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28-day Drink More Water challenge

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28-DAY-DRINK-MORE-WATER-MAKE-SELFCARE-SIMPLE

You’d think drinking water would be the easiest healthy habit in the world.
And yet… here we are — another day, another half-full glass on the counter.

If plain water feels boring, forgettable, or just impossible to keep up with, you’re in good company. I’ve lost count of how many clients (and days!) I’ve had the same struggle.

That’s why this challenge keeps it as simple as possible — no huge bottles, no timers, no guilt trips.
Just small, steady sips that remind your body what it feels like to be properly hydrated again.

After all, self-care isn’t always about doing more — sometimes it’s just about remembering to drink what’s right in front of you.

“Because apparently, coffee doesn’t count (I checked).”

Jump to Recipe

The Intention

To gently reintroduce your body to regular hydration and create a rhythm that feels natural.
Like all Make Self-Care Simple challenges, you’re encouraged to adapt it to fit your own energy, lifestyle, and body’s needs.

Try this Challenge If:

  • You suspect you don’t drink enough water
  • You find water boring or forget to drink regularly
  • You struggle with fatigue, headaches, or sluggish digestion
  • You want a simple, low-effort self-care habit that makes a big difference

(Tip: I find this challenge especially helpful in the cooler months when it’s easy to forget to drink.)

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What Is the Drink More Water Challenge?

Over the next 28 days, you’ll track and celebrate the days you meet your personal water goal.
You’ll start small — just five mini “sips” a day — and see what changes you notice in your energy, skin, and focus.

By the end of the challenge, you’ll have clear feedback on how hydration affects your wellbeing — and you’ll decide if you want to make it part of your regular routine.

Why Water Matters

Water supports nearly every function in your body — from energy and temperature regulation to digestion and brain function.

Even mild dehydration can affect your mood, concentration, and metabolism. Over time, it can also put stress on your kidneys and joints.

So, a little consistency really does go a long way.

How Much Water Do You Need?

There’s no perfect number. Everyone’s needs are different and depend on:

  • Temperature and weather
  • Activity level and sweating
  • Age, gender, health, and medications

Instead of chasing a fixed target, this challenge focuses on habit and awareness.
You’ll simply notice how your body feels as you drink more regularly.

Check-In Before You Begin

Spend one day observing how much you currently drink. Include everything — tea, coffee, smoothies, juice, and water.
Then ask:

  • How much of this is pure water?
  • How do I feel (energy, mood, focus, skin, digestion)?

You’ll use these notes to compare your “before” and “after” once the challenge ends.

The Simple 28-Day Drink More Water Challenge

For the next 28 days, drink at least 100 ml (about 3 fluid ounces) of plain water at these times:

1️⃣ Upon waking
2️⃣ Before breakfast
3️⃣ Before lunch
4️⃣ Before dinner
5️⃣ Before bed

That’s just five quick moments a day — about two big gulps each time.
Over 28 days, that adds up to around 14 litres (24½ pints) of pure water.

This is in addition to your normal beverages.

Why This Works

  • Small = achievable. 100 ml at a time feels easy, which helps you stay consistent.
  • Timing = benefit. Drinking before meals supports digestion and helps prevent overeating. Drinking on waking and before bed supports detox and hydration overnight.
  • Habit stacking = success. Pairing water with things you already do (like meals or brushing your teeth) helps make the habit automatic

Can I Drink Warm or Hot Water?

Yes! It all counts — cold, warm, or hot — as long as it’s plain water (no flavourings or sugar).
Some people find warm water easier to drink in cooler weather. Experiment and notice what feels best.

Want to Take It Further?

If this feels easy, you can gently increase:

  • Drink 150–200 ml each time instead of 100 ml
  • Or add another 100 ml after every bathroom break

You’ll get even more benefit without feeling overwhelmed.

Tracking Your Progress

Inside your toolkit

Tracking makes this more fun — and motivating!

Use your Drink More Water Tracker from the Free Self-Care Startup Kit or simply tick off each day in your journal.
After 28 days, compare how you feel.

Common improvements:

  • More steady energy
  • Clearer skin
  • Better digestion and regularity
  • Fewer headaches
  • Improved focus and less fatigue

If you don’t notice much change, that’s okay — it might mean your hydration was already good, or your body needs more time. Either way, awareness is progress.

