It took me a few days to write this because I was not in a good place. I was taking my meds late for a few days and everything went down hill. I was sad consistently and was drinking for those few days but I feel better as a whole now so here goes.
Self care is whatever returns you back to a peaceful state
It is not putting yourself in environments where you could fall into depression, have an anxiety, or second guess your surroundings and I personally suggest dedicating an entire day to it.
1. Shower.-wash your hair and take your nail polish off. Put on a mask. Shave. give your body a clean slate but do it yourself. The actual motion of taking care of yourself will put your mind in the state it needs to be in to continually take care of yourself for the rest of the day.
2. Eat a good breakfast. Whatever a good breakfast tastes like to you but is also good for your body. Fruit and eggs. Toast. Whatever healthy thing your body is craving.
3. Drink tea or filtered down coffee. Put 3/4 milk to 1/4 coffee. Coffee will keep your heart rate up and put your fight or flight on blast which contributes to anxiety and depression.
4. The most important thing you can do is drink water. The idea of the day is to start a clean slate and refreshing your body with water all day will leave you feeling airy.
5. Definitely take your meds at the earliest convenience. Always take it with food to avoid that cramping feeling in your stomach or light headedness, or however taking your meds on an empty stomach feels.
6. Plan what work needs to be done. Today for example I only had one video project to do and I still haven’t done it but I know exactly what I need to do. I have the scenes and everything down in my head and all thats left is to execute it.
7. Rest. Take a nap. I was actually “prescribed” naps when I was around 16. I’d been having really bad headaches and passing out and my mom took me to a neurologist who said I was basically worrying too much and that it interrupted my nighttime sleeping so my body needed to rest during the day to function properly. He also said I needed a psychologist.
8. Talk to your good friends. I don’t mean the ones who you stay out all night drinking with and smoking and doing whatever, those are not the ones you should hang out with on your dedicated day of self care. Talk to your friends you see yourself having brunch with. The people you have silently told yourself will be the godparents of your children. Ask them about them and then maybe tell them how you’re doing. If you don’t feel comfortable telling them how you feel, asking someone how they are or what they’ve genuinely been up to goes a long way for some people.
9. Clean and reorganize your space. There are studies that show that if your personal space is a mess so will your mental space.
10. Plan when the next one is going to be. Knowing exactly when you’re going to be giving your body a rest relieves a lot of stress about the future because you know exactly when you’ll get some more rest.
I hope this helps someone. This is literally what I do when I’m feeling down. I call it cleaning off the pathetic. Not because depression is pathetic but because I will literally feel worthless until I do these things. And once my body is back at rest and full of self pride and love, then I’m ready to tackle anything.
turnnoffyourmind
pixelskylines
