Life is extraordinarily challenging these days, so it’s more important than ever to be intentional about your self-care. Not to be confused with selfishness or self-indulgence, self-care allows us to be resilient in stressful times AND be there for those who depend on us.
Below is a collection of simple tips from Pine Rest clinicians and staff on practicing self-care!
Adequate sleep is great self-care and a huge stress buster!
Regular, adequate sleep is a must if you want to keep stress from going into overdrive. Learn how putting some good sleep habits in place can help you lower stress and improve productivity.
– Dr. Ron Devries, Is Your stress Level Helping or Hurting You?
You don’t have to do it all. Build a support team!
Your team can consist of your spouse or partner, kids, parents and friends. Everyone can do their part! Have honest conversations about the things you need support in doing. Pass off tasks you don’t enjoy to someone in the house who doesn’t mind them. See what you can take on to relieve someone else’s burden.
– Elizza LeJeune, Setting Seasonal Goals to Boost Productivity and Reduce Anxiety
Exercise regularly–but start slow!
The first step is to check with your doctor to see if you have any health concerns. Next, simply find ways to get more active. Start with a simple walk around the block, and gradually build up to 30 minutes. Swim laps at the community pool, take part in a group aerobics class or hike your favorite nature trail. Exercise can make you feel less anxious, gives you more energy, helps you sleep better, and reduces feelings of depression.
– Jean Holthaus, P.L.E.A.S.E.: Self-Care Tips for Anxiety and Depression
Reduce exposure to toxic situations and your triggers.
We all face difficult circumstances, and some of us are simply more sensitive to certain issues and scenarios. Identify your stress triggers and then take active steps to reduce your exposure to them as much as possible. This may mean turning off the TV at a specific time of day, avoiding certain websites and/or limiting your time spent with people in your life who create stress for you.
– Kim Kunze, Caring for Yourself When There’s Traumatic News
Put down the phone.
Digital technology allows us easily connect to information. In the wake of a stressful event, however, it can serve as a constant reminder of our stress.
Give yourself a break from the constant barrage of social media notifications and news headline alerts throughout the day. Setting down your phone or even shutting it off completely for set amount of time can be extremely beneficial for your mental health.
– Elizza LeJeune, Mental Health Tips in the Wake of Trauma
Stop beating yourself up. Practice mindfulness instead.
Why are we so hard on ourselves? As human beings, we will inevitably say the wrong thing from time to time, make the wrong turn or arrive at the wrong time! Making mistakes doesn’t make us stupid; it makes us human. Unfortunately, beating ourselves up for making everyday mistakes often develops into a negative cycle of thinking. Practicing mindfulness can help us have more self-compassion and less negative self-judgment!
– Kym Hansen-Duell, Tips on Developing Your Self-Compassion
Balance your eating.
We feel physically better when we eat a healthy balance of fruits, vegetables, lean protein, dairy, and whole grains while limiting excess fat and sugar. Whether you are hungry all the time or never hungry, eating six small meals over the course of a day instead of three larger meals may make eating healthy more manageable. The key is to find what works for you and then to do this regardless of how you feel in the moment.
– Jean Holthaus, P.L.E.A.S.E.: Self-Care Tips for Anxiety and Depression
Reset your expectations.
When our own personal expectations for ourselves and others is not met, we feel disappointed, guilty, anxious, upset and more conflict is likely to increase. The challenge is to remember to adjust our expectations to align with our reality (i.e. that things are difficult right now, that doing less might be wiser than striving to do more). Then, we will find ourselves confidently enduring challenging periods in life.
– Kevin Neumann, Setting Realistic Expectations During Challenging Times
Feel your feelings.
Allow yourself to FEEL – Joy, anger, sadness, relief, loss… Don’t be afraid to express your feelings, and be willing to allow others to be with you in your emotion. Give your emotions a time and a place to be expressed by engaging in activities specifically for that purpose.
– Jean Holthaus, Navigating Loss and Change During the Holidays
Commit only to starting.
Nothing happens without first starting. It is all that we really must commit to. Consider finishing as secondary at this point. Starting might mean…
- Leaning forward so that you have to start walking or risk falling flat on your face.
- Sitting on an exercise bike with no expectation of pedaling.
- Saying a single word as a means of starting a conversation. (If you start with a single word, you’ve already broken the seal. The person on the receiving end of that truncated sentence is going to want you to finish your thought!)
Just take it “one day at a time”. Or an hour at a time … or a minute at a time. Starting is that single first step that is then repeated over a thousand-mile journey.
– Gordon Greer, Getting Things Done
