If you have been on this blog before, you know that I prefer to focus on long-term, authentic advice that will last through the ages… written by humans. I’m not exactly the click-baity type. But when I came up with the idea to let Chap GPT give me self care advice for 7 days… it sounded like more fun than my silly, Millennial ass could resist.
So this is my little AI self care experiment. I’ll detail it all below. Mostly, it went as you might expect, but honestly, there were definitely some things that surprised me.
Keep reading for the results of my bizarre little experiment!
AI Self Care Advice
Generally, I tend to think that self care isn’t just bubble-baths. It’s more about an all-encompassing lifestyle that allows you to feel good about yourself all the time.
(They say to build a life you don’t need a vacation from… that’s self care.)
So I asked Chat GPT to define self care. Here’s what it said:
Self-care refers to a broad range of practices and activities that individuals engage in to promote their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. It involves taking deliberate actions to care for oneself, nurture personal needs, and prioritize overall health and happiness.
Self-care practices can vary greatly depending on individual preferences and circumstances but generally involve activities that support relaxation, stress reduction, and personal rejuvenation.
I do generally like this definition. Self care is deliberate, it’s broad, it’s helps promote well-being, and self care activities generally vary from person to person.
I can get on board with that.
RELATED POST: 80 Affirmations for Self Care
The Rules I Followed
First, you have to get to know the system. ChapGPT is designed to spit out long-form advice, because it usually write blog posts, stories, even screenplays. So in order to get a feel for the system, I sat down and tried a few things.
Here was my first prompt:
I am a 37 year old woman, a teacher, and I have some time over the summer to practice self care. What should I do?
Here was its response:
Did you read all that?
Yeah, me neither.
I did like how it was very supportive toward me and the fact that I have the summer off. (Thanks ChatGPT! You’re making me blush!)
Here was my reply:
The Results
Feeling more comfortable with the system, I decided to start off Day 1 with the advice I was given during my test run…
And we’re off!
Day 1
I didn’t set an alarm.
Let me be clear… I’m trying to write a romantic fantasy novel right now that I anticipate will be about 120,000 words. (I’m at 74,000 words.) So I’ve been getting up between 5 and 5:30 in the morning in order to get some writing done.
Because ChatGPT told me to focus on rest and relaxation, I didn’t set an alarm, but I still ended up getting up 5:45!
I asked it for 3 self-care activities to do when I get up. It gave me:
- stretching or yoga
- meditation or breathing
- gratitude practice
I still drank 20oz of water and made myself some RYZE in the morning, but I immediately did those three activities.
Honestly, it felt good. I did a couple sun salutations, a short 5 minute meditation session, and wrote down in my journal a few things I was grateful for.
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Day 2
Last night, I did set an alarm to get up this morning, but I still woke up before it went off. I did a similar process in the morning, with some sun salutations and a short dance workout routine.
I worked all morning, mostly at the computer, writing and focusing on some social media campaigns.
Once lunch rolled around, I was feeling a little bloated. I’m not certain why—I hadn’t had anything that usually upsets my stomach, but I felt this was a cue to take some more AI self care advice from Chat GPT.
I was happy to learn that I had a lot of these foods in my fridge. So for lunch, I had a salad with spring mix, pumpkin seeds, black beans, carrots, some vegan shredded cheese, and vinaigrette dressing. On the side I had a slice of watermelon (it is summer, after all), and some nettle tea.
It’s worth noting that I didn’t necessarily feel better right after eating, but by that evening, I was better.
And, to be fair, I didn’t eat any probiotic foods. Maybe I’ll have some pickles tomorrow.
RELATED POST: 9 Ways to Nourish Your Body for Optimal Health
Day 3
Today, I fully expect to get tired around 6:00 pm. I slept horribly. I fell asleep last night around 9:30, but woke up when my husband came to bed at 11:30 because I thought I was smelling a burning electrical socket. (You know that burnt plastic smell?) It seemed everything was fine, so I went back to sleep, but woke up at 4:45.
So much for a good night’s rest.
Because I used ChatGTP, which is focused on long-form content, it really continued to spit out a ton of information. So when I told it I was feeling tired but that I still had work to do, a few of its ideas resonated with me.
I decided to do three of those things: 1) stay hydrated, 2) Incorporate energizing activities, and 3) take short breaks.
