Cheap Self Care Gifts That Fit Your Budget

Can I afford to pamper myself with self-care products?

Sometimes we put ourselves last as we may think it is selfish to prioritize ourselves on a regular basis.

However, there are many different forms of self-care and it can be just as effective to buy or do something that is inexpensive. 

I used to worry about my finances, after a divorce late in life, and just work, work, work. It's like a treadmill that goes forever. 

One day, I read an article that focused on rewarding yourself each week in some way-and it need not be expensive. So each week, I take myself out of my routine (into a new one) and do something that is different and that I enjoy.

I buy something that appeals to me from Amazon, or paint and draw, or go for a coffee at a cafe! I have bought some of the products listed below and I was so happy when I opened the boxes and saw the great products I had purchased. 

So pamper yourself, relieve some stress, and put a smile on your face. You deserve it.

What self-care products would relax you and bring some happiness to you?

If you're wanting to practise of bit of self-care, and pamper yourself with a lovely treat that puts a smile on your face, I've made a list of lovely products for you.  I had fun going through products on Amazon that I thought would relax you, in different ways.  I hope you enjoy this post.

 “As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.”                                        

Self Care Journal: 366 Prompts to Help Nurture & Recharge Your Body and Soul.

This is a beautiful hardcover book that comes with gilding for that touch of elegance. I was pleasantly surprised with the gilding on the cover and the gilding on the edges of each page.

I have this journal and it is a delightful keepsake and good for your soul. It has insightful quotes and activities to act upon, as well as space to journal your thoughts.

You can read more about this self-care journal here.

LKUA Shell Pearl Beach Themed Night Light, RGB 8 Colours Changing Mood Shell pearl Lamps

Their ambient glow is great for relaxing or meditating.  It's so relaxing, waiting for the colors to change. You can read more about the color changing pearl mood lamps here.

I'm Allergic to Stupidity, I Break Out in Sarcasm: A Snarky Coloring Book for Adults: 51 Funny & Sarcastic Colouring Pages for Stress Relief & Relaxation

Relax, colour, and laugh with this adult colouring book. 

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50 Shades of Bullshit: Swear Word Coloring Book

Lol! What can I say? The name says it all. If you're frustrated and want to lighten the mood, take it out on this book.

Great for those who have a wicked sense of humour.  Have a giggle instead of growling and swearing. Let the book do the swearing for you.

This book will fly in sales so get it while you can.

Gratitude Bundle

Get started on developing the habit of gratitude and becoming a happier person. Attract more people into your life.

In this Gratitude Journal, you have: 

. a delightful cover for your journal

. 33 pages, which you can print and reprint once you receive the journal. 

The reflection pages focus on the 3 most important questions you should reflect on daily to change your mindset.

• a Grateful bonus of 3 free posters will appear as your Thank you Page, upon your purchase of the Gratitude Journal.

52 Lists of Happiness

This book is the most beautiful book design, both inside and out. I bought this for my daughter and I need to buy another as it is not easy to pass on to someone else!

It is a guided self-love journal, full of inspiration for joy and positivity.

The pictures and photography are high quality and it's a lovely book to cuddle up with.

You can find out more about 52 Lists of Happiness here.

Hello Sunshine Aromatherapy Spray

Treat yourself to the wonderful scents of rose, bergamot, and lemon to relax and uplift your spirit .

Make it part of your mindfulness practice or give it as a gift.

Rose and bergamot are mre my favourite scents and so relaxing while lemon is an all-time favourite for its uplifting effects and great to spray before a party.

Find out more about this product here. 

Gratitude: Changing My Mindset

Take some time to fill out this Gratitude Journal and create beautiful memories to look back on.

It is a large book, with fine quality paper and high-resolution colourful pages with gratitude quotes scattered throughout.

A beautiful keepsake! I have purchased this book for friends and family.

You can see its details here. 

Forgiveness Quote

Forgivenss is a part of self-care but that does not mean that you have to be friends again. This quote reminds us of the importance of forgiveness to our self-care and the essence of forgiveness. 

It's okay to put ourselves first after someone has disappointed you.

This quote comes as an A4 downloadable print. 

You can see its details here.

5 Amazing Mindset Quotes 

Remind yourself how wonderful you are and that you can achieve what you set out to do. 

They come as an A4 downloadable print and can be framed or used as journal inserts. 

I have printed them on photo paper and used them as a framed picture and they are stunning. 

