Self-care has many benefits, from lowering stress to improving overall health and happiness. It allows us time to prioritize ourselves and create rituals, habits and behaviors that support our minds and bodies. Ultimately, a little self-care can go a long way to help restore balance in our busy lives.
In celebration of International Self-Care Day, we caught up with digital creator Caroline Groth, known for her inspiring health and wellness content. With her expertise, she curates engaging and informative content that empowers individuals to prioritize their wellbeing and achieve a harmonious lifestyle.
Discover more about Caroline’s self-care journey and her top self-care tips to help restore balance in your life.
Why is self-care important to you?
“For me, my daily self-care ritual is non-negotiable. I need to have all these routines that I've set in place and all of these self-care rituals in order for me to be my best self. I do not feel like I'm functioning at my highest, most authentic self if I don't incorporate these daily practices. I also live with three autoimmune diseases, so I need to look after myself and take care of myself every single day.”
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced?
“Some of the biggest challenges I faced starting my self-care journey were rewiring my entire brain, prioritising myself and how I felt showing up in this world on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level. For me, that meant cutting some people out of my life who weren't supportive of the journey or the changes I made. It was also about learning to carve out time and make myself a priority, which I had never done in my entire life. So that was a huge step for me.”
How has the relationship with yourself and with those around you changed?
“My relationship with myself has improved so much. I have always struggled with loving myself for who I am and how I show up in the world. Incorporating daily and weekly rituals into my life has helped increase the love I have for myself and also the love I have for other people. This means that I can be so much more genuine. I now have a full cup when I show up for other people, and I feel like I have so much more love to give..”
What is your top self-care tip?
If there's one tip I can give you to bring more self-care into your world, and the one thing I absolutely cannot live without that's changed my world is meditation. Don't make it complicated. You can make it very simple. You can sit in silence and just listen to your breathing for a few minutes a day and build it up so you can sit longer and longer. But it does bring a level of presence into your world, both presence in the outside world, but also presence in your inside world.
What does finding balance mean to you?
In the past, I used to be very rigid about my health. I'm someone who lives an extremely healthy life. I cook for myself every single day. I take my supplements; I do my movement; I do my daily practices; I do my meditations. But once upon a time, I was way too strict about it. Now I've created a life for myself which is a lot more balanced, where I can still go out and have a wine and a meal out and spend time with my friends, but it doesn't take away from who I am as my foundational self. I can come home, be silent with myself, enjoy my presence, and find peace within all of that.
Finding balance for me in this world means looking after myself every single day by incorporating self-care practices. It means showing up for myself just as much as I show up for other people.