Simple ways to begin nurturing yourself and start making self-renewal part of your everyday life.

Physical Care
Eat healthy energizing foods that make you feel great
Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated
Get enough sleep, take naps
Exercise to replenish your energy and manage stress
Nurture your body: take a hot aromatherapy bath or give yourself a foot massage

Emotional Care

• Have a heart-to-heart with a close friend or mentor
• Have kind and loving thoughts about yourself--try not criticizing yourself for one week!
• Seek out support from a therapist, coach, social worker or counselor
• Go on a fun date alone or with your partner or organize a monthly girls’ night out
• Write down your feelings and thoughts in a journal

Spiritual Care

• Take time to be by yourself to think or write
• Meditate, pray or just reflect on what you’re grateful for
• Do something creative: paint/draw/write/dance/sing.
• Volunteer for a cause you’re passionate about.

Mental Care  

• Read a good book or see an intellectually stimulating movie.
• Sign up for a class, group or workshop on a topic that is interesting to you.
• Challenge yourself to learn something new—get out of your comfort zone.

This excerpt is based on The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal: How to Reclaim, Rejuvenate and Re-Balance Your Life, by coach/speaker Renee Peterson Trudeau. Click here to download your copy, and learn more at: www.reneetrudeau.com.