Check out this great bundle here. 

Resilience Poster

This resilience poster reminds us that we need to stop at times, to take care of ourselves, before we move forward again with out goals.

I has a soft, feminine background. When printed, the words are highly visible.

It comes as an A4 downloadable print and it can be framed, used as a poster, or as a journal insert. 

You can see its details here.

Which one is your favourite ?

I know my next purchase is definitely  Hello Sunshine. I just love the essential oils that are in it. 

I used to work a long way from home and, after a long trip home, I would use bergamot and rose oil to relax after dinner. Personally, I adore this combination. I also use lemon frequently as it is uplifing and  a great idea is to spray it before you have a party. 

I make sure I treat myself with something small (it does not have to be expensive to make you happy) and it is my present to myself for working hard throughout the week. 

Need a thoughtful present for someone?

If you love Gratitude related products. you can visit my shop The Grateful Heart for wallart. t-shirts, mugs, and pillow slips.

Free Gratitude Quotes

 

Free Gratitude Quotes to you

If you like these quotes and designs, you can download them for free here.

The Buy button will take you to the free downloads.

Just buy some good quality print paper, frame it, and you have a set of 3 gratitude quotes to decorate your wall.

Or use them in your journal folder! 

Gratitude Quote 1: Begin each day with a grateful heart.

Gratitude Quote 2: Finding gratitude changes your mindset and leads to happiness.

 

Gratitude Quote 3: Gratitude changes everything.

Confidence

What is confidence?

"Confidence is a state of being clear-headed either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective.

 Confidence comes from a Latin word 'fidere' which means "to trust"; therefore, having self-confidence is having trust in one's self. 

The concept of self-confidence is commonly defined as self-assurance in one's personal judgment, ability, power, etc. 

One's self-confidence increases as a result of experiences of having satisfactorily completed particular activities.^[1] 

Self-confidence involves a positive^[2] belief that in the future, one can generally accomplish what one wishes to do." Wikipedia

How does a lack of confidence manifest itself?

Do you feel intimidated by challenges at work?

Or do you feel like an outsider desperately trying to be accepted?

Or do you have family challenges and keep it bottled up instead of being able to share how you feel?

Resentment and unhappiness can slowly creep into your life as the problem gets bigger with time.

Confidence is like a muscle; the more you use it, the stronger it gets.

The same is true for our confidence. When we lack confidence, we feel like we’re carrying around a heavy backpack filled with rocks.

Even the tiniest thing can set us off balance and cause us to stumble or even fall.

There’s a common pattern that people follow when they lack confidence.

They do everything they can to avoid any situations that make them feel uncomfortable or vulnerable. They try to be more like “normal” people, so they don’t draw attention to themselves.

This means they don’t speak up in meetings or work extra hard to make sure their work is perfect.

Confidence is a funny thing. It can come and go. It's like a wave. Sometimes you're on top of the world, and other times you're drowning in self-doubt and uncertainty.

Confidence is often described as the feeling of being good or great at something.

It’s having a strong belief in your abilities and being unashamed of who you are.

It’s the ability to face challenges head-on and the ability to rise above adversity.

Confidence is the fuel that propels you to achieve your goals.

How to become more confident:

1. Don't let yourself go!

Even if you work at home, take care of your presentation so that you are proud of how you look daily and dressed appropriately for the situation.

So dress in a way that you feel good about yourself, do your hair, and put on a bit of makeup (I have dark circles under my eyes so I cover them with a touch of concealer as they make me feel ugly).

2. Forgive yourself.

If you made a mistake or didn't perform at your best, don't beat yourself up with guilt but focus on your assets and what you did well.

For example, I'm an expert in autism and I recently had a bad bout of covid. Upon my return to work, my leader asked me a simple question and my mind went blank.

I was so embarrassed as I help others understand autism.

I brought it up with her and apologised and told her my mind had gone blank, and it was possibly the after-effects of covid. She knew my work and I simply told her I was embarrassed by that situation and it had been on my mind.

3. Positive thinking-retrain your mindset.

Think positively about your goals and what actions you need to do to achieve them. And then action them!

Say 'yes' to what your old self may have thought impossible.

4. Prioritise and lessen stress.

Get the most important things out of the way first to release a build-up of anxiety.

The morning is the best time to tackle the most pressing, undesirable tasks.

