It will help you get through a difficult period and not fall apart.This is a kind of road map that will help you cope with stress, not fall into despair and not lose control if problems pile up. Such a plan should be created by you and especially for you, taking into account your characteristics.
What is it for?
- To better understand yourself and your needs. The process of creating a strategy and then putting it into practice will help you get to know yourself and analyze what you want and what helps you feel better.
- To avoid getting confused in a difficult situation. Everyone has difficult periods: fatigue, breakups, work overload, emotional burnout . At such moments, you don’t understand how to cope with this chaos and not lose your presence of mind. But if you already have a step-by-step plan, then taking control of the situation will be easier.
- To take care of yourself regularly. And learn to support yourself independently. After all, if you do this every day and understand your needs well, then in times of crisis it will be easier for you to calm down and pull yourself together. As they say, “I have me, and we will cope.”
How to Create a Self-Care Plan
Step 1: Remember what helped you before
Analyze your past experiences. Remember what actions helped you feel a little better. These could be breathing exercises, exercise, sleep, watching your favorite movie, talking with loved ones.
Make your own list. Just try not to include anything that can harm your body and psyche: smoking, drinking alcohol, overeating, and so on.
Step 2: Think about what else could help you
Maybe you’ve come across interesting tips, like box breathing , which helps in stressful situations. Or how to organize a three-day sleep marathon and bring yourself back to life after a tough week. Or maybe someone close to you told you that yoga or massage literally saved them. Think of all the ideas that could add peace and joy to your life. Make a separate list of them.
Step 3: Divide your life into spheres
Select those that are important to you so that you can write a separate strategy for each of them. For example:
- Job.
- Relationships with people.
- Body and physical activity.
- Emotional stability .
Step 4: Think of a strategy
For each area, make a list of things you can do to help you feel more stable. Use the ideas you wrote down in the first two steps to do this. Be realistic: everything should be easy to do. Here are some ideas for each area.
Job
- During your lunch break, spend time alone: go for a walk , if possible, find solitude to read a book or just sit in silence.
- Take tasty and filling food to the office, buy aromatic tea or coffee.
- Decorate your workspace a little: bring a plant, photos of loved ones, a beautiful notebook.
- Buy a comfortable back pillow and an anti-stress toy.
- Work in 25-30 minute chunks and take many small breaks instead of one long one.
- Listen to beautiful instrumental music on headphones (if it doesn’t distract you).
- Discuss with your manager the possibility of working from home at least sometimes.
- Delegate some non-urgent tasks or postpone them until better times (if possible).
Relationships with people
- Talk to someone you trust, by phone, video, or in person.
- Get out with a friend to a new interesting place.
- Go visit or invite guests to your place.
- Chat with friends in the chat.
- Seek advice from a psychologist.
- Write about your experiences in a group or on a forum aimed at helping and supporting. Before doing this, pay attention to how other participants respond and think about whether this is right for you.
Body and physical activity
- Go for a run.
- Do some stretching or yoga .
- Take a bath with oils, salt and foam.
- Go to the sauna.
- To dance.
- Have a sleep marathon.
- Go for a massage.
- Go to a good restaurant or cook a delicious dish using a new recipe .
Emotional stability
- Keep a diary.
- Engage in creative activities and handicrafts.
- Watch movies and TV series.
- Light some scented candles and read an interesting book.
- Listen to music.
- Meditate.
- Do breathing exercises.
- Walk.
- Lie down on the sofa.
- Give up the Internet and gadgets for a couple of days.
- Every evening, write down in a notebook five reasons why you are doing great today .
If these ideas don’t suit you, you can choose your own. The main thing is that your list includes activities that fill you with energy and support you.
Step 5: Remember the negative experience
We often try to relieve anxiety with unhealthy activities that don’t provide relief in the long run, but only make us feel worse. Some people smoke or drink alcohol, and then wake up exhausted and with a headache. Others get stuck on their phones, endlessly scrolling through their social media feeds, and as a result, the stress is compounded by a feeling of guilt for wasting time.
Write down all the destructive ways you deal with stress and think about what to replace them with. For example: “I won’t spend all day on social media because it makes me even more tired and stressed. Instead, when I want to unwind, I’ll read a light book or watch a TV series. Here’s a list of things I want to read and watch.”
Step 6: Make a list of trusted people
These can be friends, relatives, good acquaintances, to whom you can turn if you really want to talk. It is important that you trust these people and be sure that they will not criticize you and devalue you.
Step 7: Use the plan
Now you have a large list of activities that will help you get organized, come to your senses, and restore your strength. It is divided into several categories, depending on your personal characteristics. You need to print it out or save it electronically so that you have it at hand. If something unpleasant happens or you just feel tired, you can refer to your plan and quickly figure out what to do.
By the way, such a plan can work not only in crisis situations. Agree with yourself that you will devote at least 30 minutes to self-care every day, and make a note of it in your diary. Psychologists believe that this habit helps you feel more stable, more harmonious, and more resistant to stress.
Personal experience
I haven’t tried to create a full-scale self-care plan, but I have a truncated version: a short list of things that make me feel better and empowered to tackle problems. It includes, for example, journaling. Writing practices help me cope at least a little with sadness, fatigue, burnout, crises, and many other problems.
My list also includes reading, knitting, mint tea, meditation, rubbing my cat’s belly, and, if possible, giving up the internet and gadgets. If I’m not feeling too well and need to get myself together, I just look in my notebook and choose the things that can help me with this right now. And it works.