Wildlife

Such a pleasure to see all around us. 

Its coming to the end of mental health awareness week. I want to share some words I've put together that are part of my journaling through depression course that I've been creating.

Self-Care: This is something that is talked about a lot. That we should make time to look after ourselves and it is the most neglected action. We rarely make time for ourselves feeling it is selfish and that the best one “we don’t have time”. What you need to understand is that your needs and your desires are valid and important, and they deserve to be respected and prioritised. Without fulfilling your needs you cannot help anyone else or give them the help they really need. One of my favourite analogies is you can’t pour from an empty cup. You need to fill your cup to be able to pour into others. 

Self-care always seems so intimidating to us, how will we fit in this time for us. The way to look at it is anything that you enjoy for you is self-care. Your favourite beverage in the morning. 5 minutes peace before doing things. It doesn’t have to be big especially not to begin with. It’s about adjusting your routine and timings to allow those moments of your time. Below is a list of simple things you can try to work into your life for you just ideas you may have other ideas and goals. What you may also need to do though is ask those around you to help you to create more time for yourselves. It’s very easy to take on every task at hand and not delegate or ask for help. A walk in nature, Bath, Shower, Favourite beverage, Favourite program on TV, Favourite movie, Early to bed, Reading favourite book, Meditation, Yoga or other physical activity you enjoy, Listening to your favourite music, Time with a friend (in person or on phone). 

Really the list is endless and very personal. Have a think about things you would like to do for you or things that make you feel good and put together a list and try to do one of these things for yourself a day. And work in more if you can. Self-care can help us so much when we are feeling low. Little things that give us happiness in times of difficulties really help. We however can get into the mindset that we don’t deserve this time and don’t deserve to be happy or don’t even see that we are pouring from an empty cup.


Rest: Rest we envisage as being lazy and doing nothing. We do need rest in our lives this can be time away, permission to not be helpful and not feel guilty about it, doing something unproductive, connection to art and nature, solitude to recharge, a break from responsibility, stillness to decompress, safe space, alone time at home. Having gone through the self-care and now rest advice I can already hear you saying that this is not possible with what you have going on in your life. I understand it is not easy and I understand that we feel obligated to always put others first and this can be part of the reason we get so low. We really need to put ourselves first and when we do this we are much nicer people to and for those around us. We are more content and better equipped to help and care for those around us.