Treat yourself like a dog

Treat yourself like a dog. Say what? Yes, you read it correctly. Let me explain this to you. I was listening to episode 243 of the ‘Happier with Gretchen Rubin’ podcast. Gretchen and Elizabeth talked about the ‘try this at home tip’ to treat yourself like a dog. An advisor of Gretchen’s daughter Eliza advised this to her.

So what does it mean to treat yourself like a dog? It’s all about self-care. Would you treat a dog also the way you treat yourself? If you have your own dog, you know it is a big responsibility to take care of it. You want the dog to be healthy and happy. Even when you don’t have a dog, you can imagine how it is to have a dog.

You want to treat yourself as well as you would do with a dog that you take care of. A dog is helpless and you need to take responsibility. The basics that a dog needs, humans also need. Start by being kind to yourself. Give yourself the basic things that you need, so you can thrive like a dog.

So what does it mean? Stop saying bad things about yourself and ignoring your health. Only saying ‘yes’ to others and don’t make time for the things that you like to do. Eating unhealthy because you don’t have enough time to prepare something that’s full of nutrition. Skipping your yoga class because you worked an hour extra at the office. It’s all ok to do this once in a while, but when you do this every time when something unexpected happens, you forget to take care of yourself.  

So what are the things you can do? Hereby some tips you can do to treat yourself like a dog.

• Get plenty of time outside for fresh air and some sunlight.
• Get enough exercise. Take every day some time for exercise, it can be a walk outside, a work-out in the gym, a yoga class at home or dancing with friends.
• Drink fresh water. Try to reduce other drinks, especially alcohol, coffee and soda. Choose water or herbal tea instead.  
• Eat healthy food. Eat the colours of the rainbow and choose fresh and local products.
• Get enough sleep. Try to go to sleep around the same time every evening and wake up around the same time every morning.
• Visit the doctor when you need it. For serious issues, it only gets worse if you postpone it.
• Take care of your skin. So protect your skin with sunscreen and use good body lotion. Your skin is also an organ of your body.
• Take enough time to socialise. Meeting your family and friends is so important to be happy.
• Get help when you don’t feel like yourself. If you have mental issues, don’t hesitate to contact someone, like a coach or a psychologist. Sometimes you need to admit that you need some help from someone else and that is totally fine.
• Be sure you get enough affection. Give your friends a big hug.
• Take time to play. Work hard, play hard. Also play time is important, so you get new ideas and your brain gets some time to rest. It also makes you more creative. So it all benefits you!

What about you? You have something to add to the list? Let me know.

Source:
– Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast