- 40 minutes ago
Self-care has become a huge trend, but itâs always been important to living a balanced life. Lucie explores a variety of forms of self-care on Try Living With Lucie.
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00:00I'm Lucy Fink and this week is five days of self-care.
00:04Hello! Welcome back to Try Living with Lucy.
00:06Okay guys, this is about to be the best week ever.
00:10I had a bit of a rocky January getting back into the new year
00:13and the one way that I was able to pull myself out of that funk
00:16was by dedicating a ton of my energy to self-care.
00:20Seems pretty simple, but it's not always that easy.
00:22I did a ton of research to discover what self-care actually is
00:26and here's what I came up with.
00:27Self-care is the secret to well-being.
00:30It's about reconnecting with yourself, being patient with yourself,
00:33putting yourself first.
00:35And ultimately, self-care is living a balanced life.
00:38And we all need balance.
00:40I made a recent post on Instagram asking you guys how you practice self-care
00:43and I wanted to let you know that a ton of the activities I'm going to try this week
00:47came directly from you.
00:49So first and foremost, thank you.
00:51And secondly, I'm hoping that this episode can sort of be used
00:54as a crowd-sourced self-care guidebook.
00:57So let's get into it.
01:02One of the biggest ways that I seem to neglect caring for myself
01:05is in the physical sense.
01:06My job is constantly on the move.
01:08I'm running around New York City.
01:10I'm carrying a lot of gear most of the time.
01:12Yet I rarely find the time to do those little teeny tiny physical things
01:17that can make a huge difference.
01:19So today I went to Chill House, which calls itself a downtown escape for city dwellers,
01:24seeking a modern path to total relaxation.
01:29I started with their signature chill-me-out blend.
01:39And then went into the back for a full body massage.
01:43Today's massage was such a great way to start my week of self-care.
01:47And then I immediately followed it up with a Chill House signature nail design
01:52done by one of their in-house nail artists.
01:54It was a full-on pampering process.
01:57We're talking 45 minutes gel manicure with the LED lights,
02:01hand massage, moisturizer, the works.
02:04This is what I came out with.
02:06Ooh.
02:07And then for the rest of the day, anytime I picked up my phone
02:10or I did anything where I was looking at my fingers,
02:12I felt lifted up in a way that I'm not used to feeling
02:15because I typically don't have my nails done.
02:18There's something about having well-manicured fingernails
02:21and moisturized hands that makes you look down at yourself and think,
02:24huh, I'm a queen.
02:31Yesterday was focused on physical self-care,
02:33but today I wanted to take a beat to reorganize my thoughts here
02:37and to really understand self-care a little better.
02:39Because truthfully, self-care has become a bit of a fad recently.
02:43And I know, here I am, making another YouTube video about it,
02:47perpetuating the fad.
02:48And that's not necessarily a bad thing,
02:50but I read a recent Refinery29 article
02:52citing that self-care is now a $400 billion industry.
02:56People might start to think that they need to buy certain things
02:59in order to feel good about themselves.
03:01And that's not what self-care is about.
03:03So today I wanted to steer away from the physical and the tangible
03:07and instead focus on the mental and the emotional.
03:10I had a brief FaceTime call with a licensed therapist this morning
03:13and the first thing she had me do was conduct a self-evaluation.
03:17I began by defining my needs, as she called it.
03:20Do I need more sleep?
03:21Do I need to give myself a break?
03:23What areas of my life are lacking?
03:25And all of these questions that I asked myself
03:26led me directly to my bullet journal.
03:28One of the reasons I love bullet journals so much
03:31is because all you really need is a pen and a paper
03:33and you too can have a bullet journal.
03:35I'm going to do an entire vlog following up with my bullet journal.
03:38I'll do a flip through and I'll let you plan with me.
03:40So stay tuned for that.
03:42Today I just focused on a few things.
03:44First and foremost, I watercoloured.
