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Over the years, I’ve always been fascinated with the emergence of challenges. Whether on YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook, challenges were always trending on the interwebs.
During the lockdown, we all experienced a lot of challenges that went viral on social media. Challenges like Flip the Switch and the Patience Challenge were massive hits. Sometimes, I wonder where people even come up with this stuff and what makes challenges go viral.
Anyway, enough about my wandering thoughts. This month, I want to create a 30 day self-care challenge for November that’s filled with tons of self-care challenge ideas for the mind, body, and soul.
The challenge will focus on the different types of self-care. Each week, one will be responsible for completing an action of self-care targeting one of these self-care types — Physical, Mental, Emotional, Social, and Spiritual.
Instead of making it a 30 day self-care challenge, you can even do a 7 day self-care challenge for just that targeted week. There’s no perfect time than now to complete this self-care challenge during quarantine.
If you would like to create your very own challenge, start by choosing from the different self-care types you would like to focus on. After deciding, you can come up with personalized self-care activities that you would like to complete for that particular week.
I, personally, just wanted to focus on the physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual self-care because they’re my favorite self-care types.
To find out more about the 8 main types of self-care, check out this article on 33 Best Self-Care Practices for Your Mind, Body & Soul
Since the month of November has a total of 30 days, the 30 Day Self-Care Challenge is perfect for this month. This 1 month self-care challenge is going to be a long list, so let’s begin with the first challenge of the week:
Table of Contents
Week 1: Physical
Day 1 – Take a stroll in a park filled with trees and falling leaves for about an hour. On the first day of the month, I feel like this task should be an easy one. If by any chance it happens to rain, be sure to grab an umbrella, a nice rain jacket, and a sturdy pair of rain boots. There’s no excuse to miss out on a wonderful stroll in the park that’s gonna keep you active.
Day 2 – Do some stretch exercises for 30 minutes in the morning or at night. This is where YouTube videos and exercising apps like Stretching Sworkit come in handy. Remember to watch and pace your breathing while stretching.
Day 3 – Take a 2-hour afternoon nap. Grown folks need naps too. Please keep in mind that naps shouldn’t take the place of your regular bedtime routine. Midday naps are awesome for lifting your mood up, boosting your memory, improving your job performance, easing your stresses, and calming your anxious thoughts.
Day 4 – Moisturize your entire body with your favorite fall lotion. Dry skin is never cute. If you don’t already do this, pamper yourself and make sure that your skin is looking smooth and silky.
Day 5 – Make your favorite warm drink and sip on its lovely goodness. Drinking something warm can help boost your energy and keep you moving throughout the day. At night, it can even calm you down and help you sleep better.
Day 6 – Promote a healthy diet by eating healthier. Along with having healthy hygiene, healthy eating is one of the most important things you have to be conscious of doing. You only have one body in this world and it’s important to feed it good things so that it can last for as long as possible. Healthy meal options include white rice, stew, and vegetables, or a nice cobb salad with light dressing.
Day 7 – Have a solo dance party for an hour. This is one of my favorite things to do when I’m alone. Whether I’m dancing along to a workout routine or shimming to an upbeat YouTube song, I’m getting my body moving and having fun doing so. Exercising your body should not be boring, so get out there and groove!
Week 2: Mental
Day 8 – Today, it’s time for a digital detox. Turn off your phone, TV, computer, and social media for 4 hours. For better luck, lock away these devices so you don’t get tempted to turn them on. See how long you can last without your mind consuming large amounts of digital information.
Day 9 – Read a hardcover book for 2 hours. The art of reading a physical book in your hands shouldn’t be lost. Nowadays, it feels like everything has gone digital and books are only used for decoration. It’s time to shake things up a bit. Go to your local library and check out a book you’ve been wanting to read for a while. Read and keep your mind busy by falling in love with reading hardcover books again.
Day 10 – Listen to soothing music, jazz music, or the classics from the 60s for about an hour. This has become one of my favorite activities to do every morning. I love turning on my iHeart Radio app to the Classic Soul station and just vibing to the tunes for a while. It really helps to calm my nerves.
Day 11 – Look at old photo albums for about an hour and think back to the good memories. When I was younger, this was one of my favorite activities to do with my parents. I would look through their old photo albums and ask them different questions about the time and place the photos took place. They would walk me down memory lane as if I was right there in the action. Those stories were even better than the bedtime stories they would tell me at night.
Day 12 – Take 15 – 30 minutes and write down all of the negative thoughts you’ve been harboring about yourself. After this, immediately get rid of the note by throwing it in a lake somewhere or watching it burn. Whenever you use fire, please proceed with caution and do not harm yourself.
Day 13 – Meditate to reprogram your mind for about an hour or two. Meditation can be used to transform your thoughts about any issue. If you want to heal from childhood trauma, you can use meditation to transform your mind. If you’d want to change the way you think about yourself and build back your self-confidence, you can also do that here.
Day 14 – Grab yourself a reflective journal and write down all of the activities that you performed this week. Do this for about 1-2 hours. Reflect back on this week with the help of journal prompts. How did this week go? Did you learn something about yourself that you didn’t know before? Will you do this sort of thing again in the future? To make things easier, have a section in the journal specifically for each day and discuss these questions for each day.
