18 Warm and Cozy Winter Self-Care Ideas

In winter, nature rests and turns inward, preparing for the new season. During this cold season, you can use warm and cozy self-care ideas to prepare for the new year and all the promises of the coming spring. 

Use the shorter days and longer nights for ideas to nourish your body, mind and spirit with the innovative ideas of this winter self-care checklist you’ll enjoy and grow from. 

1. Embrace Indoor Activities

While your body may feel more sluggish in winter, it’s the perfect time to develop an indoor activity routine that includes yoga, Pilates, trampoline and rebounder workouts as part of your winter self-care at home. When you are physically active, you feel better, and you’re sure to keep that jersey-body muffin-top under control, too. Maintaining a peak winter exercise routine helps to prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes and a range of other comorbidity factors that could ruin your winter if you don’t take action. 

2. Soak in the Tub

While a cool shower is fun in summer, it can become challenging in winter. However, a luxurious soak in the tub with some Epsom salts to reset tired muscles and restore your health will surely hit the top of your list. Epsom salt, which is essentially magnesium sulfate, is perfect for softening skin, easing muscle tension and other conditions like fibromyalgia and inflammation and detoxifying the body. 

3. Revitalize With Golden Milk

If your regular malt winter drink isn’t cutting it, you will love the health benefits of golden milk. This traditional Indian drink uses plant-based milk, turmeric, ginger and other spices to create a soothing beverage perfect for winter self-care. 

The spicy milk reduces inflammation, boosts heart health and encourages a sunny disposition. It’s perfect for improving digestion and will leave you glowing while reducing cell damage.  

4. Take a Brisk Walk

You’ve likely cooped up at home over the winter holidays, which can leave you feeling disconnected from your community and the sun. Vitamin D is essential for beating winter blues, so layer up warmly and stroll your favorite route on a sunny day to soak up some sun and stretch your legs while you check in with your neighbors, favorite corner shops and regulars at the park. 

5. Stock up Your Nuts

You’ve spent the whole year squirreling away treasures, experiences and adventures, and winter is the perfect time to take stock. Use the quiet time indoors to organize your photos and videos, update social media and print some fantastic photos to remember the past year. At the same time, you can plan your intentions for the new year and decide what “nuts” you’d like to collect this year. 

6. Indulge in Movie Night

Hang out with friends, your loved ones or that special person and catch up on some feel-good movies. This is the perfect time to snuggle under a weighted blanket with healthy snacks and fairy lights draped behind the TV for an authentic home theater experience.  

7. Enjoy Guilt-Free Naps

With the cold, your natural hibernation instinct kicks in, so permit yourself to sleep, rest and catch up on some guilt-free naps. The cooler weather is perfect for building a blanket fort in your bed, curling up and getting the shut-eye your mind and body need to face the new seasons.   

8. Turn Some Pages

Reading is a winter hobby that’s deliciously sultry, and with the right page-turners, you’re sure to love immersing yourself in fantastical stories and historical novels. The best options include:

• Ana Karenina – Leo Tolstoy

• A Court of Thorns and Roses – Sara J. Maas

• How My Neighbor Stole Christmas – Meghan Quinn

9. Play Puzzles and Games

Self-care includes engaging, fun activities that stimulate your mind and build memories. Winter is ideal for playing games, building puzzles and having a lot of fun with family and friends. Here are some of the best puzzles and games to check out for your self-care winter plans:

• Stellar Factory Werewolf: A Party Game for Devious People

• Reindeer Ring Toss

• 3D Flying Dutchman Puzzle

10. Virtual Gatherings

When you are all alone during winter, it can be challenging for your mental health, so make regular virtual gathering dates with friends and family. You can watch Netflix, cook, bake, or even do a hobby together. Despite being physically apart, thanks to the internet, you can connect and have laughs and fun. 

11. Practice Penmanship

Writing by hand with pen and paper is fast becoming a lost art. There’s a connection between expression and handwriting, which is one of the brain’s most complex motor skills — and it allows for direct communication between your brain and your hand. 

Take the time to practice your penmanship. While you can focus on the calligraphy aspect of writing, the cathartic experience of emptying worries and thoughts onto paper is most beneficial. Keep a scribble journal to record your feelings and thoughts, emptying yourself when you feel overloaded. 

12. Creatively Build an Emotional First-Aid Kit

When you struggle with life’s challenges, it can feel like you don’t know how to improve things. But with a first-aid kit designed explicitly for your feelings, you know you’re taken care of. Use winter to get creative with your own self-care kit, filled with sweet photos, playlists of your best and most appreciated music and scent therapy such as essential oils. 

13. Rediscover a Childhood Hobby 

Were there any hobbies you did as a child you’ve since forgotten? Did these bring you joy? It’s time to dust off the hobby box and revisit these hobbies. Whether you used to knit or build toy cars, you can start these exciting hobbies again and feel your passion rekindled. 

14. Nostalgia Night

Self-care takes many forms, and nostalgia is valuable as a way to reconnect with the past so you better understand the future. Host a nostalgia night with family or friends who have known each other for many years. You can also host it solo. Make your favorite childhood snacks and dive into your childhood boxes — the ones in your garage or attic from when you were a kid. Have a giggle at your crazy hairstyles and puzzle over long-forgotten faces in photos. 

15. Start Starbathing

You’ve likely heard about forest bathing, where you let the presence of nature and trees soothe your spirit and revitalize you. However, you can also do starbathing, which involves lying under the stars at night. It’s an ethereal activity you can do alone or with someone who loves the stars and the moon. 

Simply find a quiet spot, preferably with less light pollution, and stretch out under the heavens. As you anchor yourself between the sky and the earth, you can discover different star systems and unique constellations to meditate on.   

16. Collect a Self-Care Jar

Over the festive season, many people show they care with a jar of cookies, but you can return the favor to yourself with a self-care jar. Use a mason jar that you can decorate in any way that pleases you. Place a pen and a stack of colorful notes next to the jar to record self-care ideas you can choose when you feel like doing something nice for yourself but lack inspiration. Here are a few unusual ideas:

• Make up your own dance routine.
• Call a friend you haven’t spoken to in a while.
• Doodle.
• Pick an inspirational podcast to chill with.
• Practice breathing for five minutes every hour over the next week.  

17. Create a Vision Board

Vision boards are a perfect way to spend a chilly afternoon and motivate you in ways you don’t always realize. Decide on a theme for your board and whether to make a digital one or create one with that box of magazines and scrapbooking supplies you’ve been hoarding. 

Structure your board to reflect spiritual, social and physical ways you’d like to steer your life. 

18. Invent Your Own Holiday

You are worthy of your very own holiday, and it can be a celebration of anything. You can pick any date to host an annual me-day, a teas of the world day, a cuddle in bed with my dog day or any other theme that makes you happy. 

Get Cozy With Self-Care

Self-care is essential for maintaining an authentic and aligned self in the busy world. Winter is the perfect time to rest and revitalize, so combine both into a recipe for renewal and happiness. Whether you starbathe or build puzzles and rediscover your childhood hobbies, use your winter indoor time to find yourself and lay down a bright path to success.