SELF-CARE in challenging times and ANY TIME.

[ecomama]

Hello my beautiful BB FAMILY..

SELF - CARE ugh! I'm going to be all out 100% honest about this term for me, I see it as a 4 letter word x 2 so much worse!

I fight with this ALL THE TIME. But then .... just sometimes... I DO SOMETHING... then feel a little better that I did lol.

I TRUST the body of knowledge that our MH care professionals tell us ALL THE TIME about self-care, I do, but I really super struggle with it.

If you have ANY tips and tricks for the self-care battle please share them.

I want to swim in the ocean of self-care with all the other self-carers showering care upon themselves and LOVING it.

How do you do this?
WHAT do you do?

In earnest anticipation of us creating our own BB self-care ocean here....

Love EM

[ecomama]

Awww wonderful Jasjit!

Thank YOU!

I think the first time I "did Yoga" was about 40y ago. It was Satyananda Yoga. Then others along the way.

AUM sounds GOD like lol. I didn't know there was one called AUM.

I did HOT YOGA a couple of years ago and it nearly killed me lol. The heaters were up full ball and it was Summer time too... not quite my cup of tea lol.

I'll pop back to get that link when I can give it a go. THANKYOU!

That's beautiful that you want to help others..... love that.

Love EM

[RoseQuartz]

Hi Ecomama,

Self care is very personal. How we identify or value it will vary person to person. By making it authentic it will have a higher impact.

By introducing routine for self care it makes it less tedious. Less a choir. I.e if it's every day you set 30 min aside or after doing activity A, a self care activity B follows. You will forget that you go out of your way for self care. Bit like if you auto pilot home from work without thought but know you easily did it unconsciously.

Then the fun stuff... DISCOVERING YOU. Write a lit of things you enjoy already, what things you would like to do for a hobby, personal goals, environmental things you would like or find comforting. Then a week ahead you can slot them into your routine time. As you start to really resonate to a few you will see yourself really embracing the activities. Others you will swap out.

My examples:

-I might just give myself 5 minutes of reflection and self praise after doing something emotionally or physically complicated and get zaps of personal comfort and happiness that way.

-Grounding myself in nature to pause on western style living. Bare feet walking on grass, walk mindfully in a park, watch a sunset etc

-Something relaxing, get a massage, read a book, yoga, have a bath or try something artsy

-Socialising: signing up for community based events so i meet more like minded people or see friends/family.

Hope this helps?

[RoseQuartz]

Hi Ecomama,

A personal favourite of mine is Yin Yoga. Its is focused on the human organs and releasing tension, stress and helping their functions day to day.

[ecomama]

Dear RoseQuartz lol I love Rose Quartz ... I put it in ALL my babies cribs when they were born.

I LOVE your points! It all really makes sense to me.

I've never heard of Yin Yoga... these forms of Yoga do need exploring lol. Maybe DOING also! lol.

The funny thing is that AS I was reading your posts, I realised that I do do some self care well more than I thought anyway.

eg I realised recently that I react to even decaf coffee - any of them - with a horrible heavy headache. I've had to avoid coffee for decades for other reasons.
So I bought a wide variety of herbal teas and have really enjoyed them.

I'm really into "replacement behaviours"... some people may try to get rid of some type of behaviour and end up slipping back into it because of the void it leaves...
By replacing it, with something more favourable, the void is filled! It helps me alot.

Thankyou, they're wonderful ideas.

EM