Self-care is such an important thing to work into your schedule. These days we can get so swept up in our jobs, social lives, families, kids, and partners that we forget to really slow down and do things that make us feel good and are good for us. Prioritize yourself! When you are properly taking care of yourself, you’re healthier and have more vitality, and this makes your manifesting all the more powerful. Plus, as the old saying goes, you can’t pour from an empty cup. Here are four categories for self-care. Try to hit something from each list each day. If none of the things I list out appeal to you, then do something else you love for each category. If you’ve never heard of some of these things, then try them! Getting out of your comfort zone is good for you and is where growth happens!

1. Delight Your Senses Every Day

Relax and release tension daily.

• take a warm bath
• use essential oils
• listen to a guided meditation
• go to a sound healing meditation
• practice self-hypnosis on yourself
• get a reiki treatment
• get a massage
• read an uplifting book
• watch an uplifting documentary
• listen to relaxing music
• get an acupuncture treatment
• practice pranayama (breath work)
• laugh with your best friend
• go to a bhakti yoga session where you get to chant
• get a network spinal analysis session
• listen to binaural beats
• om a few times

All of these things reduce stress, calm your nervous system, bring you into a parasympathetic state (rest, digest, and create), and boost your immune system as a result.

When you don’t take the time to find relaxation every day, tension becomes built up and repressed. And when your body is under stress and in a sympathetic state (fight, flight, or freeze), you’re unable to do crucial things like digest, detox, and heal.

Try to get out in the sun for twenty minutes every day, especially in the morning, to soak up the beneficial red light. Invest in blue blocking glasses for the evening time as you start to wind down. This will help your circadian rhythm, melatonin production, and so much more.

Red light (infrared light) from the sun first thing in the morning stimulates collagen, increases bone healing, and heals wounds. It is proven to be anti-aging and reduces wrinkles and scars. Infrared light around sunrise preconditions our skin to protect us from the UVA and UVB that comes out a bit later, so you’re less likely to burn later in the day, which is important because you need to soak up some vitamin D through the daytime sun. Later morning sun is critical in making nitric oxide, the same thing we release when we exercise. It also increases energy and memory and is anti-aging. Finally, it triggers the production of serotonin and dopamine and releases endorphins, making us feel good.

Artificial blue light, such as that found in our electronics screens, can cause myopia (short-sightedness), macular degeneration (blindness), obesity, diabetes, brain degeneration, hormonal issues, and so much more. It also messes up your sleep patterns by disrupting your natural melatonin production if you watch TV or look at your phone or computer at night, which is why I recommend wearing blue blocking glasses in the evening.

Anything you can do to stimulate your vagus nerve is always good. Your vagus nerve plays a major part in stress relief. It has around 100,000 parasympathetic nerve fibers that connect with your brain, then it wanders past your voice box and runs down your body, touching every major organ on its way down. It’s the longest and most complex cranial nerve in your body and the primary component of your parasympathetic nervous system. Interestingly, it also activates your gut microbiome, which can modulate inflammation and affect your brain and behavior. Things like singing, humming, taking vibrational breaths, and primal screaming can all stimulate your vagus nerve and release tension from your body. It’s pretty wild! This is why when I teach my yoga class, I teach vibrational breaths too: H-A-Haaas, H-M-Hmmmms, flutters of your lips, and so on. They recalibrate your nervous system, release heat and tension from your body, and stimulate your vagus nerve.

2. Cleanse Your Friend List

Remember that your diet isn’t just what you eat. It’s the music you listen to, what you watch on TV, the media you consume, and the people you surround yourself with. Be mindful of what you put into your body and your energy field.

One of the best pieces of advice from successful people is to surround yourself with people who already have what you want. The conversation will be different, better, in those circles.

Your life is the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Notice what the people in your life talk about. Are they talking about groundbreaking ideas, personal development, ways to better humanity and the planet, exciting new opportunities, business and investment ideas, deep conversations about the universe, wisdom teachings, the great mysteries of life and love? Or are they gossiping, indulging in drama, and talking poorly about other people? Are they expanding or constricting your point of view?

The people you surround yourself with greatly influence your success in all seven areas of your life. Seek out positive groups of influences. Join groups of people who are doing and talking about what you want. And it doesn’t have to be all mystical and spiritual. If you want to write a book, join a writers’ group. If you want to invest in real estate, go to a real estate investment meetup.

Get friends who not only celebrate your successes with you but also challenge you to grow and inspire you to have new ideas. Friends who will call you out on your bullshit because they love you and know you can do better are priceless.

The problem with hanging out with people with lower standards than you is that they will try to pull you back. Not consciously, of course. They likely love you and want you to be happy, but they may also subconsciously be fearful that if you change and grow, they’ll lose you. So they’ll say things like, “Don’t work so hard. Come have a drink tonight,” or find ways to undermine what you’re doing and working on. Don’t lower your standards so that you don’t make others feel bad about themselves. Instead, surround yourself with people who have higher standards than you and you can’t help but rise to match them. You can certainly rise up and be the one who inspires those around you to achieve greater success, but make sure you also have friends who inspire you too.

