, that’s okay—you can try something else another time.

Turn your time to wash your face and brush your teeth into a relaxing routine where you try to find peace and relaxation while you’re caring for yourself. You can turn your commute into a mindfulness practice, breathing deeply and focusing on relaxing and being mindful. You can set reminders to drink water and focus on visualizing healing energy while you drink. When you eat, you can try doing so slowly, expressing gratitude for the food.

It’s important to pay attention to how you feel. Take some time to assess if your new self-care methods are doing what you intend them to do. Before you try a self-care method, ask yourself how you feel. Then afterwards, do so again and see if anything has changed.

When figuring out your unique self-care practice, make sure to account for where you might be in your cycle and how you might be affected by it. Women have rhythms and systems that change throughout the month, so try to be conscious of these while setting down a schedule for your self-care practices. Make sure you remember to care for yourself daily in whatever way feels right to you in that moment.