5. Use a long-term planner and daily to-do list daily.

A planner and to-do list is a great idea as you can tick off all you have achieved daily and weekly, even monthly and yearly, and feel a sense of accomplishment.

6. Develop new habits.

What habits would be beneficial to you to be more productive?

Make a list of habits that could stop you from wasting time, then package small amounts of time throughout the day to incorporate a more productive routine.

Can you find small parcels of time in your day for self-care, your to-do list, journal entries, social media, emails, etc?

7. Commit to accepting and acting on problems as they arise.

Accept problems will arise but commit to solving the problems when they present themselves, and the more confident you will become.

The faster you solve the problem, the more confident and relaxed you will be.

8. Practise gratitude.

Journal your gratitude. The best thing about journaling is looking back on your notes and remembering the great things that happened throughout the year.

Think it, if you don't get the time to write-it's okay to sit back and reflect on your day and express your gratitude for the positives in your day.

Express your gratitude to others and smile.

Gratitude, happiness, and confidence are closely interlinked.

I can share that, on a personal level, gratitude made a great difference in my life and opened many doors for me.

You may be interested in this Gratitude Bundle?

It takes 30 days to instill a new habit. You can change your mindset with this bundle to help you.

With this Gratitude Bundle, you will receive your  

-weekly re-usable templates that you can use to compile your own journal.

-attractive Binder Cover for your folder.

-Reflection sheet template to use as many times as you want and keep track of your developing habit of gratitude

-Gratitude Jar labels

Check it out here.

9. Challenge yourself.

Make a list of things that challenge you and then tackle them, one by one.

These are things that you consciously avoid but you know that it would be better to overcome them.

You don't have to be great at everything so choose things that you think are important to do confidently, and make sure you make them achievable ie a SMART goal.

That means breaking it down into smaller parts so that is manageable for you to achieve. Then move on to more goal setting once that is achieved.

10. Inspiration and mentors.

Choose people who inspire you and use them as your mentors or role models.

They can be people who are online and have shown great success in the field you are in.

Find out how they accomplished their achievements and the challenges they had.

It is a great lesson to learn that they most probably had some adversities that they had to overcome before they became successful.

You will learn that people achieve by doing, even those who are not 100% confident. They take action.

11. Know your strengths, talents, and achievements.

Successful people are laser-focused and they delegate if something is not their demonstrated strength.

12. Identify where you can make a difference.

What will make you stand out with your contribution?

Mastering Self-Doubt and Insecurities to become more confident

This guide with worksheets, Mastering Self-Doubt and Insecurities, will help you gather some healthy insights into the real you and start to develop new habits to retrain your negative thoughts.

This comprehensive pack will focus on seeing yourself in another light, and motivating you to problem solve and take on challenges that you are comfortable with, as you grow and develop in confidence.

It can be used in helping you become more confident in any situation, be it family life, friendships, or work-related situations.

The Successful Entrepreneur Course

Something special for those of you wanting to become successful entrepreneurs. If you develop the traits of successful entrepreneurs, you will become confident too.

If you follow this course, it will help you in any field of work.

These insights will help develop the success mindset.

Successful people integrate these 24 practices, skills, actions, and mindsets into their everyday life.

Most importantly, these 24 factors that contribute to success are the starting points to any dream of being wealthy, fulfilling a dream, or building a successful business.

So learn to optimise your strengths and develop new skills that are needed.

This course is a downloadable 27-slide course that you can keep and watch in your own time.

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Recovering from Covid at home

 

How did I get covid?

I work at a school of 3000+ students so it was inevitable that I would eventually get covid, especially as I have contact with 12 classrooms, teaching literacy skills. 

I had a meeting on Tuesday about my work and, later that night, I received a phone call from the person I had a meeting with that she had just tested positive for covid.

That was Tuesday and by Thursday afternoon, I was starting to feel unwell. 

That night, the headaches, fever, body aches, and sore throat started. Followed by constant coughing.

My covid vaccination history

I had my booster 3rd vaccination 3 weeks prior to this. It was awful. 

I had a different booster to my first two vaccinations, which were Astra-Zeneca. The booster was pfizer as it had the omicron elements added. 

The symptoms were quite severe for a week. I went back to work the following week but it was very difficult getting through the day.

 I went home and just collapsed on the couch as my headaches were bad and my body was aching terribly. 

The following week I felt better and that's when I had the meeting and contracted covid. Neither of us had been wearing masks and we sat quite close to each other.