Reflection & Integration

After 28 days:

  • Review your “before” and “after” notes
  • Notice small wins — even subtle ones
  • Decide if you’d like to continue or increase your daily intake

Remember, consistent small habits make the biggest difference

Final Thoughts — Stay Hydrated (Without the Pressure)

Congratulations on completing your 28-Day Drink More Water Challenge!
You’ve strengthened one of the simplest — and most powerful — self-care habits there is.

If you managed to drink more water than you spilled, forgot, or replaced with tea… that’s a win.
Because every small, consistent sip adds up — to better energy, clearer skin, and a lighter mood.

Keep listening to your body, keep your water nearby, and keep it simple.
And if you ever fall off the hydration wagon, don’t worry — your next sip is always a fresh start.

Why not invite a friend to join you next month? Hydration (like laughter) really is better when shared.

“Because apparently, coffee still doesn’t count — but you’re doing brilliantly anyway.”

Well done image in Make Self Care Simple brand colours – completion of 28-day self-care challenge
Well-done! You have completed another step towards making selfcare simple

Take the First Step…

We’ve all done it — promised ourselves we’d start that new healthy habit “tomorrow,” and felt oddly proud of the plan… until tomorrow never comes.

The truth is, self-care doesn’t need a perfect day — just a small, curious step today.

Your body learns from action, not intention. The Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit helps you turn what you’ve learned into action — so your self-care finally becomes real, simple, and yours.

Free Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit

Turn inspiration into lasting results — with a simple system that helps self-care finally work with your body, not against it.

If you’ve been reading along and thinking, “I’d love to try this myself one day…” — you don’t have to wait, or wonder where to start.

The Free Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit gives you the gentle structure to make your first challenge easy, personal, and effective.
It’s the same step-by-step approach I use when following the challenges alongside you — so you’ll feel supported every step of the way.

Inside, you’ll find:
🌿 A gentle Before Assessment to pinpoint what your body truly needs — so you can stop guessing and start seeing real results
🌿 Step-by-step guidance (plus short video walkthroughs) to choose the right self-care challenge for your needs — and actually complete it.
🌿 Printable planners, reflections, and trackers to help you stay consistent
🌿 Access to our private community (coming soon!) — for gentle accountability and encouragement

You’ll also receive:
💌 Weekly self-care reminders, new challenges, and encouragement in the Make Self-Care Simple newsletter
🪴 Access to our free private community — where women share progress, celebrate wins, and remind each other we’re not alone

👉 Get Your Free Toolkit & Join the Community

(Part of the Practical Self-Care Pathway — build habits that support your body’s natural balance.)

discover your selfcare blueprint

Make Self Care Simple shares general self-care education for inspiration only. I’m not providing medical advice — always check what’s right for you with a qualified health professional.

©2025 Make Self Care Simple.

Download your free handy challenge reminder!

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28-Day Drink More Water Challenge

Prep Time1 day
Total Time28 days

Notes

28-day Drink More Water Challenge

Goal: Build a simple daily hydration habit
Duration: 28 days
You’ll Need: Water, glass or bottle, tracker or journal
Steps:
  1. Track your current intake for 1 day
  2. Drink 100 ml at 5 key times (morning, before meals, before bed)
  3. Log your progress daily
  4. Compare your before/after notes at the end
  5. Optional: Increase amount or frequency after week 2
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Self-Care Monthly Updates

November Self-Care: When Pause Became Progress

By
Tree in November

If you’re new here, I share a Self-Care Update every month — not a polished highlight reel, but a real look at what’s happening in my body and my healing journey. Here’s November.

1. My Month in a Few Words

I thought this month was going to be “Maintenance,” but it turned out to be a Recovery month between rounds of treatment (antibiotics for SIBO).
It reminded me how unpredictable healing can be.

2. What I Noticed in My Body

The first round of treatment was more intense than expected, and my body spent most of the month trying to find its footing again. I had almost constant histamine reactions, and my system seemed to divert all its energy into calming itself down. (I share my personal SIBO/Histamine journey here)

That meant everything non-essential had to shut down.
If I tried to concentrate for too long, the brain fog arrived.
If I pushed even a little, it felt like I’d run a marathon — exhausted and aching from head to toe.

