I’m not ashamed to admit that at the moment I am struggling. I’ve come on leaps and bounds with my mental health, but it’s nowhere near perfect and I doubt it ever will be. I still have extremely depressive episodes when I just want to sleep for days at a time, and my anxiety can be so crippling that I feel constantly sick and like I’m stood on the edge of a cliff that I could fall off of at any second.
I put a lot of pressure on myself to do everything I can, and then like clock work I end up burning out because I’ve done too much. This is usually when I end up doing my self care.
When I did CBT a few years back, the lady doing it told me that needing to be selfish sometimes didn’t make me a selfish person. Which sounds ridiculous but made total sense to me. She asked me what I liked to do and after I told her she just went “if you enjoy doing these things, make an effort to spend more time doing them or do them more frequently”. I do tend to forget a lot of what I learnt during CBT, but I always found that really helpful.
My favourite forms of CBT are things that probably do seem simple and insignificant, but they really help recharge my batteries and make me feel like me again.
- Paint my nails I tend to leave my nails natural a lot of the time now, just because I’m lazy. But every now and again I like to give them a cut and file and buff them all out. I’ll push the cuticles down and paint them with whatever I have, even if it’s just a clear polish. It just makes me feel more myself.
- Haircare and skincare I find what I really enjoy doing is buying a hair mask and face mask and just really taking my time with washing my hair and doing my skin care for the evening. If I’m feeling particularly fancy, I’ll even do a DIY lip scrub. I love waking up with soft hair and smooth skin.
- Reading in bed with a glass of wine one of my favourite things to do when I’m feeling really frazzled, is to get into bed early and just read whatever book I’m on at that time. I’ll have a glass of wine of my bedside table and Mark next to me messing about on his laptop. Bliss.
- Going out for brunch or lunch with my boys probably the most expensive one on my list (ya girls poor). I love going out with my boys and sitting at a table with a nice drink and sharing food and just enjoy being with them both.
- Listen to music I’ll just put my noise cancelling headphones in and go through all my favourite chilled songs on Spotify and YouTube. I would HIGHLY recommend checking out the Mahogany sessions, their live sessions and covers they do are incredible.
- Have a cuddle I’m not really a cuddly person, I’m very much like a cat in that it has to be on my terms or I’m not interested. But the only 2 people that doesn’t apply to is Mark and Grayson, when I cuddle both of them I can just feel my energy lift.
These are just things I like and that help me, but you might find some of them appeal to you or you might come up with your own ideas. It doesn’t matter what you like or don’t like, as long as it makes you feel good.
I also think it’s important everyone is taught to practice self care, because so many people over work themselves. So if you’re one of those people, try to make a change to help yourselves.