THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILATE LINKS. PLEASE READ MY DISCLOSURE FOR MORE INFO
Self-care, it’s a very important and vital part of our health, yet many of us neglect it. There are many reasons as to why, but I’m here to tell you it’s time to stop neglecting it. Engaging in self- care has many positive health benefits. Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually as well.
Physically, self-care ensures that we are treating and fueling our bodies to the best of our abilities. Mentally, self-care ensures that we are doing everything in our power to live in a blissful state of mind. This means we are looking after our mental health, we are challenging our minds, and most importantly we are keeping our brain healthy. Emotionally, self-care ensures that we are making ourselves a priority. Life gets busy and things get in the way, but that’s never an excuse to not make time for yourself. Finally spiritually, self-care ensures that we doing our best to live authentically.
For years I have neglected properly taking care of myself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. A big part of this neglect was a combination of my severe anxiety and depression that I had sunk into as I experienced specific things in life. Another part of this was due to the fact that I didn’t understand what self-care was, or what it looked like. Together these two made me feel like taking care of myself wasn’t a priority, and so long as I wasn’t on the floor dying, I was ok.
I was wrong.
My anxiety and depression had been feeding me lies for many, many years. It wasn’t until I started consistently practicing yoga when I had come to this realization. Ready to start living the life I had always envisioned for myself, I started to learn more about self-care. The more I learned about it, the more I began to appreciate what it was able to do with my anxiety and depression.
That appreciation lead to me vowing to myself to never neglect this part of my health and wellness ever again. And now it’s your turn.
If you suffer from anxiety and depression I’ve got some amazing and super unique self-care hacks for you! In today’s post I’m going to share with you some of my favorite self-care activities to help you manage your anxiety and depression. Even if you don’t suffer from anxiety and depression, these are some self-care hacks you don’t want to miss out on!
Check out the awesome list below!
**This is part 1 of this blog post. In this post specifically we will talk about self-care for anxiety
Related Posts: 15 Goals to Make For the New Year to Live a Happier and More Fulfilled Life
Self-care Activities to Help With Managing Anxiety
1. Arts & Crafts
As “childish” as it may seem there is great power in engaging in arts & crafts to help with managing your anxiety. This is a self-care activity that I use to practice religiously in my teenage years, specifically coloring. Coloring can help reduce your anxiety by teaching you how to focus on the task at hand. There are also mindfulness aspects to coloring, such as learning how to be present in the moment.
There are plenty of coloring books you can use for this self-care activity. Some of my favorite are the adult coloring books where you literally color your favorite cuss words. Here are some other coloring books that I recommend for this activity:
A Million Owls: Fine Feathered Friends to Color
Color Me Stress-Free: Nearly 100 Coloring Templates To Unplug And Unwind
2. Meditation
Yes. I love meditation. It’s so calming and really helps you center yourself. This is the perfect self-care activity to engage in if you want to naturally reduce your anxiety levels. Meditation encourages you to slow down and take in the world without judgement. It also encourages you to fully and honestly take in yourself (thoughts and emotions) without any judgement. This self- care activity will teach you how to reduced your worrying thoughts, and instead find a healthy balance between worrying thoughts and calming thoughts (because let’s be honest it’s almost impossible not to worry)!
3. Yoga
Again, yes. I love yoga. It took me a long time to really find my groove with this self-care activity, but once I did I never looked back! Yoga has so many positive health benefits, perhaps my favorite is how it helps you release yourself of any discomfort that can come with high levels of anxiety. Yoga is also an activity that requires you to be present in the moment and train yourself how to focus on the task at hand. So naturally this self-care activity is a great way to relieve yourself of anxious thoughts.
4. Walking
This activity I personally believe is a must! Not only is it physically healthy for you to walk for at least 30 minutes every day, but it has extremely positive benefits for reducing anxiety. As simple as this sounds, walking encourages the body to release endorphins that assist in reducing levels of anxiety. In other words, it helps induce that feel food mood that we all love to be in. This self-care activity is as easy as 1-2-3 so there’s really no reason why you can’t participate in it.
Interested in learning more about wellness and how it can have a positive impact on your life? If so, sign up today for the free Live Well Health and Wellness Email Course where I’ll teach you how to create a personal and effective wellness routine for your everyday living.