3. The Self-Care Practices I Returned To

The practice I always return to is supporting my body through what I eat, it’s one of the core practices on my Self-Care Menu (my living list of what actually helps my body).
While my diet often feels restricted, the truth is that what I do (and don’t) eat has the biggest impact on how quickly I feel better or worse.

It’s a constant “give and take” between what my body needs and what I enjoy — and that’s really what personalised self-care is: adjusting, experimenting, and finding the middle ground.

4. What Helped the Most

Listening to my body, then adjusting my practices and daily life, helped the most this month.

I had hoped to add more movement — I’d enjoyed it so much last month — but this wasn’t the time. Instead, I learned to ease off, and to trust that a little bit was better than pushing… and better than doing nothing.

Even on the hardest days, I at least started — even if two minutes later, I needed to stop.

5. What I Adjusted

I had planned to explore some new challenges, but I had to postpone this plan.
There was nothing left in the battery, and pushing myself would have backfired.

I promised these updates would be real — and sometimes real life simply doesn’t go to plan.

6. What I Learned About My Body

My body takes longer to recover than it used to.
To be fair, I had no idea how intense the treatment would be, and it’s easy to forget that medicines that “fix you” also demand a lot from your system.

I kept reminding myself of this whenever frustration crept in.

7. My Gentle Win

I didn’t fight my body.
I didn’t give up.
I didn’t get frustrated (too much).
And I kept resting.

That’s a win.

8. Life Context

You can’t avoid stress.
Life happens, and sometimes it’s scary and you feel powerless to find an answer.
This month had several of those moments.

On weeks like that, self-care becomes less about progress and more about survival — and that still counts.

9. Intention for Next Month

I’m about to start another (longer) round of treatment.
So my intention is simple: nurture my body the best I can.

10. Final Reflection

If you have a month like this, it’s easy to feel like no progress has been made.
My tracking sheet looks a bit grim.

But me and my body are a team.

Some months, I ask my body to step up and do more — and we enjoy the results.
Other months, my body says, “I can’t right now — I need your support.”

And every time I listen, we get a little closer.
That, to me, is a whole new level of progress.

Catch up on Last month or Next month.

If you’re reading this and thinking,
“I want to take better care of myself… but I don’t know where to start,”
you’re not alone.

My Free Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit is a gentle way to begin. Inside, you’ll find tools to help you:

  • tune into what your body needs right now
  • choose one simple self-care practice
  • notice small, meaningful shifts — without pressure

It’s a soft starting point, especially after months like this one.

👉 Download Your Free Toolkit

Free Self-Care Challenge Toolkit
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By
MindCraft

7 Questions to ask before starting a new self-care practice.

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There are literally hundreds of self-care practices you could start tomorrow, but how do you decide which ones are worth spending your time doing?

 When you decide to invest precious time, energy and money on your well-being, especially when you are coping with ongoing health conditions, it is worth spending a couple of minutes answering a few questions before you decide if this new self-care is worth exploring.

In the last decade the internet has been buzzing with thousands of healthy choices, ideas and opinions that promise to transform your health. 

This has become a vast resource that is often freely available to everyone who is seeking answers and options.

 On the other hand too much choice can become overwhelming, especially when supporting your health has become an essential factor in your life.

My aim with this blog is to make selfcare simple and help you find the self care practice that gets you results.

To get started I have put together 7 questions to ask before starting a new self care practice.

I have used both my experiences as a natural health practitioner and personal health journey to help explain how to use each question.

Short on time?

If you just want to skip straight to the questions click to the summary at the end.

Benefit of a Clear Strategy

My own self-care practice has changed over the years, depending on what was happening in my life and health journey, and the results I achieved was down to always having a clear strategy behind each self care practice I included.

 In other words, I always know exactly what result I expect to experience from any self-care choices I made.

 In my Natural health clinic, I helped hundreds of clients over many years to create individualised self-care practices.

 In this article I want to help you get started, by sharing questions to ask before starting a new self-care practice.

What is the definition of Self-Care?

Who defines self-care as:

 “Self-care is the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote and maintain their own health, prevent disease, and to cope with illness – with or without the support of a health or care worker.”

 My aim with any self-care practice is to provide one of the following:

  • Improve my current health levels
  • Maintain good health levels
  • Prevent future health issues
  • Better cope and manage existing illness.

