#1: Don’t forget to take time for yourself.

We often get so caught up in what we should be doing or what we need to be doing that we forget to take time to just enjoy the moment and live for ourselves. It’s so easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed by every day activities whether it is work, school, internships, or even having time for family and friends.

It’s okay to ask for a day off of work. It’s okay to take a day on a weekend to forget about schoolwork for a minute. It’s okay to binge watch your latest favorite TV show all day and forget there’s an outside world every once in a while.

#2: Don’t forget to love yourself.

We so often worry about others before we worry about ourselves. Whether you’re a parent worrying about your family first or a boss working about your workers, or just a friend worrying about your other friends. It’s so hard to remember that we need to show ourselves as much love and compassion as we show others.

It’s okay to be proud of your latest accomplish and treat yourself. It’s okay to be proud of who you are or who you are becoming and admire different qualities in yourself. If you’re like me, you may set your standards for yourself extremely high at times and forget that you’re only human and love yourself anyway. Love yourself regardless of your flaws because those flaws make you beautiful and unique.

#3: Don’t forget to eat healthier

By eating healthy, I don’t mean eating only fruits and vegetables, watching your carbohydrates, watching gluten, or lactose, or caffeine or anything else we’re told to do. Everything ultimately can be bad for you or good for you depending on the moderation you eat it. So eat that candy bar, grab a pint of ice cream once in a while; go out to your favorite restaurant. Sometimes we get so caught up in what experts are telling us to do or trying to be perfectly healthy that we forget it is okay to treat ourselves. So by eat healthy, I mean eat what makes YOU feel healthy and good about yourself. For every single person, that will be different. We all have our own cravings and tastes. Eat what makes YOU personally feel good.

#4: Be active.

We’ve all heard this. Similar to food, we’ve all heard how many hours we should be working out or what exercises are better for our muscles or our lifespan. I personally love to be active but being active doesn’t have to mean going to the gym or even doing a typical workout like running or walking! Take your dog out and play with him/her. Go hike to a top of a mountain that you’ve always wanted to see. Explore in woods nearby because who knows what you’ll find in the woods. Go swimming in a pool or a lake or ocean that you’ve always wanted to see. Go find a hidden waterfall that hasn’t been found. There are so many things to see and do. Being active doesn’t have to be limited to one active or one specific type of exercise. Play the sport you’ve always loved to play or even try a new sport. Just do what you love and be active in the process.

#5: Just live.

I’m here giving you a list of things I find to be important but like many of us, we’ve read these type of lists before. We’ve heard from experts what to do and not to do. What is healthy for us and what’s not healthy for us. Some of that information is very good because it helps us know basic ideas of what is healthy. Along the way, I think some of us forget to just live. We wake up, and have a routine of work, or school and we follow that same routine every day because it’s what we’re told to. It’s what is expected of us. JUST LIVE. Forget what’s expected of you or what you should and should not do and everything you have ever read and just do something for yourself. Something that makes you so incredibly happy and makes you feel alive.

Sometimes I get stuck feeling like I am a robot. Like I’m living a life that’s not mine or am a puppet because I spend so much time in the same routines with the same goals, expectations, and rules for myself. Step out of your comfort zone and do something to remind yourself that you’re alive. A breathing, feeling, caring human being.