Have you been feeling particularly stressed or anxious recently? This 7 day self care challenge is designed to melt away stress and kickstart your self care journey with 7 days of quick and easy self care activities!
Do you feel like you’re operating on pure fumes? Maybe you’re feeling particularly stressed or anxious.
Well then now’s the perfect time for a 7 Day Self Care Challenge!
This challenge is designed to take just 15 minutes or less per day and turn depleted energy into feelings of rejuvenation and reinvigoration.
Over the course of 7 days, you’ll complete a daily self care challenge that will get you back to feeling excited and energized for life in just a couple of minutes a day.
At the end of the challenge, you’ll have spent over 100 minutes showing yourself some love leaving you feeling happier, more productive, and all-around healthier.
Before we get started, we recommend taking a moment to download the free 7 Day Self Care Challenge Workbook to help you with the challenges and keep track of your overall progress.
Free 7 Day Self Care Challenge Workbook
Before you get started, let’s do a little check-in. At the end, we’ll do the same check-in again so you can see just how much progress you’ve made.
Reflect on the following three questions:
- What are your daily energy levels on a scale from constantly yawning to “I have so much energy, I don’t know what to do with myself”?
- How has your productivity been throughout the day? From “I’m avoiding my to-do list like the plague” to ending each day proud of your accomplishments.
- And how is your nightly sleep quality? On a scale of “sleep, what even is that?” to “8 full hours every night, baby.”
Alright, now you’re ready to get started!
Day 1: Mindful Morning Routine
To kickstart your 7 day self care challenge, you’re going to focus on your morning routine. Start day 1 off right by waking up 15 minutes earlier and doing something to fill your cup first thing in the morning.
You’ll be surprised by just how impactful this simple practice can be. By starting your day with 15 minutes of self care, you set the tone for your day and train your mind to operate from a state of peace and relaxation.
Here’s how to do it:
- Set your alarm 15 minutes earlier than usual.
- Before doing anything else, spend 5 minutes meditating or doing some breathing exercises.
- Then pull out a journal or piece of paper and write down everything you are grateful for for 5 minutes straight. Try to let it flow and not overly censor yourself.
- Bonus: Once you’ve completed these two activities, try to avoid checking your phone for the first hour you’re awake and take note of how you feel.
Day 2: Move Your Body
Congrats on making it to day 2 of the challenge! The first step is always the hardest part and your 7 day self care challenge should be smooth sailing from here on out.
On day 2, you’ll prioritize a little bit of morning movement. Set aside 15 minutes to stretch, dance, or do a quick yoga flow. Or you can even incorporate 15 minutes of walking into your morning commute by walking instead of driving, or parking further away from your office.
Here’s how to do it:
- Set your alarm 15 minutes earlier than your usual time.
- Add 15 minutes of mindful movement into your morning routine whether it be dancing, stretching, yoga, or walking.
- Notice how your body feels after and remember a tired body is a peaceful mind!
- Bonus: Put on an energizing playlist or morning affirmations to make the experience even more healing.
Day 3: Try Something New
Research shows that trying new things actually has the power to make us happier. In the health and wellness world, there’s a lot of talk of routines, but sometimes the answer lies in breaking your routine and having a brand new experience.
So today’s challenge is to do just that: Try something new!
Whether it be a new food, a new flavor of tea, a new activity, a new podcast, or anything else that tickles your fancy.
Here’s how to do it:
- Set a timer for 2 minutes. Without stopping, write down anything that comes to mind when reflecting on this prompt: “I’ve always wanted to try…”
- After the time is up, reflect on your answers. Is there anything you can do today?
- Pick something that resonates with you and commit to making it a part of your day.
Day 4: Digital Detox (Part 1)
For many of us, we start our day by looking at our phones. And we follow that up with staring at the computer screen and maybe also the TV. All that screen time adds up and it can leave us feeling a bit hollow.
It can be shocking just how impactful a little bit of daily silence and peaceful contemplation can be for our mental health.
That’s why day 4 and day 5 of your 7 day self care challenge is all about doing a little digital detox.
This challenge is a two-parter. Today, your job is just to notice.
Here’s how to do it:
- Throughout the day, just notice each and every experience you have with technology. Whether it’s a phone or computer screen, music or TV in the background, or smart tech you wear on your wrist. Try to clock how you’re feeling before and after each experience.
