It’s that time of year again. When the shops have lots of advent calendars filled with things designed to make us feel happy in the run up to Christmas.
In past times advent calendars were aimed at children and filled with chocolates and mini toys. Over the last few years an increasing number of calendars are aimed at adults.
In my local high street in Tamworth, I’ve seen them filled with all types of things. From luxurious chocolates, cosmetics, toiletries, jewellery, mini gifts, teas and perfumes. For the next twenty-four (or twenty-five) days you will have a surprise gift to put a smile on your face and make you feel happy. I’ve seen them priced from £25 – £340 and more!
DIY Advent Calendars
This year I decided to make my own advent calendar and I found this DIY advent calendar in my local supermarket. It’s got a wintery look to it but there’s no reason why it couldn’t be used at other times of the year.
The idea is that you fill each drawer with your chosen gifts. For advent this year the gifts I’ve decided to fill each drawer with will focus on my self-care.
What’s In Store?
In each of the drawers, on brightly coloured pieces of paper, I’ll be putting a little sealed note of a self-care activity for me to do. Anything from trying a new meditation, spending the day with friends, booking a manicure, going for a long walk or visiting a museum.
Some things I will have done before and others will be new to me. I’ll add in a couple of traditional sweet treats and family members wanted to add a note with a self-care activity for me of their own too.
Drawers will be filled in randomly so that I don’t know what’s coming. The only exception being, on days that I know I will have more time, these will be filled with random activities that require a little more time.
Make Your Own
It’s easy to do and you don’t need to have a calendar like this one to do it. You can put your ideas on pieces of paper, put them in a jar or a box and pull one out each day.
Or how about having a different theme every 25 days that focuses on an area of your life that you want to change or improve. Mental self-care activities will help you in all areas of your life and can help you to stay motivated.
If you feel you need to spend more time in nature then have 25 days of visiting different parks and gardens. Or how about having 25 days focusing on ways you can reduce your stress or anxiety levels. You could keep a journal on how you felt after doing each activity and use this as a reminder of what worked for you.
For some more self-care ideas take a look at my self-care download.
If you want to find out how working with me can help you to reduce and manage your stress levels get in touch for a FREE chat.
Take a look at my book, Self-care for Busy Women. It’s full of hints, tips, checklists and trackers and will show you how spending just a few minutes each day focusing on your mental, emotional and physical health can have a big influence on your mindset and well-being. You’ll also be able to create your own 28-day self-care plan that fits seamlessly into your busy lifestyle.
About Sharon
Sharon lives with her partner, Geoff, in Warwickshire and they have two adult children. She worked for over 25 years in an office environment, gaining qualifications to degree level in finance, business and management. While there Sharon witnessed and experienced many stressful situations and suffered illnesses which were stress-related.
Sharon was advised to make some changes to her lifestyle which included trying complementary therapies. After experiencing the benefits of complementary treatments, Sharon decided to retrain and to share her knowledge and experiences to help others recognise and manage their own physical and emotional stress and anxiety levels.
She has been working as a complementary therapist for over 15 years now and loves helping people manage and reduce their stress levels to feel uplifted, focused, positive and empowered about their lives.
