SELF CARE… Taking care of YOU.
My Response Art to a Mindful Moment & Art Directive Lead by Expressive Arts Therapist Cathy Malchiodi.
Self-Care Considerations.
• being aware
• being present
• taking time for you
• connecting with your supports (friends, family)
• relaxing... breathing... reflecting
• balancing your lifestyle... sleep, diet, exercise etc.
• pursuing interests and creativity
• asking for help when you need to
“Addressing the needs of our bodies, generating compassionate thoughts, and acknowledging our emotional and spiritual yearnings are nonnegotiable for a life of intention and fullness.”
• Have you thought about your self-care routine much lately?
• Have you noticed the need for more self-care throughout the pandemic?
Honouring “Where You are At”…
• honour… “where you are at” - at this moment in time
• acknowledge… “what is your emotional bandwidth?” and try not to take on more
• release… expectations and judgement around what you should or shouldn’t be doing
• be kind… this is a practice you are developing and it takes time
• witness… your self-care activities through a very compassionate and understanding lens
• value process… you are “a work-in-progress” when it comes to taking personal time for self-care and small steps in this direction have huge impact on your sense of wellbeing
• be gentle… as you remind yourself to take care of ‘You’
Self-Care Links.
Quick List - Expanded Upon Below.
• Using Art Therapy For Your Own Self-Care • retrieved from ART THERAPY RESOURCES. www.arttherapyresources.com.au
• Self-Care Checkup • retrieved from www.positivepsychology.com
• How to Create your Own Personalized Self-Care Plan • retrieved from www.distresscentre.com
• Self-Care Wheel and Self-Care Tools. retrieved from OlgaPhoenix.com.
• Psychological First Aid for Frontline Health Care Providers. retrieved from www.CPA.ca.
• The Self-Care Toolkit. retrieved from www.SocialWorkManager.org.
Self-Care Suggestions.
• Lisa Gignac shares: “I often use music as self-care and to evoke imagination for art making. This video is of my dear friend and guitar teacher, Bahar, its distinct Persian sound transports me and stirs my imagination. Like imagery, music is a universal language that reminds us of our common humanity. It brings me hope and joy”.
• Saba Rizvi shares the amazing benefits and reasons to create for self-care in Ten Reasons to Create’ : “Art is my form of meditation. I am able to release my worldly stresses and just focus on the task at hand. I can feel the weight of the world releasing off my shoulders the more I indulge in my art. Over time, I can feel my mind relaxing and the physical knots in my body loosening. In fact, creating art has been scientifically proven to help improve symptoms in mental health and chronic pain patients”
• Kala Lacy in her article; ‘A Therapist’s Case for Rethinking the Self-Care Culture’ reminds everyone that self-care begins with self-awareness and personal connection located within us, not just performative or located solely externally (such as a particular product or service), stating “Without a foundation of deep and intimate self-awareness, self-care becomes a Band-Aid.” (Retrieved from: www. radianthealthmag.com)
• Suzanne Thompson provides meditative moments for self-care through her guided visualization in this video; one body, one breath, one moment: Create a Pinch Pot to the Rhythm of Breath - “explore breathing low and slow with clay”
Self-Care Checkup. From PositivePsychology.com.
This Self-Care Checkup through the checklists and questions posed, prompts us to reflect upon how often and how frequent we engage in self-care activities. It explores our self-care habits in relation to 5 important life domains.
“Becoming aware of how often, or how well, we practice self-care activities can help us identify areas we are neglecting and improve upon them for better mental health.”
Image Created in Response to the Sense of Community Connection I was feeling in 2020 as I began to Participate more in Virtual Art Therapy Webinars .
How to Create Your Own Personalized Self-Care Plan. From DistressCentre.com.
On the Calgary Distress Centre’s website there is a blog post with guide suggesting how to customize your plan into areas or categories such as mind, body, and spirit or physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Self-care template can be printed from here.
“Self-care goes hand-in-hand with developing a community of care. Both contribute to the health and wellbeing of individuals and society as a whole and both allow people to have increased capacity to support others.”
Self-Care Wheel and Self-Care Tools. From OlgaPhoenix.com.
These self care tools are available free for personal use with 88 activities to support emotional resilience. Developed by Olga Phoenix: Olga Phoenix Project: Healing for Social Change. Copyright and other information provided on website. Self Care Wheel + Create Your Own Self Care Wheel template + Self Care Wheel Assessment • download from website here.
“For ideas on how to self-care, find your life purpose, and build support groups, check out my Self Care Wheel-the tool containing 88 activities to build up your emotional resilience in these challenging times.”
PDF Image Credit: Shared with Consent from Olga Phoenix.
Psychological First Aid for Frontline Health Care Providers. From CPA.ca.
This wellness workbook provides resources around self-care during the pandemic. The comprehensive and engaging booklet was created by Dr. Mélanie Joanisse, C.Psych. • Clinical and Health Psychologist. PDF can be downloaded here from the Canadian Psychological Association’s website.
“While there is a plethora of excellent resources out there, the idea was to create a short, “one-stop shop,” workbook that can serve as a stepping stone to other more comprehensive resources..”
The Self-Care Toolkit. From SocialWorkManager.org.
The Self-Care Toolkit developed by Psychologist Sean Goldberg provides healthy coping strategies for those in the care field and can be downloaded here. He emphasizes the value of self-awareness, assessment and self-care and defines the terms burnout, vicarious trauma, and compassion fatigue.
“The fundamental reason for working in our field is a desire to help others. The motivation to help others is altruistic and requires a high level of empathy. However, it is that empathic response that creates the greatest risk and vulnerability to stress, burnout, vicarious trauma and/or compassion fatigue.”
Sharing Other Art & Self-Care Stories from the ‘AP Connections Blog’.
• Sharing Summer Skies - Andrea & Kellie share nature self care moments captured through the camera lens.
• Heather’s Miniatures - Heather describes just how needed her painting was for self-care during the stress of the pandemic in 2020.
• Lisa’s Gratitude Journal + Loving Kindness - Lisa shares her journaling for therapist self-care.
• The Maggie Kat Connection - Maggie Kat writes about the value of making art in the early stages of the pandemic.
• Michelle’s Masks Off Series - Michelle shares connecting with her family through the arts for self-care in the pandemic
• Saba’s Ten Reasons to Create - Saba shares the amazing benefits and reasons to create for self-care
• Reflections OATA 2021. Group Supervision and Reflections from the OATA 2020 AGM and Virtual Retreat. - Susan and I share reflections from two OATA experiential workshops where the benefits of in-progress and ongoing art making supports the self and where mindful moments and meditations were explored in community.
Do you have any self-care resources to share? Please reach out and let me know here.
Hopefully this post and some of these resources can remind you to care of YOU!
