Self - Care.
- Karen
- Nov 5, 2019
- 3 min read
So what exactly is Self – Care? Well, its quite simply referring to ways that you can help to reduce your stress, help with your overall well-being through various things that make you feel good and leave you in a positive frame of mind. It means making healthy lifestyle choices, which is nothing new, we have always known that by eating, exercising and sleeping well are all key components to maintaining good health.
Self Care is about putting your needs first and managing excessive levels of negativity in your life.
For Chelsea, her Self Care started with learning to give her mind a break from all the negative things she was thinking and learning Positive Self – Talk almost like
“rebooting” the brain. By learning Positive Self Talk, she could learn to change what she said to herself and the way that she thought about herself.
Negative:- “I can’t help how I feel.”
Positive:- “ I can learn to control my feelings.”
Negative:- “I have to worry about everything that COULD go wrong.”
Positive:- “I can learn to concentrate on the present and relax.”
It doesn’t have to reflect around exercise, although that certainly does help to increase the serotonin levels, but it was as simple as sitting down with friends and family and having a fun time. Looking after herself and making Self Care a priority in her schedule. So how does exercise help with Anxiety?
Sleep – This, of course, is essential to anyone’s overall health. If Chelsea has a good restful night, her entire demeanour is one of positivity from the start. It may not continue this way throughout the day, but it is at least a good way to start off with.
Doing things that she ENJOYS. This is a fantastic outlet for managing anxiety. However, when Chelsea is at her worst, she forgets that she does enjoy things, you just have to remind her of them.
Practising Deep Breathing: By taking a few minutes each day to do this helps ground her and bring her back to the now. Breathing....not just for everyday life!!!
Unplug from technology: I think that technology is one of the things that cause anxiety. It can be overstimulating, Chelsea would compare what others are doing, and she was not, causing even more anxiety and self-doubt.
Eating:- By not regularly eating with healthy choices is a one-way road to emotional overload as you run out of energy and any Self- Care is out the window.…..this, unfortunately, is one thing that Chelsea often forgets to do and is something that we are working hard at helping her with.
Avoiding toxic people:- This was a hard lesson for Chelsea to learn but a very important one. Why should she surround herself with people who are not nice or supportive, those who often make her feel like she was just not good enough? She (and anyone else) needs people who understand that it is hard for her every day, and they need to be there in good and bad times without judgement. Stop Judging
Everyone has different Self Care solutions that work for them, and it is important to remember what works for them is not necessarily what will work for another, there are no Magic Self-Care practices ……..let me know what works for you?
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