Wanting to step up your self-care habits and routine for the new year? If you didn’t quite perfect your self-care habits last year, there no better time than now to start.

With the end of the year approaching, many of us tend to look back on the year with a sense of anxiety. We start thinking of all the things that we should have or planned to do but came up short.

So, I made a list of the 5 self-care habits that you can start and bring into the new year with you.

1. Wake up with Energy by Setting a Night Time Routine

Do often wake up tired no matter how many hours of sleep you get? This is likely due to the presence of a poor night time routine.

If you’re looking at screens before bed, you are likely going to have trouble waking up the next day.

Instead devote your last half hour awake to journaling, scrapbooking, or reading. The Not So Casual Friday even has a list of 4 of the best books to read for inspiration to get you started.

2. Embrace the Urge for Bad Habits

Embracing the urge for bad habits may sound counter productive to establishing good self-care habits but it’s actually scientifically accurate. In Charles Duhigg’s book “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” he explains that is not necessarily the actual act that’s habit forming, but the urge and subsequently the reward itself that keeps our habits programed.

For example, we all occasionally have the tendency want to skip the gym. The bad habit stems from not necessarily the act of going to the gym, but rather the fatigue and anxiety that we get when the time to go to the gym approaches. We then reward ourselves by relieving the anxiety and choosing a more relaxing activity, like going back to sleep or watching television.

Instead of repeating this pattern the next time it happens, choose to embrace the urge. You have two options, either:

A. You trick yourself into not having the time to get the urge by sleeping in your workout clothes or rushing through your routine.

B. You tell yourself that when the fatigue starts to set in you’ll relax in another way like putting on your favorite workout song or drinking pre-workout for energy.

3. Perfect your Skin and Body Care Routine

Although most of us try to keep our skin and body care routines up, sometimes we may forget to update them. Usually when this happens, we start to notice drier duller skin from the products that once worked for us.

The truth is, our skin, the weather, and our environments are constantly changing, and as a result the same products may not work forever. When this happens, build the habit of perfecting your skin and body care routines by researching new products.

The best place for finding the newest products is Pinterest and skin care blogs like this one.

4. Do the “Apple or Tea first” Rule for Better Eating Habits

Healthy eating is a self-care habit that we all strive for but very few of us actually accomplish. A trick that could really help you decrease the amount of unhealthy foods and drinks that you consume is the “Apple of Tea First” Rule. The rule is something that I’ve implemented for myself, and I’ve had great results.

The rule is simple, anytime that you get the urge to eat something unhealthy, you have to either eat an entire apple or drink an entire glass of tea first. The way that this works is simple, it tricks your mind into thinking that you won’t necessarily prevent yourself from eating what you desire, but instead delay it.

However, the interesting thing that happens when you do this is that you unconsciously give yourself the reward that you were craving before you even eat the bad foods.

If you were hungry for chips but ate an apple first, due to the amount of time that it takes to eat, you will likely already be satisfied before you receive the reward you originally wanted.

5. Light Comforting Candle Scents When you Need to Relax

It’s not a Gold Soul Candle Co. list if it doesn’t include scents. What better self-care habit to bring into the new year than to step up your arsenal of scents. For self care, aim for earthy and warmer scents that will allow you to relax and pamper yourself.

Try lighting Heal by Gold Soul Candle Co. for a woody, earthy scent every time you need to relax at home. Heal is based on notes of Sage and best used for relieving anxiety, finding balance, de-stressing, and as a cognitive boost.

Try these 5 self care habits in your new year routine for 2021 to help kickstart a great a prosperous year. Don’t feel overwhelmed however, if you start with one habit, you’ll be more likely to see results and gather momentum to accomplish the others.