
We are all working, rushing, trying to complete tasks and errands. Taking care of others and other things is a daily routine. And it is so easy to say “don’t forget to take care of yourself” and we smile and say “yes I will” and off we go and its milliseconds before we have forgotten our commitment. It has become a platitude like “how are you?” to which the correct social response is “I am fine”.
However, there are times when I am not fine.
There are times when there is no-one else but me to take care of me.
There are times when it’s up to me to take time consciously and intentionally for self-care.
7-day self-care challenge or ideas
To make an intentional commitment to ourselves we developed a 7-day self-care challenge. Each day has 3 challenges.
As this is self-care you can choose
- to do one, or two or all three
- to adapt to suit your situation (e.g. weather, mobility etc)
- to do none and make up your own (please share with us if you do info@aticc.co.uk)
We recommend that you take 10-15 minutes each day for 7 days and have some intentional self-care. We have kept them small and bite size, so that it is easy to do. However, if you need to adapt or supercharge (take to the next level) we are here for you, we have provided some additional ideas. Under each act of self-care, we have included a section ‘adaptation or supercharge’.

Day 1 self-care challenge
Think of one thing to be grateful for. Being grateful can help us feel happier, more content and resilient to stress.
Adaptation or supercharge: call someone you care about and tell them how grateful you are to have them in your life.
Take a 5-minute mindful walk (includes mobility aids). Walking outside has lots of psychological benefits, including a dose of vitamin D if you walk during the day, fresh air (ok this depends on where you are). Being mindful requires 3 components 1) attention 2) non-judgment 3) acceptance. When you are walking pay attention to your body and how it feels, notice the environment, sounds and sights. Any intrusive thoughts taking you away from the moment let them pass through without judgment they are only thoughts. Acceptance means acknowledging your thoughts and feelings without trying to change them. Try our course Mindfulness Awareness
Adaptation or supercharge: if you can’t go outside for a walk, how about a 5-minute mindful moment looking out a window? Join a meditation group or walking group and have some mindful moments whilst walking with your group. Encourage a friend to take a mindful walk with you.
Help someone else: studies show that helping others boosts your happiness, health, and sense of wellbeing. Look for a need today – it can be as simple as opening the door for someone, give up your seat on the bus or train, help with carrying bags… pay attention there is always an opportunity to help someone else.
Adaption or supercharge: supercharge this act of self-care by volunteering.

Day 2 self-care challenge
Smile. Just smile – no explanation necessary. The more you smile the more you smile – simple.
Adaptation or supercharge: Laugh, watch a funny cat/dog clip; or your favourite comedian. Share a joke or funny story with a friend. Supercharge it and join an improv club. A laugh is a massage for the insides.
Phone a friend or family member and say hi. Oh, this is a good one, we all know someone we haven’t spoken to in a while, call this person up and connect.
Adaptation or supercharge: invite said person for a coffee / tea
Compliment someone: this can be tricky but worth it. We recommend not complimenting them on looks but recognising their values, contributions, or achievements. Some examples “Well done on finishing that run, you worked really hard on that”, “Thank you for your excellent service”, “I really appreciate the good idea X you shared in our meeting today”. These opportunities to complement are easy to find if we look and best of all the recipient and you feel really good.
Adaptation or supercharge: write a complimentary review (Trustpilot, Google), email the persons managers complimenting their excellent service, write a thank you or well done card. I still have my letters from past bosses that are complimentary about my work (yes, we got letters in those days.)

Day 3 self-care challenge
Drink a glass of water or 2: water is super healthy, keeps us regular, maintains healthy skin, proper functioning of cells, gets rid of waste, keeps temperature normal, keeps you hydrated, lubricates and cushions joints, reduces fatigue, maintains blood pressure….. there are many many benefits.
Adaptation or supercharge: some people find drinking water unpleasant, start off with one glass or two, spruce it up with a sprig of mint or a slice of lemon.
Drink enough water so that your urine is not dark yellow, more like straw colour. Recommendations for the amount a person should drink range from 8 glass of water a day to 3.7 litres per day for men and 2.7 litres for women. To make my life easier, I go with if I am thirsty I drink water and check my urine to see that it’s straw coloured (very pale yellow).
Stretch: mild stretching is great and easy to do. You can do it sitting down, standing up, lying down. Stretching relieves tension and stress, increases circulation and flexibility. If you are new to stretching start with very mild stretches.
Adaptation or supercharge: sign up for a yoga or Pilates class.
Look at the stars: drink in the awesomeness of the universe. Stargazing helps us to connect with the world and increases our appreciation of our place in it. It’s an enjoyable experience for families and groups of friends.
Adaptation or supercharge: use binoculars to look up at the sky, its astonishing what you see through binoculars an excellent substitute for a telescope. If there is too much light pollution and you cannot see the stars, visit a planetarium, or download an app Sky View Lite or Star Walk 2. Or simply look up and enjoy whatever is up there to see, clouds, moon, meteors, we often forget to simply look up.

