Self-Care Strategies

By: Abby Anerella ❤️

Self care strategies are very important on your road to recovery. Some misconceptions around self care include …

• Doing face masks

• Getting your nails done

• Getting your haircut

While these all may be activities that one enjoys, and may be self-care for some, they aren’t realistic self care goals. Self-care are things that you should be doing everyday. Things that require little to no effort, and help calm your mind. Are you getting your nails done everyday? If so, let me know what your job is so I can switch my major. If not, continue reading to follow me through the self-care techniques that have helped heal my own heart.

1. People

Surrounding yourself with people you know will comfort you is one of the most important parts to self-care. If you read my previous blog on the importance of who you surround yourself with, you know that I talked a lot about how negative people have a negative impact on your mental health. The first thing that I think of when I think of self-care, are things that make you genuinely happy. For me, the things that make me the most happy in this world are the people who make darkness not seem so dark.

There are many ways you can attribute your time to the important people in your life. I understand that you won’t be able to hangout with someone 24/7. I also understand how mental health makes you want to isolate yourself. As much as isolation from the outside world feels like it’s top on your priority list, I can promise you that the exact opposite will heal your hurt.

For a while I spent my time in isolation from everyone. Especially in college, I never hungout with my friends. I never went out on the weekends. I never got food with anyone. I never even wanted to talk to my roommate. I understand how scary the outside world may feel, and how strong the feeling of isolation may be. You are not alone in thinking these things, but as someone who has been through extensive therapy, I can be the first one to tell you that isolation will send you back a few steps, not forward.

It’s hard to put your energy into people, when all of your energy is spent inside your own head. The people who don’t require all of your energy, are the people you need to hold near and dear to your heart. If hanging out with a friend feels like a task, or a challenge, they are not someone you need on your mental health journey. The right people will pick you up when you have a hard time getting out of bed. The right people will fill your cup back up to 100% when you feel like you only have 10% to give.

As I stated above, I understand that you won’t be able to hangout with someone 24/7. Lucky for us, we live in a time where getting in touch with someone is as easy as it is to blink. Facetime, phone calls, texting, Snapchat, etc. are all ways you can keep in contact with people if hanging out is not an option, or if it feels like too big of a task.

Over time you will see how self-involvement with the outside world will make you not want to scream when your alarm goes off in the morning.

2. Gratitude

A lot of people have different ideas of what gratitude may be. Some may think it is self-gratitude, others may think it is gratitude about everything but themselves. Gratitude is EVERYTHING. From the roof over your head, to your physical health, to nature, to people, to school, to work, to your pets, to the stuffed animal you’ve had since you were 1 (may or may not be speaking from experience).

You can truly be grateful about anything you lay your eyes on. Right now, I’m sitting in bed as I’m writing this. By my feet, are my two dogs. To my left is a letterbox my boyfriend gave me, and to my right are my glasses. In front of me sits a tv on my wall surrounded by artwork I bought when I went on a trip to Italy. It’s easy to overlook just how many things you can be grateful for.

Something I use to help myself is a gratitude journal. Everyday I try to write down in my journal one thing I was grateful for that day. It’s a very simple thing that will only take up just 15 seconds of your time, and it’s a very good thing to do before you go to bed at night.

Here are some things I wrote down in my gratitude journal…

• Lily is cancer free! <3 I am grateful she gets to live her life peacefully now on her new medication

• The Luke Combs concert didn’t get rained out

• I dealt with my dissociation periods in a much healthier way and was able to fall asleep

• Text from Thomas: “Hi Ab. I hope you’re feeling a little bit better today. I just wanted to say I love you and I’m proud of you. <3”

Simple enough thing that shines a light on your days!

3. Exercise

Okay. I know. Exercise. Some of you probably want to skip through this one and go right to the next one because the thought of running makes you wanna gag. Let me tell you, I’ve played soccer since I was 6 years old and the thought of running STILL makes me want to gag. So, I’ll keep this one simple and right to the point.

Exercise does not have to be some huge thing that makes you sweat like a crazy person. Exercise can be as simple as taking a walk around your neighborhood, or taking your dog for a walk. The importance of this is that it gets your feet moving and makes you feel physically healthier. It’s a good way to get outside and take nature in for what it is. You may notice some things about your everyday surroundings that you continuously looked over.

And no, you don’t have to do this everyday (although people do walk everyday 🙂)

4. Animals

By far my favorite category and very easy to do. Animals are the BEST form of any therapy. They don’t talk, they don’t judge, and they love you no matter who or what you are. I could be out of the house for 5 minutes and my dogs would still jump on me the second I walked through the door. People don’t do this, just saying…

Animals are special.

If you aren’t an animal person feel free to skip this category. I know animals aren’t everyone’s thing and that’s okay! That’s why there’s more than one self-care technique on this blog 😊

For the people who do love animals, spending just 5 minutes with my dogs makes my day better than it was before. I know a lot of people reading this blog may be in college without their pets, or may not have pets at all. There are a lot of ways to get in touch with animals even in these scenarios.

If you are at school, I know there are a lot of schools that offer animal therapy at a certain time every week. The University of Pittsburgh had Therapy Dog Tuesdays. Every Tuesday at 7:00 a bunch of therapy dogs came to the Pitt Educational Building for people to pet!

Other ways you can get in contact with animals are volunteering, going to a dog park, or even going to a friend's house who have animals.

This is my dog Hank visiting me at Pitt. This day was the happiest I ever was at school because my dad had visited me and surprised me with my dog (this is why #1 is so important).

5. Activities

Getting in touch with the things you love outside of socialization are also very important. For me, I love doing crafty things. I spend my free time painting, drawing, making vision boards, making things out of clay, friendship bracelets, etc. They are all things that come naturally to me, and are easy for me to spend my time focusing on. It’s easy to focus on something you love, rather than the bs going on in your brain.

Watching your favorite movie, practicing a sport you love, shopping, doing your makeup, writing, reading, even doing your homework, are all activities that can get your mind focused on the present moment, which is so so so crucial.

6. Eating Habits & Sleep

I decided to group these things in the same category because they are very simple life fixes that make your overall well-being healthier. If you fill your body with crap, you are going to feel like crap. Crap doesn’t include a trip to Dunkin’ or Starbucks though, just saying. That one gets the crap pass.

It’s easy to understand why your eating habits have a strong effect on your health, but what about your sleep cycle? For a while I didn’t believe that getting a good night’s sleep helped improve your mental health. It wasn’t until my intensive therapy that I realized that sleep and emotional energy were related.

During my time in the IOP, if I didn’t get a good night’s sleep, I couldn’t focus properly on the therapy I needed to do for myself. Once I got on a solid sleep schedule, I was able to get a good night’s rest, and put my energy into my mental health for the day. It truly made all the difference.

I hope in reading this blog, I have given you even a tiny piece of motivation to better yourself. Self-care doesn’t have to be this big thing that requires all of your energy. It could be something as simple as going to Starbucks.

Starbucks will forever & always get the crap pass. 😋