One type of person to really watch out for are people who act like friends but are actually envious of you. These people likely don’t truly want to see you succeed. You can pick out these sneaky people from the crowd by the way they act and the language they use. If they don’t seem excited about positive things that happen to you, if they talk more about themselves and don’t seem interested in your life unless something is wrong, if they are often competing against you and use language that makes it obvious they are jealous, then they probably aren’t adding much to your life. Friends should lift each other up, not see each other as competition or try to bring each other down.

Negative people who only ever complain and make you feel drained are another group to avoid. Protect your precious energy. Remember, what you focus on is what you will attract. And listening to someone else’s constant drama, gossip, and negativity can affect your own energy field and drag you down. That’s not to say you can’t comfort a friend in need, but pay attention to people’s patterns of behavior and speech and make intelligent choices about who is worth your time and attention. Your time, energy, and attention are your currency in this world. Invest them wisely.

3. Move Your Body

Go for a walk in nature, practice yoga, lift weights, dance, swim, practice martial arts, or find some other movement modality every day, even if it’s only for fifteen minutes. Even if it’s a gentle movement like mindful stretching, Qi gong, Tai Chi, or chair yoga. They even make seated elliptical machines that fit under your desk. Whatever it takes. Exercise boosts your mood, relieves stress, keeps your body strong and flexible, reduces pain, enhances your cognitive abilities, gives you more energy, gives you better sleep, helps keep your muscles and bones healthy… The list goes on and on. There are so many wonderful reasons to move your body every day, and no matter what level of fitness you are at, there is always something you can do to get started.

If you’d like to come practice yoga with me, you can find my classes at Unite By Yoga, the yoga company I own. I teach online classes as well as in person so you can join from anywhere in the world, and I accept sliding scale payments because I think the powerful practice of yoga should be available to everyone, not just an elite group of people. Pricing yoga outside of certain groups of people’s reach is missing the essence of what yoga is all about. My classes are for all levels, and everyone is welcome, even if you’ve never stepped foot on a yoga mat before. We leave ego and judgment out of the yoga space because comparing yourself to others, even comparing yourself to yourself from the last class you took, is not productive. Everyone is on their own path, their own journey. And no two days stepping onto your mat are the same. It’s a different version of you every time, like staring into a rushing river and knowing that even though the river is the same, the individual water molecules are always new and different.

Your body is incredible because it tells the story of your life. The activities you did as a child helped shape your bones. What you do for work affects your body, like if you stand a lot or sit a lot. Everything you’ve been through—things you’ve had to do, your joys, your triumphs, your traumas, your fears, everything you’ve risen above—your body holds all of that. Because of that, the top of your femur bone might not fit into your hip socket in the same way that mine does, so for example our lizard poses might look very different. And that’s normal and okay and beautiful.

We all wear masks and armor as we move through our life. We have a mask for work, a mask for our family, a mask for our friends, a mask for the grocery store. And armor is great because it protects you and might have kept you safe at one point in your life, but if you never take it off, it gets rusty, stiff, and stuck. And as you move on your mat and get into a flow state and close your eyes, you get to remove bits and pieces of that armor, take off that mask. You can shed labels society might place on top of you or that you might place on top of yourself—a friend, a partner, an employee, a boss, a parent, a child, whatever it is—and instead get back to that core, that center, that stillness within you. Because that’s who you really are. That’s your true nature. You are vast and expansive and magnificent and ancient.

4. Keep Adding to Your Pile of Goodness

Finally, do things that bring you joy. We’re here to have experiences as human beings on planet Earth, so go experience it! Being spiritual or successful doesn’t mean you have to live in a monastery high in the mountains, practice celibacy, and give up your worldly possessions. It also doesn’t mean you have to live in a mega mansion, go on expensive retreats, and be into biohacking and all the latest health apps. If those things appeal to you and make you feel fulfilled, then by all means do them, but you don’t need any outside things. Inner peace and self-love come from within. And don’t try to be something you’re not. Be true to yourself. The world would be missing something without your unique energy.

I know plenty of people who say they’re spiritual, are into crystals, post positive quotes on social media, get their tarot cards read, and attend full moon ceremonies who still haven’t found inner peace. And I know people who are religious, attend group prayer, dress in a certain way, avoid certain foods, and study their sacred texts who hold such strong judgments of others that it teeters on hatred. And finally I know people who own their own businesses, belong to country clubs, and love fashion who are beacons of kindness, joy, compassion, and generosity.

You don’t have to do anything special to be worthy and deserving of love. That is already your birthright simply because of your existence. You can still be a good person if you love to travel the world, go on exotic food tours, dance in clubs, collect fine wines, play video games, invest in the stock market, buy real estate, watch football, or anything else. The question is why do you do those things? Do you do them because they bring you joy? Do you do them out of self-love? Do they bring you a sense of peace and harmony? Or do they stem from fear, bring feelings of guilt or shame, and serve as a way to avoid your feelings?

Being spiritual also doesn’t mean you have to be serious all the time. Have fun! Laugh. Enjoy your life. Do things that make you happy and add to your life. Keep adding to your pile of goodness. Do things out of love, things that bring you joy and peace, things that make you feel alive.