Day 4 self-care challenge
Take 4 deep breaths and exhale slowly after each breath: breathing is natural and normal. We do it all the time, however taking a few intentional deep breaths slows us down, reduces stress and anxiety and even improves your mood.
Adaptation or supercharge: allocate time throughout the day to have intentional breathing, deep breaths in and slow exhalation out. Breathwork is now quite popular, and you can try it out with a practitioner, go online and see what’s available.
Make a friend (loved one) a cup of tea or coffee: this ties in with helping someone else as we had on day one. This is more about recognising and doing something kind without asking. The benefits are mutual, and both parties feel good.
Adaptation or supercharge: make your friend / loved one a meal. Take a cooked meal to a sick friend’s home. Phone a takeout and ask them to deliver a meal to a friend or loved one. Take an extra lunch to work and share with a colleague. Help with simple day to day tasks, washing up, cleaning, sweeping, taking the garbage out. There is always some little chore that needs doing and you can preemptively do it.
Leave an uplifting note to a stranger: this is again a simple idea from the Random Note Project write down some uplifting words on a scrap of paper and leave them for someone to read.
Adaptation or supercharge: make little tiny cards with a kind word or two (e.g thank you, you are valued, thank goodness you are here, have a beautiful day…) keep them on you and hand them out when you see an opportunity.
Super Super Charge Charlie Mackesy wrote a book The Boy the mole, the fox, and the horse which has really uplifting thoughts in it. Several kind folk bought an extra book and left it in random places for someone else to pick up and get some joy from the words in it.

Day 5 self-care challenge
Meditate for 5 minutes: this is very similar to being mindful. Meditation increases focus, concentration, and self-awareness. Promotes wellbeing and reduces stress and anxiety. Find a quiet place to sit or lie down, take deep breaths in and exhale slowly, focus on your breathing.
Adaptation or supercharge: Meditation can also be in the form of a prayer or being still in nature absorbing the sounds and sights. Join a mediation group, download a meditation app.
Apply the 5-minute rule: Why is getting tasks done good for your self-care? It helps you to feel productive and remove stress from procrastinating on large difficult tasks. Enter the 5-minute rule, this is a favourite of mine and my family. Whenever you are faced with a task you are not excited about doing or it’s big and complex, tell yourself you will only spend 5 minutes on it. It’s an excellent procrastinator tool, because if you tell yourself only 5 minutes, it’s not too overwhelming and in your mind doable. What you will find is that you have a) managed 5 minutes of work and made an impact no matter how small and you can apply this 5-minute rule as many times as you need to finish the task or b) once you start you find that you are happy to complete the task. This rule is a good way to get through your to do list.
Adaptation or supercharge: the pomodoro technique, which segments work/focus time into 25-minutes intervals followed by a 5-minute break and after 4 x 25-minute work/focus intervals you get a longer break of 15-30 minutes. You can use a timer or an app to follow this process. You can also try Focusmate – Virtual coworking for getting anything done, there is a free version where you can connect virtually with people around the world, state your goal at the beginning of a session, work quietly together and then share how your work session went at the end of the session. Its great for keep accountability.
Think of 5 things you enjoy and choose 1 to do this month: we all need a little reward now and again. So do it and enjoy. Go out and see a show, a movie. Visit that special place you have been promising yourself you will visit for ages. Have your hair done, your beard trimmed, nails polished, eyebrows plucked, nose hair removed. It doesn’t have to cost any money. Use the special tableware, underwear, outerwear for no other reason than it makes you feel good. Whatever gives you a smile or joy, do it.
Adaptation or supercharge: think of 12 things you enjoy doing and do one a month. Develop a bucket list and start.

Day 6 self-care challenge
Dance to your favourite song: you can hand jive, air guitar, macarena, YMCA, twist, Time Warp. No matter if you have two left feet or are Micheal Jackson’s twin, dancing and music lifts the soul, and is a wonderful mood booster.
Adaptation or supercharge:join a dance class, go to a club and dance, have a family dance-a-long (basically family members in a circle dancing and one person is nominated to do a few moves in the middle and then that person chooses the next person to come into the centre to do their moves and so on until everyone has had a turn) a lot of fun and laughs.
Sing in the shower or bath: another great mood booster. If you are not sure of the words, crank up the volume of your media player and mouth or sing out loud to your favourite play list.
Adaptation or supercharge: create a playlist of your favourite upbeat songs at the ready whenever you need a pick me up. Some of my favourites: Eye of the Tiger, Walking on Sunshine, Roar, I’m still standing, Shake it off, Happy.
Give a loved one a hug: hugging improves social connection, heart health, wellbeing boosts the immune system. Hugging releases endorphins which act as painkillers, so hugging reduces pain. It reduces stress and anxiety. Optimal hug time is between 5 and 10 seconds.
Adaptation or supercharge: with permission hug often

Day 7 self-care challenge
Do a random act of kindness: a random act of kindness is a selfless act without expectation of reward. We now know that helping others is good for our mental health. Some ideas include sending a handwritten note instead of a text, taking a friend’s dog for a walk, babysitting, mowing the lawn, buying groceries for an elderly neighbour.
Adaptation or supercharge: to supercharge you can intentionally set aside a weekly time for an act of kindness.
Spend 15 minutes of your day planning for your next week: planning provides structure which in turn gives you a feeling of control. You know what’s ahead and you can prepare.Planning allows you to prioritise your tasks, which reduces overwhelm and anxiety.Even if you are not ‘working’, planning what needs to be done at home, with hobbies, social engagements, health appointments, birthdays and anniversaries etc would benefit from weekly planning.
Adaptation or supercharge: Do this every week, having a weekly routine like this increase’s focus, productivity and reduces stress.
Reflect on the good things that happened this week, no matter how small: by reflecting of the good things that happened to you this week, you cultivate a more positive outlook. You intentionally seek out the good and put your focus there. It helps to build resilience (we have a Resilience and Wellbeing course you may want to try).
Adaptation or supercharge: do a reflection on the good things every day before bed.
Please share with your friends, family, and colleagues. If you would like a PDF version, email us at info@aticc.co.uk or visit our LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/company/aticcpsychhealth/ and we have this as a carousel under documents.