Tag: self-care

5 Productive Ideas for Self Care During Lockdown for NYC

Posted on by reiki_4p2tkg

To practice my own self-care, I hired a guest writer from Fivver to write about self-care.

5 Productive Ideas for Self Care During Lockdown for NYC

Written By: Sameena Khan

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” – Audre Lorde. I quoted this because during this pandemic this is the perfect time to take care of yourself either Emotionally, Mentally, or Physically.

 

In daily routine, we are very busy and most of the time neglect to get a break for ourselves. Due to this negligence, we suffer from stress or other diseases. I came up with the ideas apart from using a face mask, washing your hands regularly, and practicing social distancing or self-isolation.


  1. Exercise

Exercise is the best way to release stress, tension, and maintain your health. If you are not habitual, make sure you adopt it as a habit as soon as possible. You don’t need to go to the gym but you can do a lot of exercises at home. Like if you have gained weight, this is the time you lose it. And if you have a weak body start any workout and stay consistent and motivated. For further assistance, you can watch videos on YouTube.
2. Meditate

Its highly recommended meditate ourselves. It allows your mind to focus and redirect your thoughts on the positive side. It also helps you get mentally strong as it directly affects your mood, develops self-discipline, and increases pain tolerance. Its benefits include self-awareness, help to fights any addictions, and may reduce memory loss. For example, Reiki Meditation is one of the most effective one. Reiki practice is not affiliated with any religion but it is a very efficient method of releasing stress & anxiety and provide your body an environment to heal physically, mentally, and emotionally.
3. Reading

You will second that verdict that you read hundreds of posts in a day. But you know reading a book is far better than investing time in reading random posts. Reading can create a direct impact on your personality because it helps you to be confident, improves your knowledge. It’s a general observation that readers are the leaders. So it is also one of the best investments of your precious time.

4. Clean & Organize Yourself

Well cleaning and organizing yourself is the most important thread which you should work on. It is a positive activity that overall built your personality. You can start with cleaning & organizing your spaces which can be your bed, wardrobe, or your room. Then you can start with self-discipline and preventing yourself from bad habits. This will give you inner satisfaction. The habit of organizing yourself leads you to be responsible and create many positive effects on your personality.

5. Use Social Media Positively & Carefully

Social media is now a very important and powerful source/tool to spread your voice, point of view, or any opinion. But you must take it positively and stay away from spreading any uninvestigated news to your social circle. There is much false news is surrounding social about COVID 19. Another thing you can do is that start learning any skill, language, etc. Rather than just navigating to random post hitting likes, you can use social media for productivity or groom yourself.

Remembering To Play

Posted on by Becca Kidwell

Life can get so serious very quickly. Can I pay my bills? Will I succeed at my job? Do I have to do this all on my own? Am I doing this right? What if I fail? Will I be loved? Are we safe? It’s easy to get caught up in all these worries and more and forget the essentials. This earth has got us and supports us; AND even when everything seems chaotic and doesn’t make sense life is meant to be enjoyed and shouldn’t be taken so seriously.

This picture was taken of me on Christmas Day at Central Park. I never forgot how much I loved swinging, but this was the first time I had done it in a long time. For about ten to fifteen minutes, I felt free, no worries; I was just having fun (kids came around, so I left). It’s hard to keep up that feeling on a day to day basis, but I try to whenever I can. I do one fun, silly thing (whether it’s getting an vanilla ice cream cone with sprinkles, go to a movie, cook, play shoelaces with my cat, sing out loud wherever I am) whenever I can and it reminds me that life’s not so serious; And that fun is not just for kids, but something that each one of us deserves.

It doesn’t mean that my life won’t have trials or struggles–quite the contrary–joy is the combination of happiness and pain. But for a few moments daily, I can remind myself that it’s not all struggle and happiness is available.

 

“No” is not a four letter word

Posted on by Becca Kidwell

“No” is not a four-letter word; literally, it’s not.  But that’s not how I treated it most of my life.  I wanted to give to everybody; I wanted to do everything–but I kept getting short-changed in the exchange.  Why can’t I help everyone?  Why can’t I do everything? And yet–when do I get time to rest?  I’m so tired. I have nothing left to give.How did I get out of this never-ending loop?  I learned to say “no.”  

But it wasn’t just the act of saying “no” — although I started to learn how powerful it could be — it was that by saying “no” I was acknowledging both my worth and human-ness, and both have made me stronger and have allowed me to be able give more wholeheartedly.

