Self-care has to become a habit so that when we’re dealing with stress, we know what to do.
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➡️ Sensory
When you feel stressed and need a calm mind, try focusing on the sensations around you—sights, smells, sounds, tastes, touch.
🔸️Breathe in fresh air
🔸️Snuggle under a cozy blanket
🔸️Take a hot shower / bath
🔸️ Get a massage
🔸️ Pay attention to your breathing
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➡️ Pleasure
A great way to take care of yourself when you’re coping with stress is to engage in a pleasurable activity
🔸️Take yourself out to eat
🔸️Be a tourist in your own city
🔸️Garden
🔸️Watch a movie
🔸️ Do a craft project
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➡️ Mental
You can also give yourself a boost by doing a task that you’ve been avoiding or challenging your brain in a novel way. This can also boost self-confidence.
🔸️ Clean out a junk drawer or a closet
🔸️ Try a new activity
🔸️ Immerse yourself in a crossword puzzle
🔸️ Do a word search
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➡️ Spiritual
Getting in touch with your values is a sure way to cope with stress and foster a calm mind.
🔸️ Pray
🔸️ Read poetry or inspiring quotes
🔸️ Light a candle
🔸️ Meditate
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➡️ Emotional
Dealing with our emotions can be challenging when we’re coping with stress. We tend to label emotions as “good” or “bad,” but this isn’t helpful. Instead:
🔸️ Accept your feelings. They’re all OK. Really
🔸️ Write your feelings down.
🔸️ Cry when you need to
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➡️ Physical
Coping with stress by engaging the body is great because you can bypass a lot of unhelpful mental chatter.
🔸️ Try yoga
🔸️ Go for a walk or a run
🔸️ Take a nap
🔸️ Stretch
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➡️ Social
Connecting with others is an important part of self-care.
🔸️ Go on a lunch date with a good friend
🔸️ Calling a friend on the phone
🔸️ Participating in a book club
🔸️ Joining a support group
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Which one is your favourite way to take care of yourself?
Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com
Tag: anxietyfree
Confession
You know that feeling when you’re working hard on something and it doesn’t work out? When you put loads of effort into something and don’t see results? 🤷🏼♀️
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I put LOADS of time, work, effort and money even into @smileysociety. Last autumn I decided to work harder on this page, to take better pictures, to bring more interesting content in stories so I started creating quizes, DIY tutorials, regular healthy recipes etc to bring more interesting stuff. For you.
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Having a full-time job (and working even 10-13h a day sometimes) I spent my whole free time I had in autumn, winter and spring creating content for @smileysociety and…it got me nowhere 🤷🏼♀️😅
I gained very few followers, wasn’t shared on any sharing page etc 💔
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This is why I haven’t been so active here for last 2 months. I felt burntout and didn’t feel like working on this page anymore.
And so I found new hobby – gardening 🌱👩🌾.
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With gardedning it is 100% sure you’ll see results of your hard work and this makes me happy 🤗.
If you follow couple simple rules (plant your plants in good soil, water it, fertilize it etc) you’ll soon see your plants growing, your flowers blooming and maybe even some fruit 🍓🍊.
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Gardening makes me not only happy because I see results but also makes me calm, takes my problems away and lets me focus on here & now.
I need to water my new beautiful grass everyday for 15min and those 15min are probably most relaxing during whole day 🙏.
If you have a chance try gardening and see how it can heal a soul!
SELF LOVE: DIY Tension Relief Bath Bombs 🛀
Make your own DIY bath bombs to wash away body and head tension in this easy step by step DIY beauty tutorial 😊.
The scent combination of lavender oil and peppermint oil is both relaxing and invigorating 😍.Together, they’re the perfect combo for tired muscles and minds.
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Supplies (for 3 bath bombs)
🔸️1 cup baking soda
🔸️½ cup citric acid
🔸️½ cup Epsom Salts
🔸️¾ cup cornstarch
🔸️2 tablespoons sweet almond oil
🔸️3 teaspoons witch hazel
🔸️1 teaspoon green mica powder
🔸️10 drops lavender essential oil
🔸️10 drops peppermint essential oil
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Tools:
🔸️Bath bomb molds
🔸️Large mixing bowl
🔸️Small glass spray bottle with water
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Instructions:
➡️ 1. Put all of your dry ingredients into your mixing bowl and mix until well combined, being careful to make sure no clumps remain.
➡️ 2.Pour the almond oil, essential oils and witch hazel into a small glass mixing bowl, then whisk until combined. Gently, pour the liquid mixture into the larger bowl with the dry ingredients.
➡️ 3.The mixture will start fizzing as soon as the liquid touches the dry ingredients.
➡️ 4.Mix with a fork (or your hands) until everything looks like it’s well combined and somewhat moist 😀.
➡️ 5.Prepare your bath bomb molds and use a spoon to fill the molds halfway. Using a silicone spatula, press the mixture into the molds firmly.
➡️ 6.Spray each mold with a small bit of water (one spray) and press down again to make sure they’re firm. Using too much water will cause the bombs to lose their fizz (and start growing out of control). If you don’t press down firmly enough, the bath bombs will not hold together.
➡️ 7.Divide the remaining mixture into the molds and again press down firmly. Spray the top with water and press down again.
