At Whole Mind Therapy and Counseling a big focus of treatment for anxiety and depression is helping people develop their own personalized self-care plan. All too often, with the responsibilities of life, we forget about the basics of taking care of ourselves. When you don't attend to your basic needs, you might find that you feel anxious, depressed, overwhelmed, and burnt-out.

Sometimes, people believe that self-care is “selfish,” and requires more time than they're able to devote. Not true! It's about doing more of what you like to do, seeing people you enjoy being around, and being aware of what you need.

See below for five tips to get your self-care routine back on track.

Sleep: We juggle many responsibilities and competing demands and might find that at the end of the day we would rather numb out and stay up late, knowing that we will pay for it in the morning. We also live in an overstimulated world full of distractions with technology, social media, and on-demand entertainment. There's only so many hours in a day and sleep is often sacrificed. When we don't sleep as much as we need to, we can feel irritable, anxious, lose concentration, and find it hard to motivate ourselves. Focusing on improving your sleep hygiene by going to bed earlier, even if just one night a week, can lead to improved mood, improved concentration, and decreased irritability.

Nourishment: How many times have you skipped breakfast, loaded up on coffee and by lunch time you have a headache, feel annoyed, and want to take a nap. Or perhaps by the time you get home from work, you're feeling "hangry" and take your irritability out on your family. This is common! We live in a fast-paced world, where we often are not able to attend to our most basic needs. Taking time for one of our most basic human needs is essentially important to manage our mood and physical health. Take some time for yourself and set a boundary with work if needed to nourish yourself. Also, please drink water too!!!

Exercise: Most of us know how important and how helpful exercise can be for our physical and mental health, but oftentimes there's just not enough time to devote to physical activity or exercise. Most of us approach exercise with "all or nothing thinking" meaning, if we can't devote hours a week to exercise, there's no point. Research has proven that walking, or light exercise a couple times a week is helpful for reducing anxiety and depression. So even if you don't have hours to devote, a 10-minute walk on your lunch break can help balance your mood. 

Social connections: Have you ever been overwhelmed, anxious, or worried, and talked to a friend and felt better? Connection to other supportive people in our lives is a big part of a good self-care routine. Connection to others has proven to be calming to our sympathetic nervous system when we're feeling anxious or overwhelmed. If you're ever feeling worried or anxious, reach out to a friend or family for support, and try to make that part of your regular self-care routine. Sharing memes with a good friend to match your mood can be helpful too!

Boundaries: Another often overlooked part of a self-care routine is establishing healthy boundaries. All too often people say yes to things that they don’t want to do, and find that they overextend themselves, ultimately then feeling resentful and angry for being put in a position where they had to help or commit to something they didn't want to. It's okay to say no. Take time for yourself when you need it and do something you enjoy if you decline the next invitation!

Thanks for reading! This is not an exhaustive list of self-care techniques, but a good place to jump start and get back to basics on your self-care routine. Therapy can also be another great part of someone’s self-care routine. Reach out to Whole Mind if you are interested in getting started in counseling.

Want to improve your self-care routine? Contact me to schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation to see if we would be a good fit in working together.