Let’s face it, self-care is now in everyone’s vocabulary. And COVID-19 seems to have placed us generally in three camps when it comes to self-care in lockdown.

• You love lockdown. Secretly it feels like #lockdown is actually the ultimate self-care experience as you can do whatever you want to do, and nobody is around to bug you, nag you, or judge you. You’ve spent the past few weeks getting to know yourself even better.
• You hate lockdown. You miss friends and family. You can’t do all the brilliant social activities you want to do, and nobody is around to chat to, or cuddle up with. It’s tough, you feel isolated. Although you know it will all get back to normal sooner or later – right now, you feel like a changed person.
• You’re swing wildly in between. Sometimes it’s fabulous, other times it’s dreadful. Sometimes you welcome it as a brilliant excuse, sometimes you are desperate for it to end. You love the tranquillity one moment, and you hate the peace and quiet just 60 seconds later. There’s no middle ground. No “OK-ness”, it’s a game of two extremes, and it’s exhausting.

Lockdown has been a bit like Marmite, and for most people it’s definitely had an impact on our self-care routines.

Fortunately, we are now coming out of our protective shells. Gradually we can return to life as almost normal. So – how are you going to self-care and treat yourself? And more importantly, how are you going to do this without breaking the bank?

How do you self-care to cope with COVID?

Here are a few ideas, based on what you can do right now - and what you can do now to look forward to in the future:

Self-care for now:

• You can arrange a socially-distanced BBQ in the garden with some close friends.
• Have an at-home spa event with products you buy, then zoom your friends and slap on the face-masks and sip Prosecco together.
• Just take a long walk, with a picnic, on your own. Find a beach or a park, and indulge in a gourmet picnic with a few friends or alone.
• Go “Forest Bathing”. The healing power of forests is not lost on the Japanese who call it “Shinrin Yoku”. Take yourself off and hug a tree.
• Listen to a meditation download either whilst walking or sitting around

Be mindful of "now". Create a gratitude journal (this could be a few sheets of paper, a notebook or there are apps online) and spend a few moments at the end of each day writing down what you've been grateful for that day. These can be simple things. A chat over the garden fence with a neighbour, sipping a delicious coffee, seeing your mates on Zoom, or taking a moment to listen to beautiful bird-song. Capture these moments and whenever you feel down, you can return to your journal to remind yourself.

Self-care for the future:

It’s also great to have something to look forward to in our lives, it give us a sense of hope and positivity, so here are a few ideas of things you can start to plan for future you:

• Look at how you pre-book a spa-day with a friend, so you can go for a treatment when things return to normal.
• Get the websites up and start planning your holidays, a fortnight in the sun, next to a pool, something calming and exotic to look forward to.
• Calming is not your thing? Then check out all the adrenalin-boosting holidays you can go on one day - skiing, snow-boarding, white water rafting, climb a mountain, potholing - unleash your inner thrill-seeker, and dream...
• Identify a brilliant home-improvement that you’d love to accomplish. Perhaps re-paint the kitchen, treat yourself to a new spa-shower, or even buy a sauna shed for the garden.

Make all of the dreams real now - create a mood-board, a vision board or just a collage of inspirational pictures of what you'll plan to do as soon as lockdown is over. Put it somewhere visible so you can check in and remind yourself.

Look after your bank balance as you look after yourself.

There are bound to be lots of offers and deals around - and using gift-cards from Cardyard you can save cash on pretty much any purchase. Just check our website and see whatoffers we currently have. From B&Q Giftcards for your home-improvement projects, to Virgin Travel. Leisure Vouchers and even Build A Bear Workshops.

Did you have a lockdown birthday? Got a giftcard and don’t know what to spend it on? Then remember you can also Sell it at Cardyard, setting your money free.