03:46Painting is an art form that for me really calms me down and relaxes me.
03:50I've actually found that painting helps me feel more meditative than meditating.
03:57And then when I was done with that,
03:58I used my bullet journal to plan out the five days in this episode.
04:02I already spent yesterday on physical care.
04:04Today was about the emotional side.
04:06And then I planned out tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday.
04:08As I learned from today's self-evaluation,
04:10I'm not very good at taking time to reflect.
04:13I rarely take time to step back and look at my life
04:16and express gratitude for what already is.
04:19So I used my bullet journal today to create a gratitude log
04:23and I just wrote out a bunch of things that I'm really grateful for.
04:26You can get a journal from anywhere
04:28and then turn it into this customized, personal bullet journal that works for you.
04:33But if you're interested in looking for bullet journal inspiration,
04:36just go on Instagram, hashtag Boojo.
04:39You will be amazed.
04:43About a year ago, I did five days of natural remedies
04:46and I loved how it felt to include so many natural things
04:49like herbs and essential oils in my life.
04:52There was something about connecting with the earth
04:54and bringing those elements into me
04:56that made me feel very centered and balanced.
04:58And I wanted to explore that a little bit more.
05:00So today is all about the holistic nature of self-care.
05:04I set up an herbal consultation at Naturopathica in Chelsea
05:07and it was life-changing.
05:10If you're super confused about what this means, let me explain.
05:14An herbal consultation is meant to supplement the advice
05:17from your general practitioner.
05:18So these herbalists can't diagnose you or treat any illnesses,
05:22but they can advise you on herbs that are traditionally used
05:25for health and vitality.
05:27The whole process begins with an intake form
05:29where you basically sit down and answer a million questions
05:32about every single aspect of your life.
05:34Your diet, your stress levels, your workout,
05:36your bathroom patterns, your skin, and so much more.
05:39Then you have a private conversation with a licensed herbalist
05:42and they work with you to address any imbalances in your life.
05:45How do you sleep at night?
05:47We only filmed a little bit of my consultation
05:49because it's meant to be fully confidential.
05:52I'm going to ask that to see your tongue.
05:55So if you could just stick it way out like this.
05:58Ah.
05:59Ah.
06:00Yeah.
06:02I know it takes a little time.
06:03If you need to re-salivate, don't be shy.
06:06So far, you seem pretty human.
06:08But then the cameras left
06:09and I wound up sitting there with Torrin for two hours.
06:12It's a very personal and private experience,
06:14so I'm not going to share too much about what we talked about,
06:17but just to give you a general idea of two major takeaways
06:20that I got from this first consultation.
06:22Number one, caffeine has not been great for me.
06:25It always leads to a stomachache for me
06:27and also general feelings of overactivity.
06:30I talk in my sleep.
06:31I feel higher levels of stress than what's normal.
06:34So I think I need to keep coffee in just for one more week
06:37because the next video I'm filming, I'm going to need coffee.
06:40But after that, I'm cutting it out cold turkey.
06:42And hopefully we'll see if that makes me feel any better.
06:45And number two, Torrin wants to help support my liver's functioning
06:48because as you might know, I had my gallbladder taken out last year.
06:51And so without that organ, there's a bit more pressure being put on my liver.
06:55And then we finished out the day with an herbal infusion
06:58made at the Naturopathica Vitality Bar.
07:00To make your life easy, it's just equal parts.
07:02You know, it's just tea.
07:03It's not rocket science.
07:06So I'm going to put some linden, lemon balm, some sage, orange peel.
07:11So then what I'm going to do is take some hot water,
07:13pour that hot water over your herbs.
07:15Let it steep for, in this case, a good 15 minutes.
07:18Typically, I just kind of like give it a little stir or two to help them absorb.
07:25Tea-nado.
07:28Oh, it smells good.
07:31How is it?
07:31Really good.
07:32I know it might sound like we went really in-depth today talking for two hours,
07:36but the truth is we really only skimmed the surface.
