055: Self-Care in Minutes: Easy Practices for a Busy Life

In this episode of The Strong Bones Coach Podcast, Carly shares time-saving self-care tips that won’t overwhelm your busy schedule but will help you feel more balanced and grounded. Learn how to nurture your mind, body, and spirit with simple practices like 5-minute journaling, breath awareness, and joyful movement. 

Carly also addresses how to move away from guilt around self-care and provides actionable steps to fit it into your life without adding extra stress.

Key Takeaways:

• How to care for your mind with quick reflection and breath awareness.
• Fast, effective ways to support your body with gentle movement and nourishing foods.
• Self-care practices that can be done in just a few minutes to help you feel centered.

Feeling overwhelmed or unsure where to start? Book a free 30-minute Clarity Call with Carly to untangle the confusion and create a self-care routine that fits your life. 

Visit carlykillen.com to book your call today.

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If you'd like to get in touch to ask a question about today's episode or to find out how you can get support from my coaching, reach out on the following links:

hello@carlykillencoaching.com

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Thanks for listening to The Strong Bones Coach Podcast!

If you’d like to get in touch with a question about today’s episode or find out how I can support you with coaching, here’s how to reach me:
📧 Email: hello@carlykillencoaching.com
📱 Instagram: @thestrongbonescoach

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Transcript

Carly: 0:37

Hello and welcome back to the Strong Bones Coach Podcast. I'm Carly and today we are diving into some seasonal self care. Today I'm going to help you create a self care routine that can really nurture you through these autumn months that we have ahead of us, making sure we are taking the best care of Our mind, body, and spirit, as best we can anyway. That's all we can ever ask of ourselves, so don't worry. I know you're super busy, and life can really feel like it's running away from you, especially if you're balancing family, career, and your own health. In today's episode, I'll be sharing simple, time efficient self care tips that won't feel like just another thing on your to do list. Because let's face it, self care is something we often push to the side when life feels overwhelming. But it's also what helps us stay grounded, balanced, and able to give to others without running on empty. So let's get started. I want to start with our mind, our inner self. Now autumn is a time of change, and it's also a wonderful opportunity to pause and reflect, even if it's just for a few minutes. And I get it, it's absolutely chaotic around you. Perhaps you have the kids, grandkids, maybe even various animals that you might be taking care of that don't usually live with you. And of course we have our usually family work commitments. Finding time for yourself might feel almost impossible. But here's the thing, you don't need to do hours of self care to do something meaningful for your mind. So I'm going to share with you. Some simple ways to weave in some self care for your mental well being, even on the busiest of days. So first, we're going to start with journaling, in five minutes or less. So there's no need for these long, deep reflections, unless you want to. I would love to make space for that, of course you can. But even if you started with writing down three things that you feel grateful for, Or a quick thought about how you're feeling. This is a small act that can just really help you to shift your focus from stress from future worries and anxiety. over to gratitude. So you can do this before bed, or even on a lunch break, perhaps you might want to start your day like this. And even if it feels a bit too much, there's something I really like to do from time to time, and that is to write just one word per day, especially if you want to do this in like a mini pocketbook, something like So if you want to give it a go, the way I like to do it is to just close your eyes down, take a couple of deep slow breaths, and then just write down the first word that comes to mind. This can be super interesting to revisit, and perhaps your inner voice has a little message for you, Or maybe something to just make you laugh. Who knows? Maybe give it a go if you want to find out. Second tip, practice some breath awareness. Maybe even use it as a 60 second reset. So if you are feeling overwhelmed, just take one minute to focus on your breath. You can pay attention to your natural inhale and exhale without trying to change anything, just noticing the rhythm. You might then notice if you're breathing through your nose or your mouth, if you're breathing at the top of your chest or into your belly, you might notice that you're holding your breath. I noticed how I didn't say you needed to sit down anywhere, close your eyes. You can do this anywhere. Paying attention to your breath is all it takes. And perhaps this gives you an opportunity to have that little reset throughout the day. If you notice you're holding your breath, you might also notice your shoulders are up by your ears. So by practicing this simple act of breath awareness, you can use this as a grounding into the present moment. This is a great way to reduce stress. And thirdly, perhaps try unplugging from information overload. So today we're often bombarded with information, whether that's news, social media, so a mini detox every day, perhaps a five minutes timer in the morning or evening where the phone goes out of reach or disconnect just to help yourself refocus your mind and create a little bit more peace in your day. There is no way you can do these things wrong. These are all just suggestions to help inspire you, because when we are super busy it can feel like we'll never be able to make the time for ourselves, so I hope these are going to be helpful. So now that we've covered off mental well being, let's talk about the body. Autumn is a time many of us feel a need to slow down. And it's important to listen to those signals. But that doesn't mean we have to stop moving completely. Movement is also a form of self care. And it doesn't have to take a lot of time to be effective. We can do more than just our gym workouts or training sessions. And if that's something that you're not currently included, then don't worry. Here's some other ways that we can start to incorporate movements, which you may want to build upon going forwards. But here's how we can build it in when we have no time. So a few quick ways