Self care day

[BuddhaAtSea]

I negotiated a fixed day off in the week, a whole day. Sometimes I’ll have appointments or what have you, but I managed to make time for admin/cooking/cleaning/shopping in a different day, so I keep one day a week to myself.
I run on adrenaline, cortisol and caffeine, I know where the problem is, so my solution is to ring fence one day a week for self care. What I never had was a day to do nothing others need me to do.
So. What the hell do I do? What is that, a day to look after myself? Do any of you have it? What do you do?
Because I’m sitting here thinking I can go for a run, then to a stretch class, then to the allotment, then I can tidy up, then I can etc etc etc. Basically I’m busying myself cause now I have yet another task 😂.
Ideas appreciated.

It depends if you are the type who relaxes by being busy or by doing nothing.
So options range from nap, spa day , swimming, gym , hiking, being in nature etc.

I would suggest a duvet day or at least a few hours at home.

If it's a regular thing, you could do different things each week . The more you have a these self care days, the more you will know what to do.

Well it is a nice dilemma to have 😁. I am terrible for filling up every last second I have available….and then complain I’m tired when it’s entirely self-inflicted. I’d suggest scheduling nothing immediately, have a list of activities to hand by all means so you don’t get bored by why not take each of these days as they come, see how you feel on the day and carve your day around that rather than deciding what you ‘should’ be doing. You might fall into a new routine but you might find one day you want to be quite active but on others days you want to relax. There are no rules and you are in charge of your own schedule that day.

Maybe just set some of the time aside to be bored. Give your mind chance to think, your body chance to rest and wind down. The art of doing nothing is not too popular nowadays but your body needs it.

@Mairzydotes I couldn’t honestly tell you how I relax, if I’m being truthful. The place that really calms my mind is the allotment, I really really love it. That’s hard physical work but I’m mindful of every leaf, bug, it’s quiet.
My problem is that my job is mentally and physically exhausting. So this one day, I think I need to take it easy from that point of view, to replenish/preserve some energy. You are right, it’s early day, I’ll probably have a better idea once I’ve had a few days like these. But I don’t want to fall into using it for doing stuff for others.

@Careerdecisions you make absolute sense, a ‘see how I feel on the day’ might be what I need. I do have that niggling voice in my head, and by the looks of it so do you, that we should be doing ‘something’. That’s the bit I struggle with. So if I can quieten that voice with a : ‘but I’m not just not doing nothing, I’m doing xyz’, I might just jump off the hamster wheel at some point.

@Commonsenseisnotsocommon 😂the art of doing nothing! I never had that skill. My mind won’t allow it. But one thing I did was buy a meditation work book, I’ll to the first exercise in a minute.

So far, I did 2 hours at the allotment, watched TV for a couple of hours, did a pilates class, had lunch and watched more TV, I’ll have a Power Nap, today was just the first day.

What do you do when you want to do nothing?

For me, a day to myself means I have nothing planned. I do whatever I feel like doing on the day, or nothing.

Make a pact with yourself to plan nothing. Don't set an alarm. Wake up when you wake up. See what you feel like doing on the day. But most importantly, don't beat yourself up over 'things you could be doing'.