It probably won’t surprise you to learn that Americans are stressed out. According to the latest Stress in America survey from the American Psychological Association (APA), mental health issues are on the rise, with the vast majority of people citing politics and world events as primary contributors. As a result, more and more people are turning to self-care strategies to help them unwind and live a healthier, happier life. And it’s obvious why — good self-care works, plain and simple!
In this guide, we’ll go over the basics of self-care — what it is, why it’s necessary and how to enhance it — as well as why taking CBD daily should be an integral part of it.
Why Self-Care Is Key
At its core, self-care is meant to help you reduce stress and improve your overall health and wellness, which helps you lead an all-around better life. Stress takes a major toll on our mental health, affecting our ability to sleep, focus, be productive and enjoy life. On top of that, it’s becoming ever more clear that stress is a major contributor to all sorts of serious health concerns, including high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
On a macro level, taking care of yourself with good self-care practices can help you ward off disease and live a longer life. On a micro level, it can help you build up healthy practices that mean better sleep, more energy and more productivity. The best part is, practicing good self-care doesn’t have to be complicated, especially if you prioritize practices that serve you in multiple ways.
The Benefits of Daily CBD for Self-Care
When you’re putting together your self-care strategy, consider adding CBD to the mix. Like a healthy diet and getting enough exercise, integrating CBD into your routine daily brings an array of amazing benefits. A couple of servings of your favorite CBD products in the morning or evening can set you up for a day of happiness and productivity.
That’s because the benefits of CBD abound. This powerful little compound has the unique ability to quiet the mind and ease pain naturally, which helps you make more of your rest period so you can conquer the day no matter what. Dive into the many benefits of CBD below for more reasons why it’s essential for your daily self-care regimen.
1.It Can Help You Get Better Sleep
Looking for a natural way to sleep a little deeper? A high-quality CBD sleep aid may be exactly what you need. CBD helps you sleep by affecting the body’s endocannabinoid system — the complex bodily system that helps maintain mood, appetite and sleep — and helping to regulate circadian rhythms. As we’ll cover below, CBD has been known to impact your body’s reaction to pain, stress and anxiety, which are often barricades to deep, productive sleep.
CBD alone is often enough to help you sink into a state of deep sleep, but you might want to consider CBD and melatonin together if you’re looking for a superior way to fall asleep. Melatonin is a natural hormone produced by the body to help regulate its natural sleep-wake cycle. Unfortunately, when we get off schedule or disrupt our sleep routine — such as by staring at our phones for too long or not getting enough natural light during the day — our bodies don’t produce enough melatonin, so a supplement can help.
Tip: To integrate CBD into your daily routine for better-quality sleep, consider trying a CBD and melatonin supplement.
2. It Can Help You Deal with Anxiety
With the aforementioned stats on stress, it surely won’t surprise you to learn that Americans are also extremely anxious. In fact, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the country, affecting over 18 percent of the population, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (AADA). Unfortunately, anxiety often doesn’t manifest itself on its own — nearly half of people with anxiety are also diagnosed with depression and vice versa.
Naturally, being anxious can be a major hindrance to a happy, healthy life. Luckily, CBD is a natural way to help regulate feelings of anxiety and ward off stressors before bed and throughout the day. Although more research is needed, various studies have laid the foundation for CBD as a possible treatment for anxiousness.
Tip: Stock up on our CBD bath bombs so you always have a relaxing stress-buster to add to your wind-down routine.
3. It Can Help You Manage Discomfort
As part of a good self-care routine, it’s important that you have some safe, healthy ways to manage pain throughout your life. Whether we suffer from chronic pain or the occasional headache, we all need a go-to solution that helps us work through the discomfort and get back to our routines so we don’t miss out on life.
As we already mentioned, CBD works in the body by influencing the endocannabinoid system. This system is responsible for sending signals to cells throughout your body, including to the chemical receptors that process pain. The experts believe that CBD works by sending anti-inflammatory and anti-pain signals to these receptors, helping you find relief for all kinds of discomfort.
Tip: If you’re on the hunt for natural remedies for menstrual cramps, you’ll be delighted to find that CBD is an amazing option.
4. It Can Help You Ward Off Stress
Since CBD is proven to help you get better sleep and can aid in your natural pain management plan, it’s no surprise that it’s also a great way to help regulate stress throughout life. CBD can help you relax throughout the day and wind down before bed so you get high-quality, uninterrupted sleep with minimal discomfort.
