Most of us don't spend enough time on ourselves. We're too busy with work and taking care of others. But making time for ourselves is so important. I realized this week that I'm guilty of putting everything else before me. So this week. I'm challenging myself to complete some self-care challenges. Real Simple calls them small "but mighty" challenges. It has a list of twenty. I already know I won't do all of them so I've chosen five to start off the week with.

Stretching for ten minutes in the morning
Scheduling time for creativity
Read ten pages of a book every day
Get ten minutes of sunshine in the morning
Spending five minutes a day tidying my home

​If I can do these every day for the next seven days, then I'll add more...or maybe I'll just continue these for a while. :-) 

I like to challenge myself in different aspects of my life and not just in blogging. I'm starting two new challenges next week. The first is to read two books from genres I wouldn't ordinarily read. I tend to be a creature of habit when it comes to ready as I love fantasy and paranormal in both adult and young adult, and I love reading nonfiction as well, mostly memoirs and biographies. And I have an entire list of genres I don't much care to read. But I'm going to have to choose two from those categories and give them a go. 

I'm doing roughly the same thing with a movie challenge. I like a lot more in various movie genres, but there are still a handful I don't care for like subtitled foreign films as I don't like to have to read when I'm trying to watch the movie. I also dislike psychological thrillers and tearjerkers, despise horror, and am not the biggest fan of westerns. I know horror is already off the table. So I'll be clenching my teeth to chose the movies.

So why do I do this when I don't have to? Because I think that challenges help me to grow. Expanding my horizon is always a good thing. Maybe I'll find that I really do like that new book genre. Or watching a psychological thriller will confirm that I still dislike them.

It's a lot like eating something you've never had before. You don't really know you'll hate it until you try it. That said, I have tried a lot of those movie genres, but I'm still going to just grin and bear it because I still could learn something. If nothing else, I'll watching for the actors and their take on the roles while I'm trying not to watch the clock.

I'll share the different books I've read and the movies I've watched as soon as I've finished. I'm hoping that I'll end up being surprised!