How To Practice Self-Care At Home This Season
Self-care has become a bit of a buzz-word of late. A catch-all term for everything from an at-home pamper sesh through to morning yoga, it takes the notion of wellness and distils it into digestible everyday acts.
While we’d usually shy away from such click-baity concepts, the moniker ‘self-care’ has given name to an idea we’ve long understood to be important: taking care of yourself as part of a deliberate ritual rather than a hurried afterthought. It’s with this in mind that we’ve come up with 5 ways you can practice self-care at home this season. Let us know on social how you get on.
Do Not Disturb
Influential thinkers of every generation have advocated the need for a quiet place to think, divorced from the distractions of modern life. For Virginia Woolf, it was a Room of One’s Own. For Bill Gates, a secluded cottage in the country. Either way, carving out a peaceful nook is an essential step to help synthesise the massive amounts of information we are all exposed to every single day.
As the examples above show, this space will look slightly different for everyone. Some will gravitate towards a comfortable lounge chair. Others towards the luxury of a timeless chaise lounge or day bed. While the styling may vary, the important thing is to make tangible the all-important act of reflection.
Get Dressed Up
If we’ve learnt anything from lockdown, it’s that taking good care of our physical appearance can have a dramatic impact on our overall mood. This summer, take pride in getting ready with a beautiful Italian dressing table. As well as offering compartmentalized storage for all your favourite pills and potions, they can also double up as a stylish writing desk for jotting down any errant thoughts before bed.
Cultivate A Green Thumb
If there’s one thing millennials can lay claim to, it is the renaissance of the humble houseplant. Indeed, search the #plantsofinstagram hashtag on social media and you’ll find swathes of homes that have been transformed into indoor arboretums. The reason is simple. In an increasingly urban world, we crave contact with nature. One of our favourite foliage trends has been the return of the terrarium — a miniature garden, housed inside small containers like LSA’s Oblong Pot. Ideal for city dwellers or as a thoughtful gift for a friend, they are a joy to put together and care for.
Live The Outdoors
That said, when it comes to nature there can be no substitute for the real thing, so if you’re lucky enough to have a garden — use it! We Brits have been known to spend as little as 5% of our time outdoors, corresponding to spiralling problems with mental health. One of our favourite tips is to enjoy at least one meal at the weekend en plein air, taking advantage of the balmy weather to dine alfresco. The key to doing so is to look for multi-functional designs that can double as lounge chairs or side tables as needed.
Get Your 40 Winks
Our final suggestion is perhaps the most important yet the easiest overlooked. It’s become somewhat of a badge of honour in contemporary society to boast how about how little sleep we get. And yet, chronic tiredness is the enemy rather than epitome of productivity, with connections being made to severe health conditions later in life. This summer, prioritise your sleep and allow yourself lazy lie-ins wherever possible. For those who have difficulties drifting off, try to incorporate a wind-down ritual before turning off the lights. This could include reading a book or some gentle breathing exercises. It goes without saying that a great mattress makes all the difference. Check out our memory foam options here.
How do practice self-care at home? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter on Instagram. If you love any of the styles above, be sure to shop them online or in-store while the Chaplins Summer Sale is on. You could bag yourself up to 20% off.
PRACTICE SELF-CARE AT HOME WITH THESE STATEMENT STYLES