Most of the activities you probably have in mind help more with your physical body when it comes to self-care. These might include taking a bubble bath, getting a massage, doing a face mask, or pampering your body. But there are so many ways to practice self-care more for your mind and emotional health.
Protect Your Energy
One of the most important things you can do for yourself regarding emotional self-care is protecting your energy. Consider the people around you regularly and how you feel during and after spending time with them.
If you discover friends or colleagues that make you feel exhausted, like your energy has been depleted just from a conversation with them, they are likely energy vampires. These toxic people will take all your positive energy and leave you feeling emotionally drained. Now is an excellent time to start spending a little less time with these people.
Ground Yourself
Grounding is a beautiful practice that helps you feel more connected to the Earth and more connected to yourself. The simplest and most effective grounding method is to go outside and put your bare feet on the natural earth’s surface. Standing on dirt or grass outside is healing and soothing. You will notice the effects almost instantly if you are mindful during this process. It can be done at a park or forest while hiking or walking.
Another option is to put your bare feet in the sand, like at the beach. You might also want to go into the water, like the ocean, lake, or river. Even being in your shower can be grounding and soothing for your mind. Some other grounding options include drawing, reading, listening to music, or any mindful activity that helps you feel centered.
Use a Journal for Self-Reflection
An effortless self-care practice for your emotional and mental well-being is to write in a journal. There are many ways to journal, and they are all beneficial for you, but for emotional self-care specifically, self-reflection and clarity are critical.
Journaling for self-reflection is when you journal your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Dig deep to consider how you feel at any time, what your primary thoughts are, what challenges you are dealing with, and how you notice your moods and emotions shift.
The more honest you are during this process, the more self-reflection and self-awareness you will discover.
Allow Yourself to Rest
Something as simple as taking a little 20-minute nap in the afternoon when you’re tired or going to sleep earlier can be considered self-care. Your body and your mind both need rest. If you get burned out by working too much or don’t allow yourself enough time for sleep, your body and your mental state will react badly. It can make emotional stress much more severe and extremely difficult to improve your emotional wellbeing.
An easy way to start resting more is to make a daily goal of allowing yourself just 15-20 minutes in the afternoon to do whatever makes you feel restful. This can be a micro nap, sitting somewhere comfy to read a book, lounging on your patio, or even sitting down to watch something uninterrupted.
Reduce Social Media Noise
Social media noise is any drama, distractions, and even triggers caused by what you see on social media. It isn’t harmful to want to use social media. Still, it can be easy to be negatively affected by it emotionally without actually realizing how much of an impact it has on you. A good way to tell is to go 24 hours without using it and write down how you feel when you’re done.
Are you more relaxed? Did you have more time to focus on other things? Did you notice the lack of being emotionally triggered helped you somehow? If so, you know social media was a big part of your mental stress.
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