Week 3: Emotional
Day 15 – Do something today that makes you feel happy. There’s no better feeling than to begin another long week with happiness. This emotion sets the pace for the rest of the week and all you have to do is just go with it. Do something that makes you feel good and gives off positive energy to others.
Day 16 – Complete a random act of kindness. Being kind in a world full of meanies is the reason why our light has to shine brighter. Whether your light is to give someone a compliment, give back to the needy, or hold the door for someone, go out there and be kind.
Day 17 – Take some time to go through your phone and remove all toxic energy. It’s time to completely clean out your phone and remove all of the negative images and/or people you no longer vibe with. Your level of frequency needs to be protected at all costs.
Day 18 – Watch one episode of a game show or a singing competition. Something about a game show gets me really excited to see what the next outcome will be. It’s like a mini cliffhanger of surprises. Singing competitions are also very captivating in the sense that it grips you at the heart whenever someone sings well.
Day 19 – Today, sing along to an emotional song of your choice. Songs make you feel something whether you want to or not. Sometimes, when I sing along to an emotional song like My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion, I cry because I think of the lyrics, it’s meaning, and how it relates to me.
Day 20 – Watch a movie that makes you feel an emotion — sadness, happiness, or fear. Watching a movie also has the ability to grip you at the heart as well. A movie like The Pursuit of Happyness had me crying the whole way through.
Day 21 – Write and repeat positive affirmations to yourself. It’s important to truly feel good in the skin that you’re in. I write and repeat positive affirmations to myself every morning, even when I don’t feel like it. It constantly reminds me that I’m important and I matter in this world.
Read More: 2 Powerful Words That’ll Change Your Life
Week 4: Social
Day 22 – Play a board game or games with your family and/or friends. Who doesn’t like to play games with a bunch of people? I love the feeling of being around friends and family, especially when there are laughter and good vibes in the air. It’s such a comforting feeling to be around.
Day 23 – Join a positive Facebook social group today. There are so many different Facebook groups out there that do various things. Look for one that gives you positive energy, encourages you every, and wants to put a smile on your face, kind of like this one.
Day 24 – Stir up a positive conversation on Social Media with a stranger or someone you haven’t talked to in a long time. Catch up and see how life is going for them. You might even learn something from them.
Day 25 – Go to a grocery store, the mall, Target, or Wal-mart (okay, maybe not Wal-mart) and engage with a stranger about anything you want. Make the conversation light and positive. Don’t be creepy lol.
Day 26 – Express gratitude to your family and friends. It’s so fitting that this day happens to land on Thanksgiving Day. So the next time you gather around the dinner table with your friends and family, tell them how much and why you’re grateful to have them in your life.
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Day 27 – Call someone you care about and have a deep conversation with them for an hour. You can talk about anything you want — your purpose in life, something you want some clarity on, or you can even talk about a certain problem you have been going through.
Day 28 – Go out with a positive friend(s) for lunch or dinner. This is certainly one of my favorite activities to do every now and then. Catching up with old friends gives me a break from my reality. I get to just sit and enjoy the presence of another person and talk about future and past life experiences. It’s great!
Week 5: Spiritual
Day 29 – Go to Church for 2 hours. Apart from today being Sunday, going to church is a great place to connect with your spirituality and to be in the presence of the Lord. Amen!
Day 30 – Meditate on the word of God and Pray for 1-2 hours. Thank God for bringing you to the end of the month. Pray that more blessings come your way in the next month. One of my favorite passages to reflect on is from Psalm 23. It talks about even though you walk through the shadow of death, you won’t fear any evil because the Lord is with you. Love that!
Interlude
Don’t worry, I didn’t leave you hanging. I know that the rest of the week begins another month, so if you want to finish and see this spiritual week through, here are the rest of the tasks that you can do for the remaining week.
Day 1 – Write a gratitude letter filled with gratitudes and thank yous to God or a person you appreciate. The letter can take however long it needs to be; just as long as you get your thoughts and emotions out there about how much you appreciate this subject.
Day 2 – Be alone for 2 hours in a sacred space that you’ve created. Have some quality time for yourself. Use this time to reflect on your entire life and complete a self-care activity that relates to your spirituality. You can even go out and connect with nature if that’s where your sacred place is.
Day 3 – Listen to an inspirational Ted Talk or an inspirational podcast for about an hour. Along with podcasts, Ted Talks are one of my favorite places to get inspiration on matters of the heart. People from all over the world come on these Ted Talks to share their wisdom and help others find their purpose in life.
Day 4 – Try a guided imagery. This is an interesting twist on meditation. It takes you on a visual journey with your spirit and helps you get in touch with your spiritual self. I tried this for the first time today and it wasn’t bad! It was very interesting to say the least.
Day 5 – Watch a virtual worship concert on YouTube. You can also attend a virtual worship service or attend a virtual indie-folk concert on Zoom if you rather do that. My go-to self-care activity is listening to a YouTube worship service. It helps me stay centered and connected to the spiritual world.
