So, you’ve been taking time out every day to focus on your self-care. You’re now eating well, moving your body, drinking lots more water, getting enough rest and even having regular pampering treatments.
You’re now feeling healthier than you’ve done in a long time and you’re looking and feeling great. But there’s a part of your self-care that also needs some attention – your mental and emotional self-care.
Self-care isn’t just about pampering and paying attention to your physical body, that’s only half the story. Self-care includes taking care of your mind and emotions too.
Feeding your mind with good and nourishing things is just as important as feeding your body with healthy, nourishing foods. Your thoughts create your feelings which lead to the actions you take.
The two main ways we feed our mind is through what we see and hear. So how we spend our time and who we spend it with are important factors in mental and emotional self-care.
Consider these four things
- Who are you spending your time with? What conversations are you having? Do you feel uplifted and energised?
- What are you watching on TV, at the cinema, on your laptop, iPad or mobile? How do you feel afterwards?
- What are you listening to on the radio, TV, mobile or iPad? Is it positive and motivational or is it negative and uninspiring?
- Is what you are feeding your mind uplifting you emotionally and mentally?
To have good thoughts and feelings you need to make good choices about who you spend your time with and how you spend it. There are many situations when you don’t have a choice about who is around you and what you hear. But when you do have a choice, keep in mind the quality of what you are feeding your mind. Reducing the time you spend in negative environments will have a positive effect on you. Start putting mental and emotional self-care on your to-do list.
Five self-care actions for your mind
- Be mindful of what you watch, read and listen to. Recognise how you feel and make the decision to make changes if it feels negative.
- Spend time in nature. Spend time in the garden, go to a park, a beach or somewhere similar. Just being in nature will change the way you feel in a positive way.
- Surround yourself with positive people. Soak up the positive energy they give off and you will have a more positive outlook too. I’m planning an online group mentoring programme, similar to the in-person workshops that I’ve run in the past. These are great places to meet with like-minded people. Use the button below to get in touch if you would like more details.
- Have a social media detox day. Find more productive ways to spend your time for a day.
- Book a holistic treatment. Crystal therapy, reiki and sound therapy are all great therapies to help increase your vibrational energy and give you feel-good feelings.
The saying you are what you eat relates to your food intake and your physical body. What you feed your mind also creates who you are.
Getting started
It all starts with you, so why not start practising mental self-care by being mindful of the things you feed your mind. A good place to start is to have a Calm and Clarity Call with me.
These tailored sessions are designed to help you get clarity on what support you need and then I will show you skills and techniques that you can use straight away to better manage your mindset and emotions when dealing with situations that are causing you to feel overwhelmed.
By the end of your 60-minute online session, you will have an action plan to move you forward with confidence.
Find out more here Calm and Clarity
Take a look at my book, Self-care for Busy Women. It’s full of hints, tips, checklists and trackers and will show you how spending just a few minutes each day focusing on your mental, emotional and physical health can have a big influence on your mindset and well-being. You’ll also be able to create your own 28-day self-care plan that fits seamlessly into your busy lifestyle.
About Sharon
Sharon lives with her partner, Geoff, in Warwickshire and they have two adult children. She worked for over 25 years in an office environment, gaining qualifications to degree level in finance, business and management. While there Sharon witnessed and experienced many stressful situations and suffered illnesses which were stress-related.
Sharon was advised to make some changes to her lifestyle which included trying complementary therapies. After experiencing the benefits of complementary treatments, Sharon decided to retrain and to share her knowledge and experiences to help others recognise and manage their own physical and emotional stress and anxiety levels.
She has been working as a complementary therapist for over 15 years now and loves helping people manage and reduce their stress levels to feel uplifted, focused, positive and empowered about their lives.
