Our coping toolbox 🧰

[Faith-and-Hope]

Hi and welcome to the forums @Kat75 👋🌷

[maddison]

Thanks for sharing @Shaz51 I agree, many small moments, like mindfully enjoying a cup of tea throughout the day are easier to allow ourselves💜

[Kat75]

Thank you Faith-and-Hope ❤️ 

[Smc]

Heyo @Shaz51. Tag me in when you update how you're going too please. xx

@Former-Member, I've found that sometimes pushing myself into a self care activity that has become a "chore" has been helpful. I've been a keen gardener for many years, and something I decided a while back was that it's an activity that's worth pushing to get back in to. If I've been really down, it's hard to get outside and prune or pull weeds, but even if I head back inside an hour later still feeling flat, at least I've got the satisfaction of having accomplished something. And when I consistently push through the depression to get outside for a few days, I find I start to enjoy it again. Fresh air, birds and other wildlife, exercise and growing things! The garden is so much about life, which helps counter the life-draining effects of depression and burnout... So yeah, sometimes self care involves fighting through the "leaden cloud", but you need to choose your battles wisely.

(Having said that, there are also days when, like @Shaz51, the online word games are more at my level of self care functioning. 😊)

[Shaz51]

Sure will tag you @Smc 🥰❤

[Former-Member]

@Smc I love this wisdom! You're totally right. There are times when it's good to push through, and other times when we need to "pick our battles". I really like that 😊 

And the way you describes gardening for you makes me want to pick up my trowel! 

[Campbarry]

I just did a deep overnight hair treatment. I've been struggling so much, my hair was matted and dry and not nice to touch. And it's a really low energy self care thing, I oiled my hair with a really nice blend I got a while back and carefully massaged it in and untangled the matting, then I covered it and was done until the next day; except I was actually feeling a little okay so I even did a hot towel treatment after wrapping it and before bed. And then I can do any before bed activities with my hair wrapped, sleep normally and in the morning wash it all out (It doesn't even have to be first thing!) with my shower (it also encouraged me to shower which I have been neglecting). The shower could be as long or short as I needed, and now with my special shampoo and conditioner that I splurged on when I got my tax return 😛 my hair feels and looks silky and is light and fluffy. And it's not by much, but I do feel a bit better about myself.

Sometimes when I'm having a really good day, I'll do my nails. The current polish has lasted so long! so they are yellow with brown spots like a giraffe, and that sometimes brightens my day a bit when I look at it... one day I hope to get them done properly, maybe acrylics because I love them long, but currently am unemployed. And I usually work with animals so it's unhygienic 

[Former-Member]

I have an alphabetised list of options - mostly because not all of them work in the same way each time. Starts with 

A for Aromatherapy - meaning smell a good balm/lotion

Audio - Chimes, gongs, streams etc.

B for brain food like Mint tea / dark choc etc

...

All the way to T, for "Thrive" style meditations on Smiling Mind.

I think I'll match some of these to varying degrees of triggers kind of like your table.

I actually found this thread coz I vaguely remembered seeing it when I was at Sane earlier and I wanted to mention, I read in a This Way Up's stress management program, that one of the resource filling items, for ongoing type resourcing (as opposed to draining) is to do fulfilling work. This is what I am working through these days - trying to match values or find something I really like about work. Hope others can relate. 

[Shaz51]

HELLO @Former-Member , @Former-Member , @Campbarry , @Smc , @Kat75 , how are you going today