- At the end of the day, spend 5 minutes writing down each and every encounter throughout the day. No matter how small.
- We recommend going chronologically. Start with waking up and end with where you are now, journaling (even if it’s on your phone!)
Day 5: Digital Detox (Part 2)
You’ve officially made it to day 5 of your 7 day self care challenge! Congrats! You’re doing great!
Today’s challenge might feel a little weird and you may even notice yourself resisting. This is the moment to trust the process and keep pushing through.
It can be difficult to create space to hear your own thoughts, especially if you’re unconsciously avoiding something, but today, that’s the challenge.
Trust us, it’s just 15 minutes and we know you can do it!
Here’s how to do it:
- Start the day reflecting on the list you wrote yesterday.
- Notice where your mind wants to justify your actions.
- Pick a 15-minute moment in your day and take the technology and distractions away. Just for those 15 minutes.
- It could be driving without music, not looking at your phone in the morning, choosing to stretch instead of watching TV, or even sitting in silence for pre-bed meditation.
Day 6: Time to Get Creative
Okay, only two days left of the challenge. How are you feeling?
Today’s challenge is a fun one, today you’re going to get artsy by tapping into your inner child and playing!
Here’s how to do it:
- Choose a creative activity that brings you joy. It could be knitting, cooking, writing, crafting, coloring, vision boarding, and so on!
- Schedule 15 minutes to let go of your inner perfectionist and allow the creativity to flow.
- Turn it into a special moment. Put on music, make yourself a cup of tea, this is time for you to fully be in the present moment.
- Bonus: Share your creation with a loved one and inspire them to start a new project!
Day 7: Gratitude Practice
On the final day of your 7 day self care challenge, you’re going to spend a couple of minutes reflecting on your gratitude and shifting to a mindset of abundance.
Did you know that feeling grateful is one of the biggest indicators of someone’s happiness and life satisfaction?
But it’s easy to go through life without spending time reflecting. The good news? It’s super easy to incorporate a gratitude practice into your every day. So, let’s start today.
Here’s how to do it:
- Start with a blank piece of paper (or our free 7 Day Self-Care Challenge workbook) and create 4 sections.
- In section 1, write 5 things you are grateful for.
- In section 2, write 5 places you are grateful for.
- In section 3, write 5 people you are grateful for.
- In section 4, write 5 things you’re grateful to yourself for.
And that’s it! That was the last day of your 7 day self care challenge! Congrats on completing it! You did great!
Bonus Challenge: Acts of Kindness
If you’re the kind of person who’s always looking for some extra bonus points, we have a fun challenge to wrap things up.
This bonus challenge is to complete a random act of kindness for a stranger, colleague or loved one. You may remember these from when you were a kid but when was the last time you actually did one? Well, today is the day!
Here’s how to do it:
- As you go through your day, stop and think about those around you. Are there any small gestures you can do to make their day?
- Here are some ideas:
- Pay for the food of the person behind you
- Write a letter to a loved one and mail it to them
- Praise your colleague for good work in front of others
- Support a local charity
- Offer a listening ear or comforting gesture to someone in need
The final step:
Congratulations on completing the 7 Day Self-Care Challenge! You spent over 100 minutes dedicated to yourself and your self care amidst your busy schedule. We know that isn’t easy!
To complete the challenge, we recommend spending just 5 minutes reflecting on the past 7 days. Here are some questions to get you started:
- What were your daily energy levels on a scale from constantly yawning to I have so much energy, I don’t know what to do with myself?
- How has your productivity been throughout the week? From “I’m avoiding my to-do list like the plague” to ending each day proud of my accomplishments.
- And how is your nightly sleep quality? On a scale of “sleep, what even is that?” to 8 full hours every night, baby.
Have your answers changed? Where have you seen the most growth?
And that concludes our post on this 7 day self care challenge!
I hope you enjoyed these simple self care challenge ideas to help jump-start your self care routine and melt away stress and anxiety in just 7 days.
Feel free to bookmark this page and come back to it whenever you need some inspiration for your self care routines.
Sending love,
With love,
A small note to my readers – Over here at VLHhealth, we occasionally include affiliate links in our posts. This means that if you purchase using our links, we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
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