What does genuine self-care mean, beyond the buzzword? Do you feel selfish or nervous to commit to practicing self-care in your daily life? Do you know what you need to feel grounded when anxiety comes up?

Contrary to what most people think, self-care is one of the best things you can do for others – not just yourself. By taking care of yourself, and regulating your mental, physical, and emotional health, you inherently make the world a better place.

There’s a reason they say to put your own oxygen mask on first before helping someone else with theirs. You are better able to love, care, and partake in life when you love, care, and look after yourself.

In This Episode:

· What Self-Care Means

· Let Go of Toxic Self-Care

· Savour the Little Things

· It’s All Self-Care!

What Self-Care Means
Sometimes, people feel like practicing self-care means that they are selfish, or not concerned with others. This could not be further from the truth!

When you care for yourself, not only are you creating a better life for yourself and your loved ones, but you also show them that standing up for what you need and want is safe and important to do.

In a way, practicing self-care is one of the best things that you can do for those around you. It’s like putting on your own oxygen mask on a plane, before helping anyone else with theirs.

Let Go of Toxic Self-Care
Toxic self-care tells you that you need to be doing more self care activities, or that you aren’t doing enough, trying hard enough, or doing it right.

This often happens in the workplace where employers expect their employees to put in near-inhumane hours to get the job done, with no regard to its effect on the employees’ health and wellness. And then they blame the employee for not taking care of themself and disregard the unethical business practices.

Self-care can be about joining a worthy cause, lending your voice to a general issue that needs to be solved within the community, or even joining a union. Self-care can extend beyond yourself, and encompass those around you so that self-care develops into community care.

Savour the Little Things
We call them little things, but they’re huge things!

Enjoy your breakfast. Look at the sky, call a friend or loved one, and take a slow walk in nature. These are small things that you can do and when you’re fully present in doing them, they can bring you peace, calmness, and a sense of ease.

Little things might also be talking to your financial advisor, looking up courses for a skill you want to learn, and developing yourself. You can be proactive in reducing anxiety, rather than having to deal with it when it comes around.

What are some small things that you can do in your life that can help you to feel less stressed?

It’s All Self-Care!

Learning how to figure out and overcome your anxiety is all grounded in learning how to care about yourself. You can learn to become aware of your body, your mind, and when you need to make changes to bring yourself back to a place of calmness.

It’s an act of self-care to figure out why anxiety is present, whether it’s from personal things, relationships, or societal issues, and to take a stance against it, in favour of yourself and therefore those around you.

Resources Mentioned and Useful Links:

Ep 04: How to Deepen Your Relationships Without Anxiety Undoing Them

Book an appointment with Jane or Julia at www.insightmentalhealth.ca

Read our blog about anxiety 

Our relationships with the people in our lives are cornerstones of our success, happiness, and wholeness. To care for our relationships means to care for ourselves, and that means to care for how we feel, which can definitely include anxiety.

If you experience anxiety often, or you have struggled with anxiety interfering with your relationships, then this episode is for you.

Here, we discuss what you can do to strengthen and support your relationships while you learn to manage anxiety so that it doesn’t cause you or your loved ones any trouble.

In This Episode:

· How the Nervous System Reacts

· Learn About Your Body

· Don’t Blame it On the Anxiety

· Reclaim Your Power

How the Nervous System Reacts
A partner may say something offhandedly and it could flare up a response in their partner. Or, someone might misinterpret the words or actions of their partner as being malicious when it was a simple but hurtful misunderstanding.

Our nervous system doesn’t know the difference between real or imagined danger and will react the same in both situations. So, even if your partner didn’t mean to trigger you, you may respond as if it was an intentional misdoing.

Learn About Your Body
One of the first steps to unravelling the tension that unchecked anxiety in relationships can cause is to get better at identifying when it’s present within your body.

Do you feel a tension in your stomach, tight shoulders or throat, or an urge to leave the room? Do you get aggressive, frustrated, or quickly aggravated?

Knowing these signs and understanding that they come from an activated nervous system will help you to know when you need to step back and self-regulate for a while.

Don’t Blame it On the Anxiety
Even though anxiety can feel overpowering at times, at the end of the day – no matter how strong the anxiety feels – you are the one that makes the choices you make.

Blaming your reactions or decisions on anxiety can give context to the situation, however, by also not taking accountability for your actions,  it may harm your relationships because not taking responsibility can be detrimental to relationships.

Reclaim Your Power
So, learning how to stand up to anxiety and not allow it to have full control is a necessary and doable step!

Do you react powerfully to the presence of anxiety? Take a big, deep breath. Another. Bring yourself back, think for a few seconds, and feel grounded in your body again before you take action.

Do you avoid life when anxiety is present? Try to engage with it, even gently. Take small steps toward the goal of managing your anxiety enough so that you can engage more with the world and the life that you want to experience.

You can take steps toward building and enjoying the life that you want without feeling anxiety tugging you around. It is possible, and help is ready for you when you need it! 

Resources Mentioned and Useful Links:

Ep 03: How to Stand Up to Anxiety

Book an appointment with Jane or Julia at www.insightmentalhealth.ca

Read our blog about anxiety 

Anxiety can make it hard to enjoy life. However, you can overcome anxiety and reduce its effects by learning how to stand up to it!

Even though different people experience anxiety at varying intervals and intensities, there is no one correct way to deal with it. You can create your own toolkit and plan – like a fire drill that protects people – which you can use if you begin to experience anxiety.

In This Episode:

· Be Prepared

· Refocus with a Visual

· You Can Handle Anxiety

· Connect with a Loved One

· Seek Help from a Professional

Be Prepared

Consider fire drills. You don’t wait for there to be an emergency before you decide what to do, you plan for the emergency before it happens so that you are better prepared in case it does.

So, if you know that you sometimes experience anxiety, it’s a good idea to come up with a plan on how to bring yourself back to a place and feeling of safety when you are not in that anxious state.

Plan to make your anxiety plan when the anxiety is not present – when the building is not on fire! And you can practice your plan, the same as you do with a fire drill, so that you know what you can do to bring yourself back to a sense of calmness and safety.

Refocus with a Visual

Another way to overcome and reduce anxiety is to use the power of visualisation. Imagine you are on the beach, in a forest, or place that makes you feel safe, refreshed, and calm.

Let the image of this come into your mind and imagine yourself there because that mental shift can be strong enough to help bring you back from the anxious edge.

You Can Handle Anxiety

There may be moments in your life where anxiety is present, and it may not go away, even with coping strategies or tools.

However, the goal is not necessarily to eradicate anxiety, but rather to equip and prepare yourself enough so that when you do feel anxious, you can keep yourself calm enough to navigate the situation until it’s over.

Connect with a Loved One

You do not have to bear the burden alone.

If you are experiencing an anxious moment, you can reach out to a trusted friend or family member and ask them if you can speak with them for a while.

Seek Help from a Professional

You can always find professional, trained, and empathic help from a Halifax therapist that has experience and education around helping people with anxiety.

Taking a step towards ensuring your mental health remains at its best is a great way you can give yourself love and support, too. You can always seek help, and it makes you stronger, not weaker, in doing so.

Resources Mentioned and Useful Links:

Ep 02: How it Shows Up

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Book an appointment with Jane or Julia at www.insightmentalhealth.ca

Read our blog about anxiety