that we can tune into our body over the autumn season. A before bed stretch. So after a long day, it's easy to just collapse on the couch, but we can just give ourselves five minutes of gentle stretching before bed. It can make the world of difference to your body. Okay. The way I see it, we go to bed like a pretzel, we're going to wake up like a pretzel. If you ever feel like you're waking up with a crick in your neck or back, just feeling like you need to do that stretch first thing in the morning, it might be that you're going to bed feeling totally stressed out, crumpled up, full of tension. So this is a great way to release that tension before bed. Perhaps focus on giving your legs a stretch, the lower back, some simple neck stretches. These are great ways to release tension in these areas where we tend to store a lot throughout the day. So stretching helps relieve stiffness, it improves our circulation, that's a great way to prepare for a restful night's sleep. Secondly, focusing on the body, getting out for a walk in nature. So just a 10 to 15 minute walk outside, especially when we get to observe the changing leaves, get the fresh air, and if we can get out there in the daylight, it can do wonders for your mood and your body just to see the change in the daylight, the natural beauty that we can experience in the fresh air, and whatever natural beauties we get to see around us, no matter where we are, even if it's a few blades of grass, the one tree on your street. It can instantly boost your energy and clear your mind, even if you can only squeeze in a quick stroll between errands or clients. So don't feel held to the 10 to 15 minutes. The quickest walk around the block can do, even maybe taking a cup of tea out in the garden. Just start where you can start, where you are now. What do you think you can manage within your day? And thirdly, another way to take care of the body is to nourish it with seasonal foods. So self care also includes what we're putting into our bodies. And for autumn we start to see availability of different foods. So it's a great time to focus on warming, nutrient dense foods like soups, stews, roasted veggies. Think of it as a way to nurture your body from the inside out. Simple swaps, adding extra vegetables to dinner, focusing on those colours and what's available in the shops can just make a big difference. to your body, your health and help your immune system fend off those colds that can start to go around this time of year. So next we've covered mind, body. Next we're going to cover spirit or soul or whatever you like to call that inner part of you, that bit that lights you up. That's how I like to see it. So when we're caring for our spirits, it might sound like that's something that requires a lot of time, but this type of self care can be as simple as finding moments of peace throughout the day. We can start with something like five minutes of quiet. This could be sitting with a cup of tea in silence, closing your eyes for a few moments in the car before picking up the kids, or even stepping outside and feeling the cool autumn breeze. These moments of stillness can help you reconnect to yourself and to help you feel more grounded. Secondly, joyful movements. So I know we've done mind and body, but can you see how a lot of these join up? We could take our cup of tea out in the garden and benefit from the quiet, some nourishment and being outside. And it's the same with joyful movement. It's movement, but it's the way we go about it that makes a difference. One of the most amazing ways that we can lift our spirits is through movements that feels joyful and not forced. So it can be a five minute dance break in the living room, short yoga flow, a few minutes of Tai Chi. For me it's dancing in the kitchen while I'm cooking, just take care you don't knock any pots off the stove. But whatever it is for you, this type of movements can help you connect your body, lift your spirits in a way that can leave you feeling so much lighter. And lastly, bringing in a gratitude ritual. So perhaps you might want to carve out one or two minutes of your day to pause and reflect on something that you're grateful for. Something that's lifted you for the day. So if you can carve out one to two minutes to pause and reflect on something you're grateful for. You're doing more to lift your spirits than you might realise. It could be as simple as appreciating a hot cup of coffee, perhaps a cup of soup this time of year, or the vibrant autumn leaves. As I mentioned before, gratitude can truly shift your energy and bring you back to what truly matters to you. We can very easily get distracted in the day to day, saying yes to things we may or may not have wanted to, had we given it more thought. So the more time that we can give to ourselves to just shift into our own values, and where we get our own purpose and meaning from. it will start to spread out into those moments, be able to make some more aligned choices and perhaps create some better boundaries. But that's the whole of the podcast. And I know that some of you listening might be Feeling a bit guilty for trying to take this time for yourself. Maybe it feels self indulgent, maybe when you've got so many plates spinning it feels like you really do not have the time for yourself to set aside at all. But here's the thing though, self care isn't selfish, it's how we restore ourselves so we can show up for the people who rely on us. And that starts with showing up for ourselves. So it is important that you make sure that these little bits are Simple and doable. You can create a routine that doesn't feel like another thing on your to do list. Instead, it just becomes part of how you take care of yourself, just like brushing your teeth or drinking water. So as we move further into the season of change, I invite you to take a few minutes to think about how you might nurture your mind, body and your spirits. Maybe it's the quick walk, a stretch before bed, or simply giving yourself permission to breathe deeply for a few moments. And if you are feeling overwhelmed or unsure about where to start, I am offering free 30 minute clarity calls to help you create a self care routine that fits your life and brings you balance. So you can book this call through the link in the show notes via my website. I hope you found that super supportive this week and well done for taking the time to listen to the podcast. I'm always super grateful for all your support. So until next time, remember, taking care of yourself is the foundation for everything else for you to build upon. So stay well, stay strong, and I will see you next week.