Self-Care

The experience of stress is an opportunity to form good habits and be better at navigating through stress. And persevering through stress helps build connections in our brains to increase our ability to handle complexity. However, we can't always just bite the bullet and brute force our way through stress. There is more to persevering than that. The feeling of stress is a signal our mind or body is telling us about our needs, and we need to acknowledge it and honor it. We can think of stress like hunger, we can only ignore our hunger for so long before we lose our strength. Or, just as training for long-distance running or building strength through weight-lifting involves giving your body a rest to recover and build up muscle, sometimes the appropriate response to stress if to give our minds a break, recover our mental strength (and prevent burnout), and consider what we need in the moment.

    1. When you're feeling stressed, check-in with yourself. Take a moment to name what you're feeling and acknowledge how it's affecting your mind and body.
    2. Ask yourself what you truly need in the moment.
    3. Ask yourself what you need to do, or who can help you with this. If you are feeling fatigued, maybe you need to do a self-care activity such as going for a walk, eating a healthy snack, or prayer.
    4. Be intentional about your self-care activity and the time you set aside for it. For instance, acknowledge that you are fatigued or unbalanced, and set the intention for whatever self-care activity you choose to be about helping you get through stress and recover your mental strength or finding your balance.