Self-Care and Stress Reduction:
Some Simple Practices
Breathe! Stop everything else, focus on your breathing, take three long, slow deep breaths, and relax. Practice bringing your breath down into the belly. (When we are anxious, we tend to take shallow breaths at chest level).
Progressive Relaxation: You can start at your feet and move up the body, or start at your head and move down. Sitting or lying down, focus on each body part, and relax it. You also can really tighten the muscles there, and then let go.
Nourish and care for your body: Eat healthy foods and exercise regularly.
Make sure you get enough sleep: If you have a project due or an exam coming up, start early & don't pull an all-nighter. You need sleep to function!
Take breaks and treat yourself occasionally: perhaps a massage, a facial, or a manicure. You may want to go out for dinner, go to a concert, or a movie. Of course, treating yourself does not need to involve a great amount of time or expense: you can take a bubble bath, take a walk, go for a swim, spend an hour in the park, or watch a sunset. Perhaps you enjoy taking time to paint or to write. Playing with a pet also can be very therapeutic; if you don't have one, visit a friend or neighbor who does, or go to a park where people walk their dogs and ask an owner if you can say hello to their dog. These are just a few ideas… You can put your own imagination to work…
Another way to take care of yourself is to be aware of your self-talk (those things that you say to yourself inside your head). Many of us have very harsh inner critics: When we make a mistake, this critical voice inside our head says things like, "That was so stupid! … I can't do anything right!" We need to replace these negative messages with other, more kind and positive ones. For example, "Okay, I made a mistake. That is how I learn. I'll do it right the next time." With awareness, over time, you can "catch yourself" when your self-talk is negative, and change the message into something more positive.
Practice using positive affirmations: Take some time to come up with the qualities that you most want to embody. Choose about one to three things to focus on for any one period of time. Then try this for at least a month: Repeat those qualities daily, telling yourself that you are those things, already. Whether or not you currently believe it, say it anyway… "Fake it till you make it." For example, take time to tell yourself, each day, "I am happy and successful" or "I am beautiful and talented" or "I love my body: I feel healthy and in balance" or "I deserve to be loved" or "I am powerful and self-confident" … whatever qualities you wish to be. You may want to write out these affirmations and post them someplace where you will see them regularly: on the bathroom mirror, on the refrigerator door, by the clock in your bedroom, atop your computer monitor, or somewhere on your desk.
If you need additional support, you can always seek professional help.
Some possibilities include:
1) Counseling: You may want speak with someone and get support so that you can "share the burden" of what you are going through without worrying about "burdening" friends or family members… and learn to cope better with your situation. A therapist can offer you tools that you can use ongoing in your life.
2) Relaxation / Stress Reduction: Sometimes it is good to take an hour out, give yourself a break, and just experience deep relaxation. As you experience what it feels like to be truly relaxed, it will become easier for you to recreate this state within yourself. Professionals can teach you techniques (for instance, for deep breathing and meditation) that you can use on your own at home.
3) Hypnotherapy: Hypnotherapy can help you achieve a number of different goals. While perhaps best known for assisting with weight reduction and smoking cessation, hypnotherapy can help with a host of other challenges, such as reducing anxiety, building self-confidence and self-esteem, overcoming fears, eliminating insomnia, enhancing sports performance, creating success, and more. If you think back to our discussion of self-talk and positive affirmations, this is a place where hypnotherapy can be most helpful: changing negative thoughts into positive self-talk and "retraining the brain" to think more positively.
So, go ahead. Take care of yourself. Be good to yourself. Treat yourself well. Replenish yourself. You will discover that the better you take care of yourself, the happier you will be, and the more you will be able to contribute to others – and the more others will want to be around you and give back to you. This is a win-win situation. Taking care or yourself will ultimately benefit the lives of others you encounter, as well as your own life.
If you think you might be interested in Self Care and Stress Reduction,
feel free to call me at
973-783-6977
