Taking Care Manifesto — Natural Health Blog

I am going to be posting a little more frequently to help support you (and me) through this time. I am naturally more of hands-on person so this is a bit of a change for me. Understandably there is a lot of fear of the known and unknown around at the moment. This makes us very feel uncertain, unsettled, unbalanced and worried - so this is a very important time to keep ourselves emotionally balanced in anyway we can.

So my first little tip is to make a Daily Taking Care Manifesto, call it what you like, something that resonates with you. This is to help you cope with what is going on at the moment in your daily lives. Little actions that will make up your day. Think about what is important to you to keep you emotionally balanced and calm, what you need and what you don’t need. Keep it simple, over achievable and fun and focus on the good stuff. It is not a giant to do list! Whatever your circumstances, whether you live alone, have now got a household full, your work has paused, you are self-isolating - make your manifesto and do it while you are feeling good and positive. Make a poster, write on it, draw on it, add to it and change it when you need to. Stick it on a wall where you can see it everyday and check in with it for those times when you are having a wobble and do one of the things on it. You will be helping yourself. Here a few examples

smile
be grateful for 3 things on waking
dance whenever a good song comes onto the radio, stretch, bend, exercise
look in the mirror and tell yourself out loud you love you multiple times a day (huge for the immune system) and noone will see!
do/watch things that make you laugh
listen to your favourite radio programme/podcast
limit energy zapping behaviour - set your own boundaries eg limit how many times you listen/watch the news per day/spend online..
do something productive/creative/helpful
stop and actively rest -this is mentally tiring time - so if you need to - lie down for 10 minutes, do deep belly breaths and visualise tension dropping away and do absolutely nothing
have a coffee outside in nature
sign up to a personalised online wellbeing session (with me! very exciting - details in next post) or a yoga/meditation/singing/what you want to learn class
connect
think of three nice things that happened today
check in with your feelings and express them - write them down in a diary, tell your friends/family/pets. And importantly be a conscious listener when they are telling you their feelings. This means just really listen to them so they feel heard and validated.

Get creative! Make it really personal. Keep balanced and sending you a virtual hug.

Please be kind to yourself and others and do the right thing XX

Many thanks to Cornish illustrator Becky Thorns for use of her lovely illustration.