A self care practice goes a little deeper than a healthy lifestyle, it is specifically fine tuned to the needs of your individual body and health needs.

Lets dive into the 7 questions to ask before starting a new self-care practice.

1. What benefit can I expect to experience or see?

This is the important question. Will following this self-care practice benefit and improve your individual health levels?

It might sound obvious but in the clinic I had clients spending time and money on popular health practices and products that they did not need. And because their body did not need it, they never experienced the same results as other people.

 Which can leave you feeling frustrated and wondering ‘what is wrong with me?’ or ‘what am I doing wrong?’ or that it doesn’t work and was a waste of time.

 Seeing someone else getting results is a very powerful motivation especially when you are struggling.

 ‘It worked for me, so I’m sure it will help you too’.

 Is a well-meaning phrase, but often a bit of a red herring when it comes to self-care.

The reason why there are so many solutions and none of them work 100% for every person is because you are not an exact copy of everyone else – you and your body are unique and individual and so are your health needs.

Knowing what support your body most needs right now is an important guide to which self-care practices to consider. 

If you don’t know – that should be your first self care practice – to understand your health condition better. 

Start with simple basics and know that as you learn more about your health conditions your self care practice will become more individual and tailored to you..

  For instance, a mindfulness practice to help soothe anxiety would not be the most important part of my own self-care, as I am quite relaxed and calm naturally.  It’s possible I would not notice any positive changes to my health levels.

 But for someone who suffers with anxiety the benefits become much more valuable and they are likely to notice and experience incredible improvements.

 Check what benefits to expect with each self-care practice you consider. Then decide if you, your body and health situation need them.

2. How soon before I can expect to feel/notice the benefits?

Some self-care practices feel good as soon as you do them, but the benefits only last a short while. Others take longer to build up and change the body, so it may take longer to experience the results.

 Admittedly this question has many variables, mainly because each person is unique. You may not be able to answer this question exactly until after a bit of trial and error.

 The reason why I like to have a rough idea of how soon to expect results is so I can monitor which practices are working well and which ones I need to swap out.

 My goal is always to get the best health benefits, in the shortest, easiest and most enjoyable ways possible.

Life is far too short to be spending 15 minutes every single day on a self-care practice that makes very little difference to my well-being. Or spending £10 a week on a product that does nothing to reduce a symptom.

In one year that would mean 5475 minutes or 91 hours or £520 of wasted time and money!

 As a rule of thumb if I don’t notice a difference after 1 month, I consider stopping that practice.

I can say this confidently because I know which Self-Care Blueprint I have.

Discover your body's response style
discover your selfcare blueprint

To answer this question you also need to be realistic.

No selfcare practice will give results unless you are consistent.

Do not expect a complete recovery in 1 week or month, the aim is to notice small improvements and changes.

 It is super helpful and motivating to know exactly what benefits I receive from each self-care practice I follow.

For instance, after completing just one 10–15-minute Qi Gong practice, I know that I will feel immediate improvements to my stiff and painful neck, a general ease of movement and serenity in my mood.

Consistent practice not only improves my body, mobility and mood, but I also experience the electromagnetic fields and vibrational frequencies of Qi Gong.

And I also know (from experience!) that after 3 days of missing that daily practice my neck will slowly seize up. More than a week of missed practice results in increased aches and pains all over my body. Ouch!

 On the other hand, the green supplement powder I use has a more subtle benefit. Over the years I have stopped it and found that at about 6 weeks I noticed a definite dip in my energy levels that I can only regain through my green powder.

Many self-care practices build up slowly over regular use.

 I hope my personal examples show how helpful it is to understand the timing factors for each self-care practice you follow.

how-much-time-make-selfcare-simple

3. How much time will this take to do each day/week?

Currently I work full-time, blog on the side and follow a daily self-care practice morning and evening. I also have a daughter, dog, home & garden, and family member commitments…I am busy!

 Time is extremely valuable to me.

If there are two practices that offer the same benefits, but one can be done in 5 minutes while the other one requires 50 minutes, I take the 5 minutes every time.

 No matter how great the longer practice is, it won’t help me if I never have time to do the practice!

 Knowing how much time a practice requires, is one easy way I decide which practices to include and which to leave.

