Be Kind To Yourself

Holy guacamole! It's been a hell of a week and it's only Tuesday. This is not a good sign for me, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Now that the holidays are over, all we're left with is the residual signs of excess: debt from buying too many gifts, extra pounds from all the yummy things we snarfed down, and a feeling of exhaustion from all the get-togethers and now getting back into the swing of things at work. In my humble opinion, January sucks. Sure we have the whole fresh start with a new year, but once we're a week or two into the month, we get into the wintertime blahs.

My advice for all this: Be kind to yourself, now more than ever. How? Well, here are some things I do:

• Pamper yourself with a mid-winter pedicure. Even though no one will see your perfectly painted toenails, you'll feel better. And looking down to see 10 lovely bright red toenails will lift your spirits. Plus your heels will feel softer and smoother. Good stuff.
• Go for a brow wax. There's something so cathartic about having my brows waxed. I love the way it feels, as sick as that may sound. But what's better than having my stray eyebrow hairs yanked out of my face is the way a brow wax looks. It's subtle, but having cleaned up, professional shaped brows does wonders for your looks. Plus it's relatively cheap and quick.
  
• Give yourself an at-home facial. If you have a microdermabrasion kit, use it. If not, head down to the drugstore and pick up a fun, inexpensive face mask. Slather it all over your skin, lie down on your bed and relax for 15 minutes. Your skin will look better and you'll feel more rested. Don't forget to apply a decent moisturizer and lip balm once you're done.
• Take a bubble bath. We just celebrated National Bubble Bath day last week...if you weren't able to participate, go ahead and indulge whenever you get the chance. You deserve 30 minutes to an hour of alone time, and bubble baths force you to turn off the TV, hang up the cell phone, and step away from the computer.
  
• Shave your legs. During the winter, I don't shave my legs as often as I do in the winter. Sometimes I forget about it completely for far too long. My husband doesn't complain, but there comes a point where I get downright irritated with my hairy legs. I take time to shave my legs, making sure not to miss any patches. And I follow up a shave with a whole hell of a lot of moisturizer, especially in the winter. It feels so good to have smooth, satiny legs!
• Start each day with a wonderful body moisturizer. Instead of applying perfume, try using a scented body moisturizer. Doing so will provide double duty: your skin will be soft and touchable, and you'll smell great. No one else may notice, but that's ok. You'll know you spent a few minutes in the morning lavishing attention on yourself...and there's nothing wrong with that.

If you don't take the time to be kind to yourself, no one else will. You have to treat yourself the way you want to be treated.

These are just my suggestions. What do you do to pamper yourself when you need a little TLC? Leave me a comment and let me know!