Related Post: The Best Self-Care Night Routine + Free Checklist Inside!
Now Let’s Discuss:
Alright, it looks like we’ve come to the end, and as a special treat, I’ve crafted this little 30 day self-care challenge pdf calendar for the month of November so you can follow along and cross off the tasks as you complete them.
Hope this challenge helps you with your self-care journey. And please, don’t forget to have fun with it!
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What was your favorite week to complete? What week’s task came easier to you?
Which week’s task was the hardest to complete? Did you learn something about yourself? If so, what was it?
Please let me know down in the comments below.
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Oh yes, Josie, every single one of your posts stun me! I love how this focuses not only on bubble baths and rose water, but you included emotional, social, and everything in between! You also look breath-taking in the photos x you’re killing the game
aw thanks sis💕!! That makes me feel like what I’m doing has purpose! Ahh thank you so much for the love and support! I’m so happy to call you a friend xxx
This challenge is definitely something I will take part in. Especially the physical week.
Yayyy! I can’t wait to begin this next month and see how well I do. I want to report it here after completion xxx
What a great idea! I love the looking at old photos one. Thanks for the post!
I know right!! Photos are so underrated now, especially when our phones can take pictures for us. But just like hardcover books, there’s something sentimental about old photos that technology can never take away xxx
Awesome list, going to work my way through these. Can I get a digital detox??? lol. Thank you for sharing!
Yayy, sounds like a plan! I’m going to do this challenge myself in November to see if I can pull through. Lollll I need a digital detox myself. We shall see how I do xxx
What a GREAT idea to share ways we can put ourselves first. This is so important in this day and age. And the calendar is a plus!
Aw thank you so much!! I know right, anything to help one another take care of ourselves is so important right now. Thank you for stopping by xxx
This is great Josie! I am really loving the 30 day challenges too! I am actually running a 30-day self discovery challenge on my blog right now! I love that you have different themes for each week. Nice work!
Great challenge! I love how specific you got with each day – that will really help those who struggle with self care!
You had me at 2 hour afternoon nap, LOL! (P.S. such an awesome list!!)
This is such a great idea. I love how this challenge factors something simple to do each day.
I love how you broke up the weeks by self-care type.
I like this way this was broken down by categories. It made it easy to navigate and know what to expect when reading. Thank you for sharing!
I love this challenge and am definitely going to print out your calendar and give it a try! Great read, thanks again!
wow, what an awesome list. I love that you get deep into this and not just the bubble bath and glass of wine….lol Keep up the wonderful work! 🙂
I’m obsessed with this idea, I’ve been feeling super stressed lately so this is something I’d definitely love to do!
I just love this post. So many self care ideas and so easy to follow day by day. I need a solo dance party and so much more on this list.
I love that you are so thorough. I especially love that you added a spiritual list. This is fabulous. Thank you so much for sharing.
Hey Josie, thanks for suggesting this challenge! It’s excellent for anyone who needs ideas for self-care even if they do not necessarily want to commit to all thirty days of it. My favorite has to be talking to a stranger at the supermarket just because it is so far out of my comfort zone and probably something I would never dare to do. I just might take you up on the challenge the next time I go grocery shopping! Thanks for sharing, have a beautiful week ahead!
This post was so helpful I had to save it! I already do some of the challenges you mentioned, but I enjoyed learning some new ideas! The mental week was probably my favorite out of the bunch.
Such a fantastic idea! I love how you split up the weeks into categories!
This is so refreshing! A worship concert is something I haven’t think of! I will follow this calendar for the whole of November, thanks!
I love this! ❤
This is a great list for a whole month’s plan on how we can care for ourselves. There’s so much to do by not spending so much money. Thanks for these lists I did enjoy reading this.
Love this post! You’re right– the timing couldn’t be better for a little self care. I’m working towards making some personal changes by the end of the year and your 30 day challenge fits in nicely. You’ve created a nurturing, well-rounded list of activities. Thank you for the inspiration.
Love this. I really like the you captured all aspects of self-care. I can’t even choose a favorite day because they’re all important! Thanks for sharing
Oh wow! What an awesome challenge. Thanks for sharing.
I am so ready for this challenge!! After such an emotional and tiring year, this is exactly what I need… thanks so much for sharing 🙂
This is a great overall challenge! Day 17 is my favorite day, to clean out your phone from toxic energy. This is something I practice on a regular basis, because a phone full of energy that I don’t need, makes me feel anxious. I delete contacts I’m not in contact with any longer, images and pictures that don’t spark joy, and apps I don’t use. Will share this on Pinterest and Twitter as well. 🙂 X
I Iove how you covered every aspect of self care. This looks like something I’d love to partake in, so I’m saving it for next month. Great post 😊
I love doing the challenge of random acts of kindness., You can never go wrong with kindness and it’s just a good thing to spread.
you are amazing!! love how you broke it up week by week, and each challenge is so thoughtful!
I love the idea of a self-care challenge; it is nice to have an easy list to follow to get into trying new things as a form of self-care. The things we start practicing as a habit stay with us for a long time. 🙂