 Another question I often ask is ‘can I get enough benefits in less time?’

Of course sometimes that 50-minute practice really is the best option, and acknowledging this first will help you make the time.How important is time for you?

how-much-planning-involved-make-selfcare-simple

4.  How much preparation or planning is involved?

Following certain diets and recipes that support my health often require hours of prep and planning.

I class healthy eating as self-care. For me it is a priority, so I factor in the extra time it takes to prepare my meals in my selfcare planner.

 Because I have (currently undiagnosed) MCAS symptoms and can experience extreme reactions to foods, I often don’t have a choice, so I research and explore all the prep and planning hacks and adapt them to suit my needs.

Honestly this has taken me hours and hours.

As a general rule my goal is always to get the best health benefits, in the shortest, easiest and most enjoyable ways possible.

But for my personal health issue, weekly hours spent on meal prep is essential, even if I don’t always enjoy it.

 You might come across a self-care practice with lots of benefits that requires a fair amount of prep or planning.

 Do the benefits justify any additional preparation and planning of a self-care practice?

 Another example would be a gym membership. There is no doubt that there are many benefits to a regular gym work-out, but many people struggle with fitting in the extra time requirements involved in travelling to and from the gym in their busy lives.

If the thought of all that additional time spent on prep and planning gives you that sinking feeling that could be a sign that for now you need self care that is simple and easy.

5. What additional costs are involved?

Most self-care practices require some kind of cost. Especially when you first start and are getting set up.

 I am quite frugal by nature and circumstance so it’s important to me that I am getting good value for any costs.

 I have found that many of the very best self-care results cost next to nothing!

 Sometimes an additional cost is worth it.

 A higher cost should save you:

  • Time,
  •  Provide better user quality,
  •  Results you can’t receive from other options.

The good news is that if you are prepared to allocate more time and effort a great deal of self care is affordable. Check out my self care challenges for ideas!

6. How much effort is required?

 For those of us suffering with low energy and fatigue asking how much effort is required can feel like a daily mantra!

This is when it helps to get honest about your energy levels, brain fog and motivation.

Every self care practice will involve some level of effort, simply because any change to your routine requires effort in the beginning.

 If the effort required leaves you feeling drained, that is a potential red flag.

 If you find yourself ‘avoiding’ or ‘forgetting’ it can be helpful to do some further self-enquiry as to what is really happening.

 Often the first week of a practice feels easy because we are motivated, but by the next week it can start to feel like hard work!

 Having to turn out and drive to an evening yoga class may feel like too much effort for one person while another will make time to experience the amazing instructor and group energy.

 Once you accept that any new self care practice is going to take a certain amount of effort, you just need to ask…

Is the effort worth the value you would receive?

7. Do I enjoy the practice?

I’ve saved this question until last even though I know it is possibly the first one you might ask!

 When you find a self-care practice that you enjoy, and which provides the lasting benefits your body needs you have found healing heaven.

 Sometimes when something starts to feel easier it becomes more enjoyable. Take yoga or meditation. Typically, these are not easy or enjoyable at the beginning. But after regular practice you become a raving fan!

 There is also a place for self-care that provides enjoyment as the main benefit – good to know right? I always try to include these in my day!

 Then there are ways you can make a self-care practice more enjoyable.

 Perhaps you can turn down the intensity, shorter the duration.

 The benefits may take longer but if you enjoy the practice more you will keep going.

Final Summary

So that completes my 7 Questions to ask before starting a new self-care practice. You can use these to help you choose your next self care challenge.

It is my hope that these questions will help reduce any confusion and overwhelm when faced with so many different options.

In summary:

7 Questions to ask before starting a new self care practice.

  1. What is the benefit I can expect to experience or see?
  2. How soon before I can expect to feel/notice the benefits?
  3. How much time will this take to do each day/week?
  4. How much preparation or planning is involved?
  5. What additional costs are involved?
  6. How much effort is required?
  7. Do I enjoy the practice?

Hope you can join me as I have a LOT more support to offer around self-care!

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By
MindCraft

Why Self-Care Challenges Work

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See why self-care challenges work and how gentle, focused practices help you listen to your body, build confidence, and create steady, meaningful change.

Let’s be honest…
On paper, self-care sounds ridiculously simple:

Just drink more water.
Eat more vegetables.
Move a little more.

