Self-care in 2025 - Feeling the love in a crazy world

If you're thinking 2025 has got off to a particularly nutty start, you're not alone. Record-breaking weather has brought epic flooding and fierce wildfires. There's a dangerous criminal lunatic in charge of the USA, already causing economic chaos just a few weeks after taking office. In the UK the cost of living crisis rumbles on as more of us struggle to cope.

Luckily there's another side of the coin. Millions of businesses of every size, in every country, are bringing positive Environment, Social and Governance policies into the workplace. Millions more are inventing, innovating and manufacturing climate-friendly, environmentally responsible alternatives to the stuff we use every day. The WOKE revolution that the bad guys hate so much is here to stay, and younger generations are more likely to be naturally WOKE.

At times like this, it's more important than ever to feel balanced, capable and confident. Because a few of us in the office are going through the menopause, having to completely change our life pace and health priorities, and because many of our customers are alternative therapists, yoga teachers and so on, we're on your wavelength. Here are our top tips for self care in 2025.

Self-care defined

Self-care means taking care of your physical, emotional and social health, making positive choices to promote wellbeing and reduce stress. Because there's such a powerful connection between the body and mind, it's important to care for our bodies. We all need healthy ways to deal with stress, anger, grief and sadness so we're not overwhelmed. And unless you're a complete hermit, you'll need a good person or people to share the magic of life with.

First we'll take a look at self-hypnotism, which can help you make the most of all three kinds of self-care: emotional, physical and social.

Top self-care tip number one - Super-simple self-hypnosis

You know the feeling when you first wake up, before the world floods in? You're comfortable, warm and safe, your mind flows free and your brain is empty of thoughts. It is gorgeous. So is the feeling you get when you're 'in the flow', in the moment, immersed in something so enjoyable and satisfying that hours can fly by without you noticing the time.

Basically, being hypnotised feels just like meditating. Even five minutes of it can make you feel marvellous. For anyone who isn't in the know, you'll feel wide awake but totally relaxed, alert but perfectly at peace. You can hear sounds but they seem a long away away. It feels like you're suspended outside time, floating in a timeless space.

People have written entire books about how to hypnotise yourself, but we like the simple 'how to' instructions we found in New Scientist magazine:

• Close your eyes and spend five minutes imagining something calming, for example lying on the beach
• Focus on your breathing at the same time. Just experience it going in and out, in and out
• Go further into your happy place, imagining all the tiny details. See the white sand stretching into the distance and the palm trees nodding along the fringe of the beach. Feel the lovely breeze as it cools your skin. Smell the scents of coconut oil and ozone, hear the gentle splashing of the waves
• Now go deeper, descending a beautiful staircase going down, down, down
• Repeat affirmations to help you reach the outcome you desire: I feel safe and calm, I feel positive about my life, I am brave and bold, I do what I know is right, whatever affirmations will help you get where you want to be

Daily affirmations can help boost your self-esteem, give you extra confidence if you're feeling wobbly, tackle a challenge with positive energy, calm down any negative self-talk or handle a crisis with inner strength and tenacity. It might take practice but once you get there, self-hypnosis is a delightful member of your self-care tool box.

Tips for emotional self-care

Mindfulness, acceptance, healthy boundaries, positive self-talk and rest sit at the heart of emotional self-care. Anger, sadness and anxiety can be destructive, so we need activities and practices to keep our little ship sailing true in rough waters. How do you process your emotions, cope with stress and maintain a healthy emotional state?

• It's important to know your feelings are valid, not something you need to avoid, deny or judge yourself for. Self-acceptance helps you stay in the present, learn and grow, and accept every emotion of every kind, from negative to positive

Saying no to things you don't want to do is a kind of emotional self-care, a way to re-set boundaries so they're comfortable for you, fair, and equal. Then there's positive self-talk. If your inner voice spends all its time telling you off and treating you like an idiot, it is not your friend. Luckily there's a choice. Learn to talk to yourself in kind, positive, supportive ways, just like you would with someone you love, and you'll feel your spirits lift.

If you're one of those people who never stops... it's time to stop! Unwinding and resting, whether it's a power nap, five minutes of refreshing self-hypnosis or just doing absolutely nothing for a while, will help make you feel good.

Tips for physical self-care

Good food, regular exercise and enough sleep are key to self-care.

Here's some more science we particularly like. When asked to define a healthy approach to food, one expert said 'eat food, not too much of it, mainly plants'. It doesn't get much simpler than that! By 'eat food' they mean avoiding processed and hyper-processed foods. By 'not too much of it' they mean there's no need to eat three regular meals a day or eat huge meals. It's better to eat when you fancy it, without over-eating.

• It's bad for our health to eat more than 70g a day of red meat or processed meat
• Breakfast isn't the most important meal of the day. The saying comes from an early 1900s Kelloggs advert, a gimmick to sell breakfast cereal
• There's no need to constantly 'hydrate' by drinking loads of water. That's junk science. Real science says just drink whatever healthy liquid you like, whenever you're thirsty
• Exercise can be equally simple. There's no need to spend a fortune at the gym, buy special exercise machines and gear, or join in with competitive sports. Walking is one of the best ways to exercise. You don't even need to jog or run. Just briskly walk around your village, town, city or rural idyll, taking in everything you see and enjoying being out in the air
• Yoga is a delight, known and loved for its physical wellness aspects
• Wild swimming is free, especially easy when you live near the sea. All you need is clean water, permission to be in it, and a swimming costume

Getting good sleep is a huge subject, covering everything from keeping your bedroom cool and dark to sticking to the same bedtime routine every night.

• New scientific research reveals there's no need to avoid blue light before bedtime. As Christine Blume, lead study author in a press release from the University of Basel recently said, “We found no evidence that the variation of light colour along a blue-yellow dimension plays a relevant role for the human internal clock or sleep.” On the other hand avoiding screens at bedtime is a good idea anyway because it lets your mind calm down ready for sleep

Tips for social self-care

We need to be supported, valued and appreciated by the people we care about. Enjoying positive relationships with friends, family, and community doesn’t just combat loneliness, it brings emotional strength and boosts overall happiness.

Social self-care is defined as 'taking care of one’s own well-being through maintaining positive social relationships, making meaningful connections and developing your own unique social identity', and it also comes with a science caveat. Yes, humans are designed to be social. Put us in solitary confinement for a few days and we soon become mentally ill.

• It is also important to understand that it's OK to spend a lot of time on your own if you thrive on solitude, not beat yourself up because you don't spend all your time in company

Social media plays a part. If your social media life is feeling toxic, back away. No wonder so many millions of people have left Twitter, AKA X, which has become a platform for hatred, intolerance and all sorts of nastiness. Immerse yourself in that kind of thing for long and you'd be forgiven for thinking humanity is a sewer of awfulness when in real life, most people are lovely.

How the clothes you love contribute to self-care

When we feel good, we look good. When we look good, we feel good. Clothing is one of the most powerful ways we express ourselves. Finding our own style, the look that makes us feel the most confident and authentic, makes us feel better in so many ways. As you can imagine we're thrilled to contribute to people's overall self-care with our glorious garments!