self-care, the “wild” way
I (and many others) began my self-care journey as a means of doing things to make me happy. While this is a great idea in theory, it’s not necessarily as easy as it sounds.
Self-care is not just making yourself "happy".
I learned from a wise professor about the “heart, soul, and mind” of the human. Our heart represents the child in us, the soul is the emotions and rules, and the mind is the decision-maker, or the wisest self. If I was only on this self-care mission to find happiness, I would just be listening to my heart. While letting little “five year old Hannah” call the shots sounds great in theory, I like my job/education/life too much to let her run free. So, I create rules from the soul part of myself… and these rules lead to a lot of anxiety, perfectionism, and stress. Then there is my last part, the “wise self”. This part listens to the heart AND the soul. The wisest self is who I like to listen to when practicing self-care.
I thought self-care meant bubble baths and yoga. While bubbles and yoga are great, they are only appealing to the heart part of myself, not to my mind or my soul. So, an authentic—and not always bubbly or calming— self-care plan is ideally adapted to ALL parts of the human (yes, that means to the part of you that makes those rules and has sometimes wild emotions too!)
I want to share some of my ideas so that they may spark some of your own. I like to keep mine short, sweet, and to the point.
Daily Self-Care
Drink all the water (shout out to my many water bottles which you can often see featured in my sessions)
Get an adequate amount of sleep (I shoot for 8 hours)
Take my medicines/supplements
Journaling
Weekly/As needed
Creative outlets (bullet journaling/scrapbooking/memory journals)
Physical movement (walking, yoga, working out)
Spending time with those who bring me joy. One of my favorite ways is binge watching reality TV and doing weekly recaps with my friends!
Seeing a licensed professional
The simple fact of the matter is… you are important. Taking care of ALL the parts of you is important. As we like to say at Wild Cactus Therapy, this also means taking care of your prickly parts. Sometimes this will look like saying no to the night out. Sometimes it’s making a “To Do” list. Sometimes it is the bubble bath and meditation. And sometimes it looks like popping your vitamins while enjoying some Chik-fil- A.
—Hannah Stewart LPC-A Tx License #84432 Supervised by Marie Gray LPC-S Tx Lic #71945