The Self-Care Chain

Self-care – easier said than done, but always a goal worth striving for.

I heard that today is International Self-Care Day. Of course, self-care needs to be a way of life every day. I realize this, but I still need to improve how I take care of myself.

The following are just eight ways I am working toward my own self-care. These are not in any order of importance, but they form a type of chain, as they all seem interrelated.

Setting up those doctor’s appointments. For awhile now, I had been putting off seeing a doctor for my annual wellness check-up. The truth is, since cancer, I have an aversion to medical personnel and medical procedures. I’ve consistently had annual visits, but this year, a malaise has kept me from doing this.

So, finally, after six months of emotional paralysis, I took the plunge and made the appointment, which is next week. The doctor I’m seeing is the third physician in this practice I will have seen. My hope is waning, as the first two primary care physicians I saw were a poor fit for me. And I’m still missing my previous team of extraordinary doctors who have either retired, gone into concierge medicine, or left for another practice altogether.

Exercise. I’ve been struggling with depression and anxiety, so exercise has fallen off for the past few months. Of course, the lack of exercise could have caused this mental-health struggle in the first place. I finally got in some great work-outs at the gym this week, so I am making progress in my endeavor to keep my body moving. Once I’m at the gym, my mental state improves.

Mental Health. The previous point leads to this one: taking care of my mental health. I see mental health professionals regularly, and this has made all the difference in the world to me.

Staying away from toxic individuals. I absolutely need to do a better job of doing this. I have recently found myself dealing with argumentative people who have become verbally abusive to me. I will be avoiding these people from now on.

Too much focus on social media instead of focusing on me. I’ve been doom scrolling, which contributes to depression and anxiety. I could use my time much better than to be on social media. I have scaled back my time on social media to just a few minutes per day. Surprisingly, this has been easy to do.

Writing in my journal daily. I start the day lighting a candle and writing a journal entry, even if it’s brief. It helps set my mood for the day. What have I been writing about lately? Primarily, setting up doctor’s appointments, exercise, mental health, avoiding toxic individuals, and getting away from social media, as well as my art goals. In fact, this very post was born from a journal entry.

Looking at each day as a reset button. It’s too easy to get mired in the problems of the day. I’m trying to handle bad days with a new-to-me philosophy – if I have a bad day, I get the opportunity to view the next day as a reset.

Art. Dear readers, you know how much I crave creating art – particularly, in my case, drawing and painting. I’ve said before that I have a beginner’s mindset and luckily will never become a master artist. Instead, I’m a curious lifelong learner who is always eager to improve.

That being said, I need to hone my drawing skills, so I registered for two drawing classes, which begin in late August. One class is on basic drawing – think cylinders, cubes, orbs, for example, as well as other drawing exercises. The other course focuses on drawing clothed models from life. I’m excited to be taking these classes. My goal, as always, is to achieve progress, not perfection.

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This week, I created a watercolor painting of two flowers. First I laid down the sketch:

Then I added watercolors:

I’m not in love with this version, and I’m sure I will try this exercise again to see if I can improve color vibrancy, for in real life and in the reference photo, the flowers were heavenly. I believe I’ve been a bit too tentative when approaching watercolor and have been afraid to make the colors too bold too quickly. I played around with the background, moving the brush to and fro.

I’m curious as to how my readers practice self-care. Feel free to answer one or more questions, or even add a discussion of your own.

How do you take care of yourself?

What are you struggling with when it comes to self-care?

What are the types of self-care that you practice?