Self-Care is the Ultimate Challenge

I think that in my brain, there’s an automatic setting that tells me to reach for my phone first thing in the morning. I know I shouldn’t. The first thing that you see when you open your eyes should not be the latest scandal on Twitter or a stressful work email. Unless it’s the kind of work email that says you don’t have to go to work, which it almost never is. Mornings are a quiet time when we can privately commune with the universe, ourselves and God before entering the chaos of the world.  I know this, but my left hand still has to wrestle my phone out of the right. Because damn it, self-care is hard!Self-Care is Every DayInstead of rolling around in bed, I roll out my yoga mat. And no, I have not trained my 6 A.M. brain to love yoga oversleep. I am NOT a morning person. I just know that if I want to have a good day, I can not start it defeated. I have to fight for my good day even more vehemently because of my experiences with anxiety and depression. I have to push myself to act. And it ain’t easy!It’s pretty easy to get the impression that self-care is something that is only done occasionally with a mud mask and some nail polish, but that’s not the reality of how we heal as individuals. The reality is that you have to put in work DAILY if you want to see improvements in your mental health. Why wait until you’re feeling down to pick yourself up? Don’t you deserve to be treated well on a daily basis? Invest in yourself daily and you will feel the benefits.How do we make self-care daily?Reminders All throughout college, a neon orange post-it note was taped near the track pad on my laptop. It said, “Don’t forget to smile”. No amount of cold-hearted cynicism (of which I can have in bucketfuls depending on my mental space) could stop me from smiling when I read that post it and saw the crooked smiley face that I’d drawn beneath. I wasn’t ashamed to let others see this reminder. Daily, I dared myself to find one positive thing that could bring a smile to my face. Sometimes I had to smile before the positive thought even came to me. It was as if just by using those facial muscles, my mind was able to conjure up the last time that it felt worthy of that smile and then I really had something to smile about. It was a small thing, but one thing that I really want to stress is that recovery is made up of small victories. Never discount a small action that can lift your mood even a little bit.  In the depths of depression and anxiety, these little things got me through the day. Keep some basic practices in mindHave a few basic practices that you can do anywhere at any time to bring your mind back to a peaceful place. I recommended a few grounding exercises that you can pull out pretty easily when you need them in an older post. Another great way to practice self-care wherever is mindfulness. When you’re brushing your teeth, concentrate on the minty, bristly feeling you get. Be present for that feeling. When you’re driving, feel the way that your fingers feel on the steering wheel. This can be done literally anywhere.Have an end to your daySometimes, (usually at 1 AM when I’m Hamilton-style writing like it's going out of style), I think to myself “Your day ends when you’ve given your dreams 100% for the day.” It sounds so good, doesn’t it? You know what my dreams really want? For me to go to sleep so that my brain can recharge and I’ll be in a better position to take care of myself the next day. It’s important that there is a determined end to your day. Yes, I’m talking about a grown up bedtime. Whatever it is that you’re doing late at night, whether it’s work or family related, can be done even better with a rested mind. What’s the hardest part of self-care for you? Please share below!