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Mental Health Monday: Stress Reduction, Self-Care and You

Writer Zen Garden Posted on by

By Guest Contributor, JaeSage

Good Monday to you! Today is a great day to start your self-care New Year’s reset.  The new year is morphing into a new month tomorrow (Tuesday). February is Heart Month so do your heart a favor and love yourself up a little bit.  You deserve it. Today’s post is about finding your calm with stress-reducing self-care.

Here are three stress reducing self-care ideas:

  1. How do you define self-care for stress reduction? Here are some ideas clients have shared with me that they have used that work for them:
    1. Mindfulness meditation
    2. Using a guided meditation app (like Calm) or YouTube video
    3. Swimming
    4. Running or walking a distance until tired out
    5. Cooking my favorite dishes or baking
    6. Sipping herbal tea in a sunny winter window
    7. Watching my children play when they don’t know I’m looking
    8. Streaming cartoons all Saturday morning in my pajamas
    9. Singing loudly while vacuuming my house
    10. The classic— warm bubble bath with aromatherapy essential oils
    11. Hugging—spouse, lover, bestie, tree, pets (I’ve heard all of these)
    12. Making something like a craft or a piece of furniture or some clothes
    13. You name it. What works best for you?
  2. Experiment with methods to be in the moment. Catch yourself in a busy, focused activity and stop and look around when it is safe to do so.  Take your time—what do you see, what can you hear, what does it smell like where you are? Then reach out and touch something or at least feel your feet on the floor or your behind in your seat. Okay, then feel your feels for a few minutes before you get back to the busy. You have just used your five senses to give your brain, body and spirit a moment of respite.  How does it feel?
  3. If something reduces your stress (again, anything that is healthy and works for you) and feels like self-care, then paraphrasing Bill O’Hanlon: If it works well for you then do it again.

Best regards on your mental health Monday today.

Yours in Mindfulness,

JaeSage

JaeSage is the nom de plume of a National Certified Counselor with over 10 years’ experience in learning and teaching mindful methods.

Referenced in this post: Book by Bill O’Hanlon- Do One Thing Different

Comments

Mental Health Monday: Stress Reduction, Self-Care and You — 1 Comment

  1. What a wonderful post, JaeSage! I appreciate not only the tips you include but also the mention of the book by Bill O’Hanlon. I will be looking for that book in my local library! I also think I’ll keep a copy of your post handy for when I want a quick reminder to do what works for me. I love the variety of the suggestions you include. It really is true that different things work for different people but ALL of us can find some forms of self-care that are healthy, emotionally nourishing, and effective.

    Thanks again.

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