How to Focus on Yourself: Quotes, Motivation and Top Tips
Feeling heartbroken after a painful breakup? Fed up of the toxicity on social media? Stressed out by work and social expectations? These could be signs you need to step back from others and learn how to focus on yourself.
When we pour all of our energy into helping others, resolving disputes and working on intensive projects, we drain our inner resources. When you focus on yourself, whether through healthy living, gratitude journaling or reading 'focus on yourself' quotes, you’re allowing yourself to recharge - so you can take on the world with a better frame of mind. Plus, there are countless health benefits to self care, as it can reduce your chances of chronic stress and poor mental wellbeing.
Although focusing on yourself is often presented as ‘selfish’ in the media and wider society, the world is waking up to the healing power of self care - and you can too. Here are our guilt-free top tips on how to focus on yourself.
Tips on How to Focus on Yourself to Boost Wellbeing
Create a Strategy Plan for Focusing on Yourself
Before you get started on your self care journey, it helps to have a plan for how you intend to focus on yourself. Spend some time listening to your thoughts on the subject. Ask yourself honestly: What areas do I need to focus on within myself?
Here are some potential areas you might decide to work on:
- Living and eating more healthily
- Taking time to be in nature
- Spending time with friends and family
Next, in your daily goal setter, plot two or three manageable activities into your week that enable you to focus on yourself and build on these areas. Your strategy plan doesn’t have to be formal, you could express your plans through free writing or even via drawings.
Start Healthy Habits
Want to learn how to focus on yourself? The best way to start is to build self care into your routine. Don’t attempt to build Rome in a day - instead choose one or two healthy habits to build into your morning or evening routines. Focusing on yourself means focusing on your health, so some potential healthy daily habits could include:
- Eating a heart-healthy breakfast
- Jogging, yoga or tai-chi for thirty minutes
- Drinking more water
Looking after your body can make it stronger, helping you to manage day-to-day stresses. Don’t admonish yourself if you slip out of your routine for a day or two - simply ease yourself back on track.
Check In with Yourself
How are you feeling right now? Are you happy, looking forward to your future? Maybe you feel sad, lonely or frustrated with your current circumstances? Perhaps you feel pent up anger bubbling inside of you, or stressful thoughts clouding your head?
Don’t just ask your mind, ask your body. Is your chest tight? Are your hands clenched? Scan your body for feelings of tension or lethargy.
When you focus on yourself, feelings and emotions that you might have otherwise ignored rise to the surface, so you can finally address them. Don’t ignore what your body and mind are telling you. Checking in with yourself in a journal or diary helps you to see exactly how you’re feeling over time, what triggers your negative thoughts or emotions, and how you can recalibrate yourself in the right direction.
Express Gratitude for Happy Moments
An evening out with friends, a day at the beach with family, a rainy afternoon with a good book. Happy moments are so important to our wellbeing, but often they are fleeting and we soon forget the joy they have brought us.
Expressing gratitude makes us stop and give thanks for the wonderful memories and special people we have in our lives. This extends their positive effects for longer and helps us truly appreciate what we have. Keep a gratitude journal to catalogue your precious moments. Before you go to bed at night, record three memories, people or things that made you smile during the day.
Reconnect with the World
Between social media, work projects and life goals, it can be easy to lose sight of the world around us. To focus on yourself, you also need to focus on your surroundings.
Ask yourself: what is valuable to me? Limit your social media intake to a couple of half-hour slots in the week, leave work at the door, and spend your extra time reconnecting with loved ones.
A simple picnic in the park with family or a shopping trip with friends can soothe and revive you. Or why not connect with nature itself? Practice mindfulness as you take a walk through a natural beauty spot. Breathe in the scents of fragrant flowers, listen to the sounds of birds chirping and leaves crunching beneath your feet. Connecting with the real world can help you to focus on yourself and your needs.
Keep a Self Care Journal
Learning how to focus on yourself is about more than just feeling better for one afternoon. When you focus on yourself in the long term, you receive far more health and wellbeing benefits.
In a self care journal, you can record how you feel after a mindfulness or exercise session, any triggers for your mental health, what foods you’ve eaten, etc. With all this information, you can gradually create a picture of yourself and develop a clear understanding of what works for you (along with what doesn't).
Inspire Yourself with ‘Focus on Yourself’ Quotes
Sometimes, to focus on yourself, you need a little outside inspiration. That’s why it helps to read ‘focus on yourself’ quotes to discover new ways to love and motivate yourself. Here are a few of our personal favourites:
“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” - George Bernard Shaw.
“Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.” - Lao Tzu.
“I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.” - Oscar Wilde.
“Friendship with one’s self is all important, because without it one can not be friends with anyone else in the world.” - Eleanor Roosevelt.
Keep these ‘focus on yourself’ quotes in your daily journal, jotting down a new quote at the start of each week to inspire you.
Learning how to focus on yourself is a process that takes time. It doesn’t mean selfishness or ignoring the needs of others. Focusing on yourself means giving yourself the time and space to take care of your needs, respect your personal boundaries and embrace the wonders of life. That might be through eating more healthily, keeping a self care journal, or through memorising ‘focus on yourself’ quotes to empower you through the day. When you focus on yourself, you’ll find other areas of your life, like work and life goals, start to fit into place.
Ready to take the first step and start focusing on yourself? Whether you keep your feelings in mind with a check-in journal or express your thanks with a gratitude journal, journaling can make a huge difference to your self care journey. Browse our Scandi-inspired collection and discover the perfect journal to help you pledge to focus on yourself.