5. Talking to someone you trust
This is perhaps the easiest form of self-care you can engage in. However, it can also be the hardest. Find someone that you trust, someone that you know will not judge you or make you feel bad, and use them as your confidant. Having someone you can talk to about how you are feeling, or about what’s going on in your life, can be a great way to release yourself of any pent up thoughts and feelings. This will help you create more room for less anxious thoughts fulling up your day.
Related Posts: The Positive Health Benefits of Doing Yoga
6. Get plenty of sleep
Sleep is very important, not just for reducing anxiety, but in general. When you get a good night’s rest, you wake up the next morning feeling fresh and new. However, for most of us this only happens if we get a good 6-8 hours of sleep, and when you experience high levels of anxiety this can be hard to do. I suggest investing in a weighted blanket. Weighted blankets help to stimulate the body by applying pressure to your body. This is idea comes from a deep pressure touch therapy, where firm pressure is applied to the body to assist in reducing chronic stress and high levels of anxiety.
Here’s the Weighted Blanket I have and recommend, its 12 pounds. You can also visit this website to find different sizes and different weights to lay over you.
7. Make your physical health a priority
A big part of self-care is knowing how to take care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally. The best, quickest, and most effective way to tackle all three of these areas is by moving your body. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a workout, just anything that will get your body moving. Some self-care activities I recommend that are sure to include all three of these areas of health are participating in yoga once a week, going hiking (if you’re able to), or spending quality time playing with your kids or dogs (if you have any).
8. Make a list
This is something that I have been doing a lot of lately and have found it to be super helpful. Making a list of things that are a priority for you in the day can assist in decluttering your mind. Not only does it allow you to take note of the things that absolutely need to get done for the day, but carrying that list with you, or having it somewhere you can see, will encourage you to focus your attention on completing the tasks on the list, and less on the roaming thoughts in your head.
9. Journal
Journaling is a great self-care activity that can assist you in putting your thoughts on paper. One of the main reasons why anxiety tends to be so overwhelming is because there are a ton of worrying thoughts floating around in our head. These thoughts float around in addition to the thoughts we already have floating around in there. Needless to say it’s pretty crowded up there, and there’s no way to filter through them all without having some kind of effective method. Journaling is effective in the sense that it gives you a safe place to let go of those worrying thoughts, and just get them out in the open (or in this case on paper) and out of your head. Here’s the style of journaling I recommend:
Poppin Blush Medium Soft Cover Ruled Notebook
10. Engage in breathing exercises
One sure fire way to reduce your anxiety is to engage in slow breathing exercises. Slow breathing encourages you to take long slow breaths, and essentially to calm your breathing. Think about the last time you may have been overwhelmed with anxiety. What was your breathing like? Perhaps they were quick and short breaths that were pushing you into the hyperventilation lane? Slow breathing helps you avoid that and helps you avoid having a panic attack. Instead, it helps you manage your breathing, slow down your heart rate, and reduce your chances of becoming dizzy or experiencing nausea.
11. Create structure
Having structure in your life is a great way to control your anxiety. Much like journaling, talking to someone you trust, and making a list, this gives you something to focus on throughout the day. You will learn how to schedule your day in a manner that encourages for activities that you enjoy participating in, and for completing tasks that may have been hard for you to complete before. The key to structure is to be consistent in everything that you do. Once your mind and body gets use to the daily structure you have created for yourself, there will be less time in your day to focus on your worrying thoughts.
12. Don’t try to control everything
Perhaps the most important form of self-care for anxiety is to try not to control everything. Unfortunately things don’t always go as planned, life gets in the way of the things we want to accomplish, and we find ourselves trying to steer it all in the direction we want it to go. This alone is very overwhelming and cause an increase in anxiety levels. The best way to avoid this is to simply accept the fact that you can’t control everything that will and will not happen in a day, and to continue to move forward with your life.
Related Posts: Why You Shouldn’t Neglect Your Mental Health and 3 Wellness Techniques to Fix It
Looking for an unlimited amount of support from peers? Want to know how to start living a happier and more fulfilled life today? Join the free Wellness Warrior Facebook Community and start living your best life today.
Having anxiety is a hard battle to fight every day, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Stick around for part 2 of this post, where I’ll share with you unique self-care hacks to help manage your depression.
In the meantime, what did you think of these self-care hacks? Do you practice any of them? Or better yet, do you have any to add to the list?
Sound off in the comments below!
Until next time!
-Xo
Kimora