07:39Thank you, Torrin.
07:40My pleasure.
07:41Wait, I want to hug you.
07:42I'm so excited to work with you.
07:44Yeah, likewise.
07:45It was great to meet you.
07:46It was going to be great.
07:46I will keep you up to date.
07:50My whole series at Refinery29 is about trying new things,
07:54and I found that learning every week and delving into new challenges
07:58has been one of the most effective forms of self-care.
08:01So today, I wanted to keep that up and try out a new healing practice
08:04that I have never attempted, a sound bath.
08:07I went back to Naturopathica, where they have a guided sound bath meditation series going on,
08:12and I hopped in on one of the classes.
08:13The instructor, Tamalyn, had these crystal bowls of all different sizes,
08:18and she was using a mallet and running it along the rim of each bowl,
08:22and each time she did it, it was creating this resonating sound in the room.
08:28Right now, I'm playing you the actual audio from the room.
08:37It's difficult to describe, but it's almost as if the sounds are not coming from external places,
08:42but the sound is just coming from right inside of your head.
08:45And if you think of your ears as two different sides of a ping pong table,
08:49the sound is like a ping pong ball that's just pinging back and forth between your ears.
08:53I thought it was very cool.
08:55It had me feeling incredibly relaxed, but the moment I got home,
08:58the first thing I thought of was that I want to make sure that the self-care exercises
09:02that I practiced this week and show to you are things that are doable at home,
09:06which is why I decided to try and build my own DIY sound bath at home.
09:12And what better way to take a sound bath experiment to the next level
09:16than to do it in the bath.
09:19So you might have noticed already, I'm in the bathroom.
09:23Here's the toilet paper.
09:24I put on a bathing suit so that I could bring you and you and you and you into the
09:28bathroom with me.
09:29I lit a row of candles along the edge of the tub,
09:32poured in some Naturopathica body oil,
09:34stepped in, and then put on a pair of noise-canceling headphones
09:38that were playing a sound bath meditation video from YouTube.
09:41I have to be honest with you,
09:42the in-person version was a lot more effective than the DIY at-home version
09:47because I was actually feeling the sounds and it was resonating within my body.
09:51But listening through headphones did not give me the same effect
09:54as sitting in the room and listening to those bowls live.
10:01Every single person out there has a unique method of caring for themselves.
10:05And what works for person A might not work at all for person B.
10:09So this is an exploratory game here.
10:11I wanted Friday of this episode to be about practicing self-care
10:14the way that I myself most often do it
10:17so that I can give you guys a glimpse into my typical practice.
10:20Okay?
10:20I invited my co-worker, Empress, to my apartment
10:23and in my living room we did a private yoga session with Amanda
10:27who is the yoga instructor that I go to pretty much every Saturday and Sunday.
10:31We focused on twists, balance.
10:33Lots of balance.
10:34Give me a go.
10:35And we did breathing exercises.
10:38Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.
10:43And by the end, we felt so chilled out.
10:46Then Amanda walked us through a crash course in essential oils
10:49and they were the type of oils that were safe to both apply topically but also to ingest.
10:54So we got to taste them, we smelled them.
10:57It was a lot of fun.
11:01It's a licorice green juice.
11:02Afterwards, we did unique face masks based on our individual skin needs.
11:10And then we just hung out on the couch and watched a few episodes of Friends.
11:13That, to me, is a classic self-care day.
11:17Spending time with people I love, doing yoga, learning something new, skin care rituals, and friends.
11:22You got to know what you like.
11:24Remember, self-care is not about selfishly considering your needs and your needs alone.
11:29It's about understanding that if you don't care for yourself properly,
11:32how are you ever going to be able to care for or give to the people around you?
11:36So love yourself and take care of yourself fully
11:40because it's key to an improved mood and a good relationship with yourself and others.
11:44Thanks for coming back.
11:46Oh, wait, self-care.