On Day 1, it feels almost too easy.
You might even think: “Honestly, I could add more.”

By Day 3…
Life happens. You’re busy. You forget.

By Day 5…
Your energy dips, your motivation evaporates, and suddenly you’re saying:

“I’m not sure I can do this forever… is it even worth it?”

If you’ve lived anywhere inside that cycle — welcome, you’re not broken, you’re human.

And this is exactly why self-care challenges work so beautifully.

Not the hardcore, all-or-nothing challenges that demand perfection.

But the kind I teach here at Make Self-Care Simple:

Gentle, curiosity-based experiments

that help you discover what actually supports your body.

After 25 years as a natural health practitioner, I noticed something surprising:

Women who tried ONE small self-care practice consistently for a few weeks always saw better results
than those trying to overhaul their whole life in one go.

When I said to clients, “Try this one practice until your next appointment, just long enough to see if it works for you,”
— most of them finally made progress.

Here’s why.

1. They’re long enough for your body to show you what’s working

Most self-care advice promises quick results.
But real change needs time.

Your nervous system needs time.
Your digestion needs time.
Your hormones need time.
Your habits need time.

And above all, your body needs to feel safe before it can change anything.

Here’s the nuance:

In my experience, Practical and Nourish practices often show their true benefits over a few weeks… whereas Align & Uplift or Mindcraft shifts can often be felt much more quickly.

This makes every challenge the right size for the type of support your body needs.

gentle self-care challenge benefits

2. They Turn Self-care into a Simple Experiment

Most women feel overwhelmed because they think they must:

  • choose the perfect routine
  • get it right immediately
  • stick to it flawlessly

But a self-care challenge reframes the entire process:

“Let’s just try this. Let’s see what happens.”

You’re not committing for life.
You’re just gathering feedback.

It removes pressure
and builds confidence.

3. They stop the spiral of overthinking

If you’re intuitive, thoughtful, or sensitive (many of my readers are), you might recognise this:

You want to feel better →
You research →
You get overwhelmed →
You freeze →
Nothing changes.

A challenge cuts through the noise:

Choose one thing
Try it long enough to learn something
Reassess at the end

Even on low-energy days, this is doable.

4. They help you build your personalised Menu of Self-Care

Every challenge teaches you something:

  • what your body loves
  • what helps a little
  • what makes the biggest difference
  • what does nothing
  • what’s worth keeping

Over time, these little experiments become:

your personal Menu of Self-Care A living list of practices that genuinely support your body —
with no guilt, guessing, or copying other people’s routines

Personalised Menu of Self-Care Practices
This is what I know works for my body

5. They create momentum — without overwhelm

They create momentum — without overwhelm
One of the biggest reasons women don’t see results?
Trying to change everything at once.

Self-care challenges keep things simple:

Challenges work best when they’re focused.
Usually, this means choosing just one supportive practice at a time and — only if you want to — pairing it with a simple mood- or mindset-shift.

This structure matters.

Your four pathways work together — but focusing on just one at a time helps you clearly see which practice is making the difference.

That’s what builds confidence.

And once a practice earns its place, you can gently layer in the next.

They Help you see Patterns in your Body

When you focus on just one practice, you can clearly see what difference it makes.

You might notice:

  • that recurring headache appears less often
  • your mood lifts in the afternoon
  • the after-dinner bloat you’d accepted as “normal” softens
  • your energy lasts a little longer

These tiny shifts are valuable clues.

And you can only spot them when you’re not juggling ten changes at once.

7. They work with your body — not against it

Women over 40 often tell me:

“My body just doesn’t respond like it used to.”

And that’s true —
because your body now needs a gentler, kinder, more consistent approach.

Self-care challenges honour that.

They give you space to:

  • rebuild trust
  • restore balance
  • reconnect with your natural rhythm

This isn’t self-improvement.
It’s self-connection.

1. If you’d like to understand the approach first…

START your Challenge!

Before you begin, you might want a clearer sense of why this works — and how to make sure your first challenge actually leads to results.
My Start Here page walks you through the missing pieces of self-care, why listening to your body matters, and how the Start-Up Toolkit supports you step by step.

Visit Start Here

2. If you’re ready to begin your first challenge…

I’ve created a free resource to help you start simply and confidently.

