25 Cosy Winter Self Care Ideas For You To Try This Year

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Winter. The most wet and dark time of the year – at least from the weather point of view. It’s also the most festive season, with Christmas being just around a corner, and the cosiest one if you play it right. 

That’s why today I want to share with you my favourite cosy winter self care ideas, so that you can make the most out of winter and stop counting days until spring. Enjoy the present time and stop looking forward to the future constantly. It’s depressing! So, without a further ado, let’s dive in!

25 Cosy Winter Self Care Ideas

Watch A Cosy Movie

You know, long evenings are perfect for cosying up on the couch with a cuppa and watching movies. It’s also one of my favourite ways of spending time after my daughter goes to bed – my motivation dwindles with lack of sunlight and I’m not keen on working or exercising at that time of the day. So, movies it is!

Read A Book

You probably know by now that reading is my middle name. I. Love. It.

I can’t imagine a life without books, let alone long, dark evenings. Reading is a perfect way to unwind after a long, busy day and calm down before going to bed. You don’t need to read an entire book in one go – every 10 minutes count. And since books don’t emit blue light (like your phone, for example), you’re bound to get a better sleep tonight!

Spend Time Outside

Going for a walk is very important for mental health. It’s the easiest way to get active and become a healthier version of yourself. It makes it a perfect winter budget self care idea, doesn’t it?

I know that walking in the cold weather isn’t tempting, probably to anyone. As someone who hates cold, I totally get it. Even if you can go out for a 15 minutes, it’s better than nothing!

If you struggle with getting yourself out of the door, try habit stacking. Take a longer route from work to your home, or commit to walking for 5 minutes in random direction after school run, for example. That’s exactly what I did. I know I won’t be keen to go for a walk later in the day, so I force myself to walk for a few minutes after a nursery run in the morning. I’ve noticed a huge change in the way I feel throughout the day because of this simple habit! 

To make it even more fun, I bought a jumping rope and try to get at least 500 jumps a day. It’s so difficult, but worth it.

Take Up A New Indoor Hobby

Like I did with a jigsaw puzzle last year! Honestly, why haven’t I bought them earlier? It’s such a great way of spending long evenings away from your phone or computer. They’ve been a true godsend every time when I’m anxious, too.

There are a lot of indoor hobbies you might want to try, for example:

• calligraphy or lettering,
• painting,
• knitting or crocheting,
• reading books,
• phone photography.

I’m sure you can easily find something for yourself!

Light One Of Your Favourite Candle

Simple things make a huge difference.

Don’t wait for a perfect moment – you can always buy another candle later on.

Get rid of the mentality of saving better things for a special occasion because every day is special in its own way and you deserve everything the best.

Purge Your Social Media Feeds

Sweet and easy. Clean your Instagram following. Go through the list of people you follow and check if anyone’s content stirs negative emotions inside of you. If it does, let them go.

Make sure that you’re happy, motivated, or inspired while watching someone’s posts and that they bring positivity to your life. Life is too short to waste it on content you don’t enjoy.

Get Crafty And Let Out Your Inner Child

Once we become an adult, we immediately stop any attempts to play. Painting, drawing, playing in a snow, or dancing is usually viewed as a childish activity, so why someone like you, an adult, would bother with it. 

And I totally get it because I denied any kind of play for myself. But you know what?

One day I said “f*ck it”.

I bought a set of watercolour paints and spent one evening painting. It was so nice to do something like that just for the sake of it. 

Let out your inner child. Don’t keep them locked in a cage forever. It’s not worth it.

Start Journaling

Journaling is one of those self-care practises that seems silly at first but after a while you can see how many benefits it actually brings to your life. 

I struggle with regular journaling, unfortunately. Should I work harder on implementing it as a daily habit and share my experience? 🤔

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Declutter At Least One Part Of Your House

This is one of my favourite winter self care ideas. You might ask what decluttering has to do with self care… Here me out.