 I had taken mine off as I was working in my office and simply forgot to put it on, as we were not always wearing masks at school.

Living with Covid.

I had a fever for 2 days and occasionally afterward. The sore throat took a week to subside but I had facial numbness on the right side of my face. Even my ears!  I liken it to getting a strong injection from the dentist to numb your mouth. 

I could not stop coughing and eventually tore a muscle along my left rib cage, which made coughing painful. My back also hurt from the coughing. 

The coughing was unproductive and the tickle would not go away. 

At night, I started to wheeze as I lay down, and my nose would block up, making breathing difficult. 

The headaches were constant for one and a half weeks.  Sometimes, they would subside for a few hours but then they would come back. 

Same for the body aches and pains and exhaustion-just carrying the groceries they had delivered to my kitchen left me breathless. 

I think I started to panic as, unlike colds and flu, you do not get cumulatively better each day. When you think you're getting better, boom! Back to square one. 

As I'm older now and need medication for blood pressure problems, and I have a history of cancer, I was quite worried as I kept hearing that I needed to be monitored as things can change quickly with covid. 

I suppose, at the back of my mind, I was anxious thinking I might be the one it changes to the dangerous level. 

The fact that a healthy school teacher in her 40's had died on her second day of being tested positive did not allay my subconscious fears. 

So the psychological effect of covid is quite impacting on mental health, along with the need to isolate when sick.

Getting over covid.

My doctor just said 'take panadol and rest' but it wasn't working. 

I was really panicking about my endless cough so my daughter bought me some Benadryl and some vaporizers to help me breathe at night. 

I put eucalyptus oil in the water to help me breathe and stop the coughing. 

I also used Vicks Vaporub (this is my 'go-to' for many things-read my post on its other uses that will benefit you) under my nose and on my chest to help open up my nasal passages and help me breathe.

I drank copious amounts of lemon tea, laced with Apple Cider Vinegar. Our chiropractor advised us that this would help. 

A few days after I had initially contacted my doctor, he rang me to check on me. I think he heard my foghorn voice, as my chest was congested, and he finally prescribed some antibiotics and Ventolin. 

I was wheezing slightly when I went to bed but found that the Vicks Vaporub and vaporiser helped to stop the wheezing. 

Covid practices in Australia

In Australia, we have to contact the relevant government department when we have a positive covid result. They put you in contact on a daily basis with doctors and nurses, who call you each day.

I cannot even praise them enough as they helped me enormously through a difficult time. 

This was such a great service for me as the doctors and nurses ring you daily for a week to monitor your symptoms.  You can extend this service if you feel the need. 

Unlike doctors in these finance model clinics, they have all the time to chat with you. I needed that as I was waking up at night in a heightened state and they could talk me through it. 

They gave me the number for the Nurse On Call, which is a 24-hour access number, in Australia. 

They sent me medical equipment e.g. oximeter to measure my oxygen levels, at no cost to me. They informed me how to get my meds delivered and my groceries, and asked if I needed any other type of help.

They asked about mental health issues as people are not coping with being ill and being in 7-day lockdown. They were great as my doctor only has a few minutes to talk about the essentials I needed and how I felt. 

Where I am now with Covid.

It's been a week and 5 days since I became ill. 

I am not suffering headaches all day long but just get occasional twinges throughout the day.

I am not challenging myself with physical activity but still get very tired. Some nights I sleep well while other nights I just can't sleep and feel anxious. 

I am still coughing but it is bringing up small amounts of phlegm and it's more settled. But my back is still hurting, my chest still feels heavy, and my voice is still a bit hoarse. 

My work entails me going up and downstairs to 12 different classrooms. This amounts to 10 kilometers of stair walking in 3 days. 

I have a Health app that I used to measure my walking at school.

There is no way I feel ready for work at the moment as a healthy person can get quite breathless with the distances walked at this very large school. 

I'm hoping to be back on board next week!

Have you had covid?

What's your experience been like?

* update: Been back at school for two weeks and am absolutely exhausted and having difficulty thinking as I am still having headaches! 

So glad I am having an Easter break and resting. This covid is crap.

**further update: had to have another covid test as headaches severe and spent last night shaking with cold sweats, then alternating with burning up with fever. It's been 5 weeks now since the original positive tests. 

 I had to revisit my resource  How To Keep Your Brain Mentally Fit? as it doesn't feel great at the moment. It's a free resource.

Thank you for visiting my blog. Here are some more freebies.

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