Today I want to hear about how you take care of yourself. What are the little things you do to give yourself space or help you find peace?
I recently started journaling after I read about the research on it: In the early 1980s, psychologist James Pennebaker conducted a study in which he told some college students to write about their stressful experiences and feelings for 15 minutes a day four days a week. He told others not to do anything unusual. The students who engaged in this “expressive writing,” as Pennebaker called it, were only half as likely to visit the student health center over the next six months as those who did not. Which is pretty bonkers! Other, more recent, work has supported these findings. Journaling, it seems, can be a powerful way to work through feelings and worries.
Another thing I do (but not nearly frequently enough!) is a brief morning meditation. What I do is very simple: I sit on my bed and focus on my breathing and on relaxing various body parts. Sort of like a body scan, but I don’t always do it methodically. I have found that even if I just do this for five minutes, I feel so much calmer and more ready to face the day.
I also exercise most days in my basement, and I sometimes take walks. When I have time. Which… well, I don’t always. Especially recently.
What do you do to cope with all the stresses of life? Share your self-care strategies in the comments. Even if it feels too simple or obvious — you never know who it could help!
I don't journal but my emails to my best friend serve as my journal, I think.
I exercise. Not a huge amount at any time, but four or five days a week I either hop on the Peloton during a lull in work (or a lull in whatever's going on over the weekend) or I go down to our building's exercise room and put a desk attachment on the treadmill there and work from the treadmill for an hour or so with a couple breaks to do five minutes of strength training. It's sure not the routine I had pre-pandemic, when I belonged to a women's gym that had a childcare area and I'd go for 90 minutes or two hours every weekend day and get in a long workout and a shower and maybe some hot tub time while my kid played, but it's critical to my sanity and the reasonable function of my back.
And I walk. The first pandemic year, my average daily step count cratered -- I love to walk but historically I really want to be going somewhere, not just walking to walk -- and I've raised it each year since, and I'm trying to get it up again this year. I'm working on enjoying walking even when I have nowhere to go.
I spent a few years pre-pandemic training for endurance events like half-marathon and half-ironman events. The regular exercise was great for my mental well-being but could be really time consuming. During the pandemic, my husband and I started walking every day. We’ve walked at least one mile (mostly together, with the dog, sometimes separately) everyday for almost three years — and we haven’t missed a day in two years (when I had a stomach bug; he still went , so his streak is longer than mine!). I’m amazed at what daily walking does for my whole body (core strength!) and mind.
I keep a blog for kid/family updates and photos, mainly for my parents and far away friends. I privately call it my gratitude practice, and there’s really something to it. I love being able to go back in time (I started in August 2012 when my boys were 3 years old and 8 months old), and the process of journaling this way is therapeutic. I read recently that it’s impossible to feel both anxious and grateful at the same time. (Is that true? It feels true, but I don’t know if there is real science behind it.)