It’s been proven that clutter can negatively affect your sleep, ability to focus, and raise your level of anxiety. You might’ve even noticed that yourself. 

And self care is all about taking care of yourself. 

Decluttering helps you to remove triggers that make you anxious and irritated.

So, choose one area of your house (or room) and spend 15 minutes decluttering it. 

Not organising. 

Decluttering.

Once you see immediate results, they might inspire you to tackle more than that and that’s awesome! But instead of spending an entire afternoon decluttering, create a habit. 15 minutes every day will be not only easier to sustain but will also give you long-lasting effects in oppose to 2 hours once a week.

Drink More Water

I’m a bit conflicted about writing it, to be honest.

Drinking water is soooo important, but it’s also difficult to remember about it during winter. I’m naturally leaning towards warm tea instead of water, but I’ve noticed that it doesn’t make me feel good. I bought a new water bottle a few weeks ago, and it helps me to remember about drinking water.

Exercising makes me extremely thirsty, so I feel like I’ve been killing two birds with one stone by picking up a jump rope!

Let’s make drinking water a habit for a new year, shall we? Start slowly, from a glass a day and go from there. This way, you’ll make a long-lasting change in your life.

Create A Solid Skincare Routine

I think that one of the first things that comes to mind when you think about self-care is a skincare routine. At least it is for me.

Creating a solid skincare routine that’s fairly simple and easy to follow through is a great idea, especially during winter. Your skin will be thankful for extra care during those cold months, when low temperatures and dry air inside your house constantly dry it out.

Do Something Productive

Quite counter-intuitive, isn’t it? Hear me out before you jump to conclusions, though.

By doing something productive, you minimise your to-do list and feeling overwhelm. Once you close a few open loops that have been sitting on your mind for weeks, you’ll feel immediately lighter and motivated to take even more action.

If you’re in a mood for tackling some of your tasks, do it. Dedicate an hour for life admin tasks and see how it will affect your mental wellbeing.

Meditate

Meditation is often overlooked way of connecting with yourself. It’s an ideal cosy winter self care idea – free, and can be done from the comfort of your own home. I love using the Balance app for guided meditation, but there are also lots of videos on YouTube you can check out. Do whatever makes you feel best and don’t be afraid to start. 5 – 10 minutes is all you need.

Plan Out Your Goals

Because you don’t have to wait until the next year to set new goals! You can change your mind whenever you want and decide to pursue different goals each month or a quarter. Don’t think that everything is lost just because you didn’t set your goals before the new year.

And the other way round, if you set goals at the beginning of the year, don’t force yourself to keep them when you change your mind or your priorities shift.

Learn A New Skill

Winter is all about long, cosy evenings. If you don’t know what to do during that time, learn a new skill! There’s so many things you can learn online for free, like photography, filming, editing, creative writing, and more, so take advantage of it.

Be Mindful Of Your Money

And see if it would be better to use cash instead of credit card to help you save money, keep track of your expenses, and support small businesses during these difficult times.

I’m thinking about doing a low or no-spend month after Christmas. Or quarter, maybe?

Journal To Reflect On Your Year

New year is just around the corner so it’s as good time as ever to reflect on the year. Take out your journal and go through your best and worst memories, what you’re proud of, what were your biggest challenges, etc. Go into detail. Learn from your mistakes, be grateful for many new opportunities, and proceed with setting goals and chasing them with this new knowledge.

Snuggle Up With A Heating Blanket

Heating blanket was probably my best purchase of the year. Truly. I’d froze one day without it. I hate cold but the temperature inside the house stays around 17-18 degrees constantly, no matter how often I put my heating on.

Heating blanket can be very cost-effective alternative for a traditional heating because even though it won’t raise the temperature inside your house, it’ll keep you warm for a lower “price”.

Finish Laundry

You didn’t expect that, did you? Doing laundry is such a funny thing that nobody likes to do, but everyone has to. When you don’t do it regularly, it adds up and creates one huge open loop that’s difficult to be closed. 

