Many people view self-care practices as a luxury versus a priority. Taking care of ourselves should be just as important as anything else. It’s not only about pampering and relaxing. Self-care practices are for promoting better health and general wellbeing. There are self-care practices for every aspect of your life! There are practices to address your physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual health.

Physical Self-Care

Physical self-care is all about your body. It’s about making sure that the physical needs you have are being met. Physical needs can include sleep and diet habits. You should be asking yourself if you’re getting enough sleep or if you’re eating enough. Up until 2020, I really struggled with this. I wasn’t sleeping very much or eating well at all and my depression began to spiral. I was feeling stuck and I knew something had to change. Honestly, I just wanted to feel better. Now I eat better and I make sure to take care of myself though some days are still hard.

Mental Self-Care

Next, we’ll talk about your mental health. Mental health self-care practices involve keeping your brain active and staying healthy mentally. Practices for mental self-care can include doing puzzles, reading a book or even learning about something you’re interested in but it doesn’t stop there. You can practice mental self-care by also practicing self-love, self-gratitude and acceptance of yourself. When you are kinder to yourself, you can cultivate an inner dialogue that is healthier for you in the long run. Practicing self-love and acceptance is one of the best things I’ve ever taught myself to do. I don’t have as many negative thoughts about myself and I’m so much happier with who I am because of it.

Emotional Self-Care

Emotional self-care allows you become better aware of the emotions that you are feeling. It teaches you how to deal with emotions like anger or sadness with healthy coping skills versus trying to bottle it all up. You should be able to freely express and acknowledge the emotions that you feel. When you’re feeling emotions that make you feel uncomfortable, you should try talking to someone you trust. You can even try setting time aside for you to process your emotions and how they make you feel.

Social Self-Care

Believe it or not, socializing is actually great for your mental health. It’s also a critical part of self-care. While it is a critical piece, sometimes life gets crazy and you find yourself neglecting the important relationships in your life. Having close and intimate connections is vital to your overall wellbeing so you should be sure to care for them. The only way to ensure that you are taking care of these relationships is by putting time and effort into them. Unfortunately, remembering to take care of my close relationships is not exactly my strong suit. Before, I used to go weeks without speaking to many of my friends because I was in such a bad place but now I know when I’m feeling that way, that my friends and family are the people I should be reaching out to.

Spiritual Self-Care

Spiritual self-care involves nurturing your spirit. I know a lot of people see the world spiritual and automatically assume it’s about religion but what I’m talking about is not. Nurturing your spirit allows you the ability to develop a deeper sense of meaning, understanding, or connection with the universe and those who inhabit it. Practices for spiritual self-care can include activities such as meditation. I don’t personally practice spiritual self-care but it can certainly be good for you.

Self-care is so important. It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity and we should all be practicing it. Please remember to take care of yourself because someone isn’t always going to be there to do it for you.

Check out Psychology Today‘s post Self-Care: 12 Ways To Take Better Care Of Yourself to learn how to improve your overall wellbeing!

Also read my post Things That Are Actually Self-Care But Seem Rude right here on TurningPointCT.org! 🙂

It has been so hard to feel connected during COVID, so your peers at TurningPointCT have introduced a new series of FREE Teen and Young Adult Social Events! We currently have one event a month, happening every 3rd Thursday at 5pm. Feel free to drop-in and say hi or stay for the full hour.

To RSVP and receive the Zoom link, register HERE.

GROUP:

• Book Club
  • EVERY 3rd Thursday of the month at 5PM on Zoom!
  • Our goal is to connect young people in CT who share a passion for reading.
  • Open to anyone in Connecticut ages 13-29.

Upcoming meetings:

• July 15th – “The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma” by Bessel van der Kolk
• August 19th – “Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents” by Lindsay C. Gibson
• September 16th – “The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment” – Eckhart Tolle

Have any questions? Email Kailey: kmarcaurele@positivedirections.org

Hi guys! I have something exciting to share with you guys!
On July 20th (a week from Saturday!!) from 11-4 there will be a fundraiser at O’Neill’s Irish Pub and Restaurant in Norwalk, CT. That fundraiser will benefit us!

Jimmy Booth (a very active and caring Norwalk local) has held this fundraiser for 8 years. This year he will support TurningPointCT.org!! Amazing, right?!
We are so excited.

Jimmy will be at the pub with some supporters running a marathon on a treadmill. This is all to raise awareness for young people’s mental health! There’s also going to be a raffle and 15% of the proceeds from all food and drinks bought that day will go towards our fundraising!!
That means if you are near Norwalk and want to support us, there are many ways to do it (even it just means buying some food).
I hope some of you can come and help us spread the word!!

Check out the event on eventbrite or facebook!

What is your dream job? Remember in elementary school when someone asked what you wanted to be and nothing held you back? Lawyer, astronaut, president, doctor, princess, firefighter; anything seemed possible at that time in our lives.
All throughout middle school and the beginning of high school, I used to dream about being a pediatric oncologist. Then, I slowly but surely stopped believing in myself. I convinced myself that that was not possible. I told myself I wasn’t smart enough, didn’t have enough time or money for school, wasn’t good at school, etc.
So, what is you REAL dream job? Is it still your goal? If not, why?
What’s holding you back from reaching your dreams?

If you had the ability to choose what job you could have, even if you could create your desired position from scratch, what would you guys want to be and why?

Seeing as how we are constantly evolving as human beings, the ideas we possess often change as well. I know for me, what I wanted to grow up to be when I was a child had changed so many times I had lost count. Of all the things that I had once desired for myself to become, I can recall that being an “animal doctor” was the very first thing that my young heart desired. I longed to be able to take care of cute puppies and fluffy things all day long. That was until I discovered that the real name for that position was veterinarian and I could not properly pronounce that in kindergarten. Among that, there was also the desire to become a teacher, an author, a marine biologist (which I only wanted to be because it sounded very professional but I quickly got over that when I realized I’d most likely have to go in the ocean), and others I can’t even recall to this day. Of those things though, I am very glad I am now none of them. I wouldn’t trade the job I have now at Advocacy Unlimited for any of those, because I understand that I am truly making an impact on other people’s lives. What kinds of crazy things did you want to grow up to be when you were a child?

I took my boyfriend’s sister out for her birthday on Monday and we decided to stop in one of those shops that sells interesting gifts, knick knacks, and those hilariously inappropriate cards. We came across a journal that was a bit crude, so naturally I was curious to read it. It was called the F*** it journal. It is optimistically pessimistic because it gives you 100 writing prompts to write 1,000 things you know you will never accomplish/obtain in your life.
For example: Sure, I would love to be Queen of England someday, but I know that will never happen. My boyfriend might treat me like a queen, so that’s good enough for me! So for those who hate to make bucket lists because they know the list is too “out there” to actually finish, this journal is for you!

We both got the journal and we are giving each other a year to finish the prompts and then on her birthday next year, we will read each other’s journals.

It gives us time to truly think about our wants and what is realistic for us to accomplish in our life. Also, it gives me a chance to prove to myself that maybe I can actually do something that I put on the F*** it journal I didn’t think I could do.
Let’s see, maybe I will win the Nobel Peace prize or have a pet lion?!

I have an awful time setting goals that are way over my head, so this is actually a very good grounding tool to bring me back to the present and come up with realistic expectations for myself. Plus it’s fun and I will get to learn even more about my “sister from another mister!” Maybe you will consider doing this journal challenge with someone close and will have to a chance to read their journal too?