➡️ 8.Close the molds, and allow them to sit on the counter for 24h to set before removing from molds.
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Notes
Due to the mica powder and almond oil, these bombs will leave your bath a bit slippery. So take caution when you’re getting out!
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Source: https://www.happy-mothering.com
Getting through problems
This year has been tough 😖, not only Covid-wise but I’ve been robbed & tricked recently 🙄, my grandma passed away 🖤, I’ve lost some friends 💔, I’ve had plenty days when I felt powerless…
I cried a lot, been shuting everything away and been hiding at home 😶
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But I’m not telling you all this to make you feed sorry for me, no no. I’m telling you all this to show you that happy & positive people aren’t people without problems 😉. Happy & positive people are positive DESPITE their problems 💪
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Everyone has some problems, each one of us is battling with something but the key is to not give up, to get through it and stand up wiser and stronger 💪.
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I know I have learned a lot through my last experiences and definitely won’t make some mistakes again. You should learn from your problems and/or mistakes too! 😀
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Chin up, it will be all good! 😊
Just focus on the positive, throw some strawberries 😜 and enjoy life! 😊
Smiley Future – Step 69
Today let’s focus on summing up on your tools which we used for the last 16 months in our Smiley Future 🤗. Which ones became most useful to you? 🤔
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Here’s a list of those most important ones:
🔸️ Building a goal with SMART method (step 6)
🔸️ Implementation intention (step 10)
🔸️ Process visualisation with positive or negative outcome (step 11)
🔸️ Training will power: reducing stress (step 17), improving your willpower by breathing (step 18), autoobservation (step 19), beating tiredness and feeling burnt out (step 20), finding the source of your ‘I desire’ power (step 20) – which of those elements did you find most useful?
🔸️ Ways of being good to yourself (step 25)
🔸️ Ways of deferring gratification (step 30)
🔸️ Ways of beating procrastination (step 32)
🔸️ Ways to fight lack of motivation (step 37)
🔸️ Working on your sabotagin thoughts (step 42-45)
🔸️ Observing the impact of emotions on your willpower (step 47)
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Which one of those tools helped you most? 🤔
In what way can you use them in the future?
Write down your reflections 📝
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Next week: Summing up: Practicing mindfullness
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Source: @chodakowskaewa‘s book “90 days – design your tomorrrow”
SELF LOVE: Calming crafts
The mental health benefits of crafting have been well documented by plenty of top publications 🤩! Working with your hands and making time to be creative can boost your mood 🙃, keep your brain sharp 🧠 and even help alleviate the symptoms of health woes like depression, arthritis, sleeplessness and stress 🤯.
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Human beings have been using art 🎨 and creative endeavors to cope and express themselves for literally thousands of years.
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So, it’s no surprise that DIY and crafting can help with anxiety, too 🤗. Crafting as a form of self-care is a long-standing tradition.
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I have always found creating/crafting/making to be a form of therapy 😍🙏. When you’re making something, your mind has space to wander and work things out. It also gives you a chance to change the channel in your brain and focus on something else rather than what’s stressing you out 🤗
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And in many cases, the actual physical activities involved in craft projects can be relaxing in themselves. Whether it’s the act of making smooth brushstrokes, the calm repetitive nature of needlecrafts and knitting or crochet, or the soothing colors and sounds of coloring, just the act of making can be super relaxing 😍.
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Check out my Instagram to see a tutorial on how to prepare those quick DIY Easter decorations 🐣.
2 more tutorials on Easter decorations coming this week! 🤩
Smiley Future – Step 55
Admit it, how many times during a weekend you think of Monday and you feel scared and angry already? 🤬 Got you! 😉 In the next few steps we’ll practice empowering your attitude that can improve quality of your life and increase your happiness 🤩.
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And that attitude is gratitude so feeling satisfied and appreciating what you’ve got (or not), what surrounds you and what you experience 🤗.
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Human tendency to notice negatives 👀 and danger 💥 can be explained by evolution – this perceptivity saved our ancestors plenty times yet complaining is something more 🙄.
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Constant complaining is a habit. Good news is that – as every habit – you can work on it and habit of complaining can be replaced with gratitude 😉.
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You’re probably wondering what it has to do with strong will and perseverance? 🤔
Practicing gratitude:
🔅Lowers stress (and that empowers willpower, remember?) 📉
🔅 Lowers tension, levels excessive expectations and frustration (that can lead to total giving up on your goal at first obstacle) 🙏
🔅 Helps noticing small successes and strong points that empowers motivation and perseverance 🎯
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As Robert Emmons and Robin Stern say „Clinical trials show that practicing gratitude can have dramatic and lasting positive effects on a person’s life. It can reduce blood pressure, improve immunity, promote happiness and life satisfaction, generate behaviors such as helping others, generosity and cooperation. Additionally, gratitude reduces the risk of depression, anxiety and addiction” 🤩
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Have I convinced you? Let’s start our today’s task 😉:
➡️ How often do you feel gratitude?
➡️ What are you grateful for?
➡️ Is feeling grateful dificult or easy for you?
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Next week: Practicing gratitude – excercise 🙏
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Source: @chodakowskaewa‘s new book “90 days – design your tomorrow”
How to be HAPPY 