So, today, let’s do one load of laundry. Minimise the amount of things you have on your mind to make you feel lighter and productive.

Go For A Social Media Detox

I can’t stress enough how social media detox made me feel great. It’s been almost two years since I did one successfully and I must admit – I need another one. One, that would have strict rules and plenty of backup options whenever I feel too jittery to do anything except from scrolling or playing silly games.

 Social media drains you from your energy and kills creativity. Often you compare yourself to people from perfect Instagram feeds, forgetting that it’s not how real life looks like. It makes you feel inadequate and bad about yourself, and that’s not the vibe we’re going for.

Unplug from technology. Take an evening off from social media. If you’re brave enough, go for a week-long social media detox. You won’t regret it.

Plan Out Your Day And Week

Planning your day and week is often overlooked form of self care. By creating a to-do list, you remove stress and overwhelm from your life. Just think about the last time you planned your day. How did you feel? Were you calmed and more productive than usually?

I like to plan my day the evening before, so I know exactly what to do when I wake up. This way I also limit the amount of decisions I need to make in the morning and decrease the possibility of getting hit with decision fatigue. I also sleep better every time I write all the tasks down before going to bed!

Put Up Some Fairy Lights

Who said that Christmas lights can’t be used all year round? If you love the way they look and enjoy the cosy atmosphere they create in your room, do it. Don’t think twice about it and just put them up.

Spend more time being creative

In today’s age, everyone mostly consumes content on the Internet but rarely creates something on their own. Spend one day being creative, draw, paint, write a story. Sky is the limit!

Sleep In

When was the last time you slept in or had a lazy day? I bet it was ages ago, especially if you have kids. 

I said it multiple times before, but I feel like I need to say it once again here – you can’t be the best version of yourself when you’re running low on energy. You need to take a break once in a while. No matter how busy you are, you need to do that.

For a very long time, I believed I didn’t need any breaks. I don’t do much, after all. Just trying to blog while taking care of my daughter almost 24/7. 

So for weeks, I didn’t schedule any time for rest, didn’t go out at all, and spent all the time I had trying to learn and figure out as much stuff as I could. 

It wasn’t possible to sustain that lifestyle for long and I ended up exhausted and burned out. 

History had to repeat itself a few times before I realised that no matter what you do, you need breaks and time to recharge.

Listen To An Audiobook

I’m not a huge fan of audiobooks but I know some people prefer them over reading books. They’re great, especially for those of you who spend long hours commuting to work or those who don’t have a lot of time to sit down and read a traditional book during the day. 

So, today, pick a book that you’ve been wanting to read for ages and check if there’s an audiobook version available. Play it in the background while driving or cleaning the house.

Buy Yourself Flowers

Do you like receiving flowers? There’s a huge chance that you do. But have you ever thought about you not having to rely on others in order to have a fresh, beautiful flowers always at home? Just buy them yourself!

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They’ll make your home feel more cute and cosy. Don’t be afraid to buy them for yourself. There are lots of people who do that regularly, there’s no shame in it!

How Can I Take Care Of Myself And Lift My Mood In The Winter?

It’s been proven that shorter, colder days can affect your mood negatively. You might’ve experienced it yourself. One of the best ways to lift your mood during winter is taking care of yourself daily. I’m serious! Minor acts of self care sprinkled throughout your day will make it much better for you. You’ll feel more grounded, relaxed, and not as overwhelmed as previously. Pick one of the cosy winter self care ideas above every day and see for yourself!

Conclusion For 25 Cosy Winter Self Care Ideas

There are a lot of things you can do to take care of yourself during the winter. Little acts of self care sprinkled throughout a day can have more effects than taking a bath once a month, for example. Don’t be afraid to be selfish and spend time on your own – everyone will benefit from it once you become more relaxed and recharged.

Rooting for you,
M.