Download the Free Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit

Inside, you’ll find:
• how to begin
• how to assess what your body needs
• how to track the right things
• how to personalise your care
• how to know if something is working

A calm, clear starting point — without overwhelm.

Get the Toolkit

3. Want to keep exploring?

If you’re still learning — or you’ve downloaded the toolkit and want to understand the bigger picture — the next step is discovering your Menu of Self-Care.
It’s the simple method I use (and teach) to understand which practices genuinely support your body.

Create Your Menu of Self-Care

Small steps.
Steady awareness.
Real results.
That’s what makes self-care simple.

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By
MindCraft

How to Create Your Menu Of Self-Care

By

Discover what a personalised Menu of Self-Care really is — and why it’s the foundation of simple, meaningful progress with your health and wellbeing.

My Story

When long-Covid left my immune system reacting to almost everything, I realised something surprising:

The remedies and routines that had worked beautifully for years suddenly… didn’t.

My body was facing a new challenge — and I needed a new way to support it.

So I began exploring again.
Not dramatic changes.
Just small, gentle practices I could actually manage.

Some helped.
Some didn’t.
But all of them taught me something.

Slowly, a pattern emerged — and the list of practices that genuinely supported me became my Menu of Self-Care.

It changed everything about how I approach my wellbeing.

A Different Kind of Self-Care

Most self-care advice focuses on what you should do:

  • drink more water
  • meditate
  • move more
  • journal
  • stretch
  • eat better

Good ideas… but not necessarily your ideas.

Your Menu of Self-Care is different.

It’s a living list of practices your own body has “approved” — because you’ve tried them, felt the difference, and know they truly support you.

It grows with you.
It changes with your seasons.
It becomes clearer the more you listen.

And best of all?

It removes the pressure to copy anyone else.

This way of working with a self-care menu comes from a quieter, more intuitive approach to self-care — one that focuses on listening to the body rather than following fixed routines.
If it’s helpful, I’ve written more about that perspective here.

How the Menu Fits into the MSS Approach

Your wellbeing is shaped by many layers — your body, your emotions, your energy, your habits, your beliefs.

That’s why Make Self Care Simple works with four pathways:

  • Practical – grounding daily care that supports your physical systems
  • Nourish – food and rhythms that replenish you
  • Align & Uplift – short practices that lift mood & energy
  • Mindcraft – mindset shifts that support consistency

You don’t need all four at once.
And you don’t need to figure them out alone.

Each gentle challenge helps you explore one pathway at a time — giving you the clarity your body hasn’t been able to give you in the overwhelm of “trying everything.”

Over time, these small insights naturally become your Menu of Self-Care.

Personalised Menu of Self-Care Practices
This is what I know works for my body

Your Menu Doesn’t Need to Be Perfect

You don’t need the perfect template (yet).
Or the perfect plan.
Or the perfect routine.

All you need is a place to start noticing:

  • what feels supportive
  • what feels draining
  • what feels neutral

This alone begins reconnecting you with your own internal wisdom.

But if you’d like your Menu to truly work — to be clear, reliable, and personalised — the way you begin makes all the difference.

Which leads to…

Why Your Menu Matters

When self-care becomes something you choose (not something you “should” do), everything shifts.

You begin to see what genuinely helps you.
You stop copying routines that don’t fit.
You trust your own signals.
You spend less time guessing — and more time responding.

Your Menu of Self-Care becomes:

  • a reference
  • a guide
  • a source of confidence
  • and a quiet reminder of what works

It’s not a to-do list.
It’s a relationship.

Ready to Create Your Menu? Start Here.

Creating a Menu is simple — but the way you start matters.
That first step is what determines whether you gain clarity… or get lost in overwhelm again.

That’s why I created the Free Self-Care Start-Up Toolkit.

It gently guides you through:

🌿 Understanding what your body needs first
🌿 Choosing the right first self-care challenge
🌿 Noticing your body’s feedback with clarity
🌿 Beginning your Menu with confidence — not confusion

It’s the essential “before” step most people skip… and the reason their self-care never sticks.

👉 Begin with the Free Toolkit — and start your Menu the right way

If you’d like a little more clarity on why gentle challenges create such steady results, this explanation might help things click into place.

→ Why Self-Care Challenges Work

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