With the never ending demands of life, I often see clients putting self care last in the priority scale. At first this may be effective for time management, but long term this leads to resentment, anger, burnout, exhaustion, stress, anxiety, and overall feeling pretty down. I understand that time management is critical to making the tasks feel manageable, but what if, we could do the tasks and intermittently add self care too? I love the idea of habit stacking and often need to multi task in order to get things done. When I take out self care- what my brain hears is "we don't care about ourselves as much as we do folding socks", and it leads to a snowball effect. So I have crafted up a list of self care tools that take about 30 seconds but show yourself some love. Self care is a trial and error thing, what works for me may not work for you. But know what isn't working? Not doing it at all. So why not give some of these a try throughout your daily tasks and see how it adds up? Hopefully, you'll feel more important that folded socks, and find you're calmer, more at peace and more regulated (but seriously, I don't even have time to fold socks)
1) Get up and move:
Jump up and down. Jog in place. Do a few jumping jacks. Anything to get your blood flowing!
2) Legs up the wall:
Get down on the floor, shimmy over to the wall and lay down with your legs up the wall. Count to 30.
3) Child’s pose:
This is a great yoga pose for calming your busy brain and relaxing your body. Get on the floor with your knees together, sit on your heels and rest your forehead and hands on the floor.
4) Just lay down and deep breathe:
Lay on your back on the floor, breathe in slowly through your nose and out through your mouth.
5) March in place:
Bring alternating knees and elbows toward each other while saying nice things to yourself (I'm doing my best, I've got this, etc).
6) Have a hot drink:
Hold a warm cup of coffee or tea and focus on the comforting warmth
7)Visualize:
Close your eyes and imagine you are sitting in the hot sun on a rock in Arizona. Go through each of your 5 senses. What do you see, feel, hear, smell, and taste?
8) Text a friend:
Just to say hi and let them know you are thinking of them.
9) Gratitude list:
Write down 3 things you are grateful for at the end of your day.
10) Read:
Keep a good book nearby and read a paragraph or two.
11) Humm a song: This activates your vagal nerve and is calming to your nervous system.