Hello Self Care Sunday!
Whoever came up with the term ‘Self Care Sunday’ I want to personally thank you.
Sundays are already a day we take to wind down, enjoy time with family and get a little rest and relaxation, so allocating Sundays to self care makes so much sense!
You most likely ended up on this post because you desperately need to add self care to your routine or you’re looking for new ways to practice self care.
If you aren’t getting enough self care in your life make sure to read the next two sections before checking out your self care Sunday ideas.
This will help you remember why you sometimes need to take care of yourself first.
Related: Self Care 101: 9 Ways to Look After You
Why is Self Care Important?
It’s called balance! We all want it, need it and honestly, aren’t getting enough of it. This is where self care comes in.
Here are a Few Ways Self Care Can Help You:
- Better work-life balance
- Having a healthy lifestyle
- Reducing stress
- Improve physical and mental health
- Create an intentional life
Self care is even more important for people who are giving to others most of the time.
Without self care we begin to burn out, become stressed and can go on an emotional rollercoaster.
Self care is essential in creating the life we want and love.
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How to Create Your Own Self Care Sunday Routine
Making sure you dedicate the time for self care is about commitment. Ensuring you follow through on your commitment is mandatory!
The easy part here is we are already dedicating Sunday for self care. How and when you follow through on self care is up to you.
If you’re lucky you can dedicate a whole day to self care, but here are a few more realistic ways you can allocate time for self care:
- Quick self care activity (15 minutes or less)
- Take a mini self care break (30 minutes to an hour)
- Allocate a chunk of the morning to self care (2 – 3 hours)
- Full morning or afternoon of self care (3 – 5 hours)
To Do:
- Select the period of time you can commit to from the choices above
- Block out your calendar for this Sunday and try some of these ideas below…
*Also, find time to practice self care every day of the week with these gorgeous printable self care worksheets (includes 75 new ideas)!
47 Self Care Sunday Ideas For You To Try
As mentioned above there are a handful of different ways you can allocate time to self care.
The following self care Sunday ideas are broken down for the above time segments to help you create your perfect self care routine.
This post contains affiliate links. Disclosure info here.
Quick Self Care Activities (15 minutes or less)
- Make a cup of your favourite tea
- Go for a stroll around the block and practice mindful walking
- Diffuse relaxing essential oils
- Make yourself a healthy smoothie
- Read a chapter of a book or a short story
- Pull out a colouring book for adults
- Write in a gratitude journal
- Lie down and cuddle (your pet, your pillow, your blanket)
- Meditate – try the Calm app if you’re new to meditation
- Listen to some feel good music and have a dance session in your kitchen
- Use a foot massager – this is the one I use that I am obsessed with
- Write a love letter to yourself and mail it. I really mean this 🙂 When the letter arrives you will have forgotten what you wrote and love how it makes you feel!
Take a Mini Self Care Break (30 minutes to an hour)
- Have a bath with all the goodies – candles, essential oils, relaxing music
- Take a nap with the coziest blanket you own
- Get a manicure
- Take your dog for a walk
- Bake something you love – these muffins are my fave
- Go for a walk in the park
- Look at old photos
- Get a professional massage
- Listen to a podcast that inspires you – I highly recommend I’m Busy Being Awesome with Paula Engebretson
- Go for a run or workout
- Listen to a chapter of an audiobook – I’m currently listening to Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Make a yummy comfort dish and enjoy
- Call an old friend
- Write a life bucket list
Allocate Most of the Morning to Self Care (2 – 3 hours)
- Brunch with a friend
- Go on a hike
- Create your own spa retreat (shower with essential oils, face mask, do your nails, relax with green tea, have a nap)
- Go to the movies – and even better see something that YOU love (not what others want)
- Go on a date with yourself
- If you’re a music lover create a nostalgic Spotify playlist or two
- Take a Sunday class (something you’ve always wanted to do, but never made time for) – Indian cooking, belly dancing, calligraphy, painting, yoga – the list goes on!
- Go fruit picking (whatever is in season)
- Do a little Netflix binge
- Work on a meaningful project – photo album, scrapbook, writing
Full Morning or Afternoon of Self Care (3 – 5 hours)
- Visit a farmers market and treat yourself to some new foods
- Get a spa treatment followed by a healthy lunch
- Go on a picnic
- Relax at the beach – this is even one of my favourites when the weather is colder
- Have friends over for brunch – do a potluck to make it easy
- Go to an art gallery or museum
- Attend a book club with friends – if you’re not part of a book club, start one!
