A few tips for self care that I discovered:
as soon as you leave the shower, write down what day it is on your skin with a pen, this will only come off the next time you shower so if you don’t remember when the last time you showered was, you can look
keep a food journal, write down everything you eat, there are plenty of apps you can use for that If you can’t sleep try Binaural Waves and self hypnosis, it might not work for you but you should at least try it
put alarms on your phone to remind you to take your pills
put alarms on your phone to remind you to
pay attention to how your stomach feels, have you gone to the bathroom? have you eaten? are you feeling well?
try the water system: this is a good one, social situations are more likely to make you feel stressed, when you are stressed, self grooming helps you feel better, keep reminders and/or alarms to drink water, carry waters bottles with you if there will be none where you are going to. but here’s the trick, every time you drink your water, pay attention to your posture and breathing and make yourself smile, a confident posture can cause an immediate increase in testosterone levels, a smile can make you release endorphins, and calm, deep breathing can reduce your heart-rate and anxiety. If you make a habit of this, you will learn to immediately associate drinking water with being calm, assertive, happy and confident and you will train yourself to drink a lot of water, this one is the shit
drink lot’s of tea, always, it helps you stay hydrated, it’s great for your health, it helps you to relieve stress, tea is just great!
watch that coffee, coffee is great too! it can really help you feel better and more energized, but it’s not very good for your health in large quantities, if you are having more than two cups a day, you definitely need to reduce coffee consumption
talk, this one seems simple enough right? well, keep it in mind then, use alarm reminders if it’s necessary, make yourself maintain a short verbal conversation with someone at least once a day
laugh, in this internet era there’s no excuse, set an alarm, and if you haven’t laughed out loud today or chuckled, you have to dedicate time to finding something funny, really funny. if you are depressed and nothing seems to make you laugh, then talk to a friend, or a stranger, seek comfort, you are not allowed to go by a day without doing one of these two.
tell someone something nice, this is imperative, i don’t care about how sad you are, i don’t care about how angry you are, once a day, you tell someone something that makes them feel good, something simple, if you want, like “i like your shirt” or maybe something big like “i love you” or “i’m glad you are a part of my life”. this is self care too, some people hurt you, but not everyone around you does, so don’t hurt them, because they don’t deserve it, and because most people will get away from the ones who hurt them. Besides you will feel better once you do it.
keep track of your achievements, if you have self destructive tendencies, going anywhere around from self harm to suicide, you need to give yourself credit for fighting them! the option of doing it is constant, it’s always there, tempting you, and a fight against temptation is a fight in which every second counts, so write down and remember all the time you spent fighting it, how long have you gone without alcohol, or cutting, or how long has it been since the first time you wanted to end yourself? Remember that! You are fighting, you are strong and you need to feel very proud of that!
tidy up a part of your room, if you can’t keep your room clean and orderly, that’s ok, i know sometimes it’s hard, but what you can do is a simple task every day, grab one plate and take it back to the kitchen, use one t-shirt and don’t throw it to the ground, just one little thing every day, I know it’s really hard sometimes and you don’t know why, but please make an effort, remember that you are doing this for you.
give somebody a kiss or hug, this one might not be one for every day, you can set the timeframe according to what you are comfortable with, if to you hugs mean a lot, maybe once a week or even a month will be fine, but be sure to keep it, the world is full of people who love you, even if some of them don’t know how to properly do it, so please, give somebody a kiss or a hug, tell somebody you love them, be caring.
write down good things once per day, it can be good things that happen or good things about you, maybe both, this one is excellent for depression and self esteem issues
do/make something, you can draw, study, fabricate something, fix something, do something that you are not obligated to do, it can be a small thing, it can even be something like painting your nails or creating a fun hairdo, but do it, make every day count, make every day different
remember that if you miss a day, or even end up abandoning one of these things all together, you shouldn’t feel bad, i wrote down good things for three months and then I started to forget about it, not because i didn’t have good things to say, but because I didn’t need a list to make me think about good things anymore, some of these will only be useful for a short time, some of these you might have to try again a few months or years later, and some might not even work out at all! but remember mistakes are not only ok, mistakes are great! you know who make mistakes? the people who do things! so if you forget about this for a day or a week, it’s ok, you can try again if you want, and if it didn’t work, then that’s ok too, there are plenty of things that you can do to feel better
Just remember that you are in control, always, you can care for yourself and get better, mental illness is just like any other sickness, you need to care for yourself and pay attention to yourself, it won’t get better on it’s own, but it can get better with treatment.
I don’t like to beg for reblogs but please reblog or share this so that other people can see it and it can help them care for themselves.
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