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SELF-CARE
Self-care is any restorative activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health. Self-care isn’t a selfish act. It helps us sharpen our mental and physical health through better self-esteem, stress and emotional management, and overall well-being.
MINDFULNESS
The practice of mindfulness helps us notice the disconnect between building the concept of “self” on a foundation of ever-changing beliefs and feelings, while simultaneously believing there is something fixed and unchanging about it. Mindfulness is a caring, compassionate, non judgmental, non reactive awareness of our thoughts, emotions and physical sensations, and what is going on both internally and externally.
Research has consistently demonstrated that increased mindfulness is associated with a wide range of positive outcomes. The benefits of mindfulness include:
Increase focus and productivity
Improve memory
Stress reduction
Reduce rumination
Relationship satisfaction
Decreases emotional reactivity
Increased compassion
Improves functioning of your brain
Increase immunity
THE HOW OF SELF-CARE & MINDFULNESS
Bring your attention to your breathing when you wake up, instead of letting your mind spin off into yesterday or tomorrow
Do one thing at a time
Pay attention to how you eat
Pay attention to how you walk
In the shower, notice how the water feels on your body
Read something you would enjoy
Listen to a new podcast
Discover a new hobby that makes you happy
Watch the sunset or sunrise
Self massage or stretch to release tensions in the body
Do a breathing exercise
Share your gratitude (journaling, positive affirmation to self or loved ones)
Phone/video call someone you love
Support a small business
Be kind to yourself
Be aware of how you talk to yourself
Make peace with imperfection
Evaluate how you are doing with all that is going on
Notice if there is resistance to certain things
Conclude what has been helpful or less helpful to see if there might be a small thing you can do differently to improve what you do have control over