Research shows that anxiety and sleep issues are often part of a vicious cycle. Anxiety causes sleep deprivation and sleep deprivation causes anxiety. As a result, people with anxiety are often under-slept and stuck in this never-ending cycle. A good sleep schedule helps you press the “reset” button every night, which sets you up each day to help attack stressors as they come and prevent them from ruining your day.
Tip: Mix a few drops of CBD into your morning coffee to arm your body with exactly what it needs to kick stress to the curb throughout the day.
5. It Can Help You Get More from Your Workouts
No matter if you’re an elite-level athlete or a casual home amateur crushing it on the treadmill, you’ve probably experienced the aches and pains of recovery. After a particularly sweat-inducing workout, you’re bound to feel a bit sore. When you put your muscles, joints and tendons to the test, they sustain microscopic damage, causing soreness and stiffness. That’s the body’s way of growing and improving, and it means you’re doing it right!
With that being said, feeling all those tiny little pains can be a hindrance to your daily life, especially if your plan is to hop back on the treadmill the next day. Pro athletes like former NHL player Ryan VandenBussche and former NFL linebacker David Ahrens both say they use CBD as part of their muscle recovery strategy. It’s simple to integrate into your routine right alongside your post-workout shake and workout supplements.
Tip: Use a topical CBD cream, such as our Rapid Relief CBD Cream, for targeted relief after a hard workout. A gentle muscle massage with menthol and CBD can help you feel like yourself again fast.
6. It Can Support Your Digestive System
Much like stress and anxiety, digestive woes are on the rise in America. In fact, research shows that digestive disorders are on the rise across the population. Many factors may contribute to this spike, including poor eating habits, environmental toxins and an increased use of antibiotics.
Regardless of what causes them, chronic tummy troubles are no fun for anyone. They can be mildly disruptive at their best and downright debilitating at their worst, so taking the time to treat them is an important part of a good self-care routine. Luckily, your daily serving of CBD may be able to help. The hard-working little compound has been known to help alleviate digestive troubles by working with the body’s cannabinoid receptors.
Tip: Make sure you take great-tasting, gluten-free CBD products — such as yummy gummies or drops — so you don’t worsen your tummy issues as you try to correct them.
7. It Can Help Boost Your Immune System
Whether it’s the midst of a global pandemic or your typical flu season, finding ways to strengthen the immune system is an essential facet of a solid self-care regimen. Our immune systems work hard to ward off all sorts of threats, including bacteria, viruses and parasites, which could cause serious illness. But when we’re not feeling our best, our immune systems don’t work as they should.
A spike in stress and lack of sleep are two of the most common immune system threats, so finding ways to combat them is vital to your body’s ability to keep invaders at bay. Taking CBD daily is a great and natural way to help support your immune system. Why? Because, as we already mentioned, this stuff has the power to help you sleep better and manage stress. As a result, your body will be well-equipped with everything it needs to handle pesky invaders.
Tip: Love making immune-boosting smoothies? Crank up their effectiveness by adding a few drops of CBD or our immune capsules into your fruit- and greens-packed smoothies.
8. It Can Improve Your Mood
While it seems like such a small thing, mood regulation is massive for your overall health and well-being and should be a primary focus of your self-care strategy. After all, you know how it feels to be in a great mood. When you’re happy, energetic and ready to take on the day, you feel like you can conquer the world and achieve all your goals. On the other hand, feeling depressed, anxious or in a bad mood can throw you into a cycle of serious negativity.
So, can CBD help regulate mood? Yep! Experts believe this is because it has the unique ability to work with the body’s serotonin receptors, but also because it can help us soak up more high-quality sleep. As you know, sleep has a pretty huge effect on mood regulation, and the lack of it can lead to everything from the occasional bad mood to serious depressive disorders. Practicing good sleep habits, including taking a few servings of CBD before bed, is a great way to help boost your mood each day.
Tip: Combine your daily dose of CBD with other mood-boosters like exercise and time spent with friends for a healthy way to get the serotonin flowing.
Taking CBD Daily
For the best possible results, it’s crucial that you take CBD as part of your daily routine, not just as needed. CBD helps keep you in a happy, well-regulated state, which, in turn, helps you process the stressors, exhaustion, worry and overwhelming feelings of daily life. With high-quality products from Soul CBD, it’s easy to integrate CBD into every component of your life, morning and night.