(But I also learned about the Pomodoro Technique from Chat GTP, which I am going to try utilizing for my writing!)
About 3:00pm, I took a break and did some jumping jacks, then got some water. I had to do the same thing again at about 4:15, but I was able to keep working up until about 5 o’clock.
Day 4
Today is Saturday, and my in-laws usually like to hang out with my kids on the weekends, which means that I have some free time. I don’t want to spend any money (honestly, we already spent enough during Amazon Prime Days) and I want to get out of the house.
This was actually my favorite answer from Chat GTP! Here’s what it said:
Honestly, I have a pile of unread books sitting at home, so I opted for hitting our local trails. There are some pretty amazing trails here in New Mexico. The only downside is that it’s so hot here in the summer.
I packed plenty of water and hit the foothills around 10:00am. I actually hiked farther than I usually do, and spent about an hour and 20 minutes out on the trails!
Day 5
Today is Sunday, and it seems it was my kids’ turn to not sleep well. They’re both throwing tantrums as I write this… one is back in his bedroom crying, and the other is whining at me that I won’t let him turn on the TV so early in the morning.
Today’s AI self-care advice is going to have to do with this fun situation. I wrote “My kids are annoying me. How can I care for myself to give myself more patience?”
The AI program gave me many different ideas again, but here are the ones that I liked for myself in that moment:
- Take short breaks
- Practice self-compassion
- Set realistic expectations
- Practice stress relief techniques
Even just the reminder to practice self-compassion was a good one, because sometimes I need to remember that I deserve compassion, too. My own feelings of annoyance are valid, and I need to not only treat them with warmth and understanding, but I need to treat myself that way.
Day 6
Today is Monday, and there are only two weeks left of summer break! I had lofty goals for the summer, and because it’s winding down, I’m feeling the push to get everything finished that I want.
Thus, today’s self-care is going to be a loving push toward my goals, so let’s see what Chat GPT has to say.
I asked, “I have a lot of work to do today. How can I maximize my productivity without stressing myself out?”
- Prioritize
- Break tasks into smaller tasks
- Practice time blocking or productivity techniques
- Take regular breaks
- Delegate tasks
- Celebrate progress/achievements
That’s a simplification, of course, but these are the ones that I’m implementing today. My intentions are to finish 2 blog posts (aside from this one), write at least 1,000 words on my novel, clean the kitchen, do one load of laundry… oh, and possibly go get a small tattoo. We’ll see!
One thing that I did notice about Chat GPT’s answer was that it said basically the same thing twice in a row:
The Pomodoro technique is essentially a time blocking technique, so these are basically the same thing, but AI was unable to differentiate between them.
I’ll let you know tomorrow how it went.
Day 7
It’s the last day of my experiment! Yesterday, I finished 2 blog posts, wrote 1,000 words, did some laundry, but I didn’t clean the kitchen or get my little tattoo. (There’s still time.)
So today, I wanted to set aside one hour of time for self care, but I don’t want to go anywhere. I also asked specifically for unique ideas. So here’s what Chat GPT said:
I don’t find these answers to be particularly unique, but I do like the “Creative Expression” suggestion and the “DIY Spa Treatment.” So those will be on my list today.
Around lunchtime I played the piano and did some sketching (which I haven’t done in years) and then in the evening, I took an epsom salt bath. The epsom salt bath was actually very needed. I have been working out more, and I was a little sore this evening. I honestly didn’t even think of taking a salt bath until AI suggested it for me.
Conclusion: AI Self Care Advice Experiment
I know a lot of writers, bloggers, artists, and others have been resorting to ChatGPT and other AI platforms to do their work for them.
But aside from the fact that AI is taking creative work away from real people, the advice that it gives is decent. It repeats itself a lot, and doesn’t always understand the nuances of concepts. But at least for Chat GPT, it has a sense of morals and kindness about it as well.
Every time I asked it something, it made sure to specify that different things are going to work for different people and that I should not take the advice it gave at face value, but make sure I’m assessing whether it will work in my life.
That makes me feel pretty confident that AI is actually a decent tool.
Let me be clear – I don’t like or want AI taking away the jobs of real people, but using it for ideas and concepts isn’t so bad.
What did you think of my experiment?! Would you do something like this?
What do you think of AI?
Drop me a comment below!