First, the human part.  Yeah. I’m human. I’m not perfect.  I’m far from it.  I’ve had adrenal fatigue and other physical ailments that have always made me tired a lot of the time.  In the past ten years or so, I came to accept that I just don’t have as much energy as other people do. When I was in college, I could sleep for up to twenty hours a day on my days off of working on plays.  There have been days in the past 5-6 years where I just had to shut down.  I had nothing left. That’s about when “no” started entering the picture.  I wanted to attend a singing workshop this September, but between work and feeling run-down and having a show to sing in — something had to give;  it was a “no” to the workshop, so that I could be the best I could be at work and in the show.  I had to say “no.”  There’s only so much of me to go around and I want to put the best I can into everything I do and I can only do that, if I prioritize what I need and want to do, I’m able to give more to the things that matter the most to me.  And rest is one of the top things so I can do all the other things.

So, that leads to the things that matter the most to me:  how could I possibly know what I value if I didn’t know my value?  How can I know what is worth my time and energy?  Isn’t everything worth it?  Will people think I’m lazy if I don’t do everything?  Will people think I don’t care if I don’t use every ounce of energy helping out?  I don’t know exactly when I realized it, but one of the things that helped me to recognize it was the realization that I deserve rest.  There’s nothing wrong with recharging my body and mind so I can function — not necessarily even at my best — but even function properly.  Really, don’t try getting into a deep conversation with me when I’ve had no sleep because I can barely string two thoughts together.  And the projects I do when I have no energy?  I’d give myself a C/ C- ,  (I’m a recovering perfectionist, that’s basically an F, but I’m accepting that I have done the best I could at those times).  The other thing was that:  I work hard. Several people told me this, but it was hard for me to take as truth because I was always told I was lazy growing up (which was a lie, but you’re not my therapist, so that’s all you need to know about that).  I started to realize that I really do work hard; and because I work hard I deserve to treat myself some times:  get vanilla soft serve, buy that Kate Spade bag I had my eye on, get a mani-pedi, or just rest and do nothing.  It’s like the old L’Oreal commercial:  “because I’m worth it.”  Because I am worth it, I choose when I say “yes” and when I say “no” and I’ve learned that people don’t see that as lazy; that’s a person who has her boundaries and knows her worth..     

 

Breath of Life – How Do We Engage In Self Care?

Posted on by Becca Kidwell

Originally written for the New Moon Women’s Circle website

How can I help? Can I help you?  I love helping people and giving of my time and energy to lift people up.  In fact, I could easily give all of myself at anytime to be there for the people I care about.  And I have.

And I became exhausted.  And sick. I had nothing left to give.

After years of therapy, I have begun to learn what was missing:  I wasn’t giving anything to myself. It doesn’t have to be anything big, but I need to give to myself so that I am able to serve others.  Whether it is taking myself to see the latest “chick flick,” getting an ice cream with rainbow sprinkles, or sitting enjoying nature, these little gifts that I give to myself energize me; then I help others and as long as I continually treat myself, I do not get completely worn out.

Sometimes the gift is rest.  What yoga has taught me is that we need to be mindful of where we are and act from that place.  Sometimes I might want to go out, but I only have enough energy to watch tv. Sometimes the gift is saying “no.”  My friend recently asked me to go to an open mic. But I was running low on energy and had a busy weekend, so I said “no.”  It was incredibly difficult, yet at the end of that evening I felt my energy return, and I was able to give my best to my clients, and then I was able to be social with my friends.

This is a practice that I still struggle with.  When I ignore myself my body, my mind, and my spirit will shut down when they have no energy left.   We wouldn’t go on a trip without filling our car with gas, so why do we expect to go on life’s journey without filling ourselves up.  And we wouldn’t ask our friends and family to join us to get stuck in the desert.  If we want to take care of others, we need to take care of ourselves, first.

Book Recommendation: The Gifts of Imperfection

Posted on by Becca Kidwell

Originally written for the New Moon Women’s Circle website

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown, Phd, LMSW

by Becca C. Kidwell

As I get ready to write this book review, I begin to look at my background as a high school teacher and having a master’s in English education and begin to worry about what will be the response to this review and will it be good enough, and then I remember what I just read in Brené Brown’s book, The Gifts of Imperfection, and I am able to write this.

Brené Brown is a shame researcher, and in this book she explores how her work led her to embrace compassion (particularly for herself) and wholehearted living.  Brené discusses the struggles she’s had with perfectionism and offers suggestions on how to let go of the expectations that we hold for ourselves and for others.  She speaks about this compassion for ourselves, which leads us to be more compassionate, and loving to others. She differentiates between guilt and shame and how guilt is feeling bad about your actions while shame is feeling bad about who you are. Continue reading “Book Recommendation: The Gifts of Imperfection” →