- Be a tourist in your own city
- Spend the day with family creating memories
- Meal prep your favourite dishes for the week ahead – listen to some great music or an audiobook while cooking
- Veg out – yep, just turn your mind off and chill
Get more self care inspiration here!
My Ideal Self Care Sunday Routine
The perfect self care Sunday for myself is to make sure I get some quality time outside – ideally in the countryside if possible.
I grew up in a tiny village surrounded by countryside and my Sundays as a kid consisted of horse back riding, church and playing outside with friends – followed by the best family dinners in the evening.
When I was in my twenties I lived in England and spent Sundays going on long hikes through the English countryside.
After being back in Canada and living in the city for the past 15+ years all I want on a Sunday is some good quality outside time and I’ll take it any way I can find it…
Farmers markets, dog park, gardening, long walks. Add some tea drinking and family time and I am a happy girl!
I want to know from you…
What Does Your Perfect Self Care Sunday Look Like?!
Tell me all about what you do to practice self care, or what you’d like to try from the above list.
Share in the comments below…
Related Self Care Articles:
- Morning Self Care Activities To Start Your Day
- Essential Oils and Your Daily Self Care Habits
- Self Care Checklist for the Holidays
- No Time for Self Care? Try These Tips
- 25 Self Love Affirmations + Free Worksheet
For more inspiration and to get the latest post from Put The Kettle On, let’s connect!
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Yolanda xo
You’ve got some great suggestions! I personally turn to my dog 9 times out of 10 – Whether I’m cuddling her on the couch or taking her for a walk, she always calms me down and makes me feel far better.
Hey Britt, Thanks! I hear you. Dogs provide the best love, comfort and self care 🙂 I’m in love with my fur baby too!
This is a great list of ideas. It’s so important to take care of ourselves so that we can take care of the others in our life.
There is something about Sunday afternoons that makes me want to rest and relax. For me, that means making a list of things I want to get done in the next week. It clears my brain so I don’t spend the week trying to figure out what going on and feeling anxious that I’m forgetting things.
I work too much on weekends. I need to get better at balancing. That foot massager is definitely on my wish list now!
These are such wonderful ideas! I especially like the gratitude journal and the mindful walk ideas. I need to get the calm app too! I really needed a reminder to take time out for myself! Thank you!
Meditating is a great one. It’s one of the best ways to relieve my stress. I’ll have to check out the Calm app!
-Jennifer
https://jennifermaune.com
Being a tourist in your own city is a great idea – I live in Las Vegas, so I have no excuse not to do this 😂
Hi Serena, Oh yes! You can be the ultimate tourist in Vegas. So much fun!
I love how simple so many of these are!!! Lots of ideas here ☺️
Hey Megan! Thanks. That’s what I tried to show – that we can truly look after ourselves without a lot of effort. xo
Hi Yolanda,
Great post. I’m going to try several of these ideas for rest and relaxation!
Hi Linda, Thanks so much. I hope you enjoy your Sunday!!
I just love that idea of making a routine – of course!! So important!
Thanks Rosemary! Sometimes we have to be mindful about adding self care to our routine so that it actually happens!
These are such great self care ideas. I take a few minutes for myself in the morning. I get up early and drink my coffee with my feet in a foot massager for 15 minutes.
Hi Lizzie! A foot massage every morning sounds fantastic! I have one too so I’m going to give this a try tomorrow with my morning tea. Thanks for the idea 🙂
Wow, what a nice spread of different ideas! I made February my designated self-care month!
Hey Evelyn! A designated self care month sounds incredible! I hope you enjoy every minute and find some new ways to feel good 🙂
Self care is a struggle of mine. I spend all of my time working or trying to care for others. I love that many of these options don’t need a lot of set up and can be achieved easily, though they still provide self care benefits.
Lot’s of amazing tips! I always say I need a break from the kids haha, but when I have any sort of self care extended period of time it always includes them. They love to learn new ideas too.
Such a good read. Really enjoyed this article.
Some great ideas for even just adding a little more self care into daily routines too
This is very important! There are very new ideas that I will consider adding to my self care routine. I find self care sunday really important for the week ahead.
I LOVE how you broke these self-care ideas into time groups! I feel like on some Sundays I have plenty of free time and other Sundays I can spare 15 minutes. Thank you for giving me a bunch of great self-care ideas.
I’m always talking about how important self-care is! It’s great seeing more and more people talking about it. I love how you split the self care activities into short and long, its great that people understand that practicing self-care isn’t just having a bath for 10 minutes. There is so much more to it. Thank you for writing this 🙂 Love your blog!