Flip Your Negative Mindset to Maximize Your Self Care Routine
A negative mindset is something that can sabotage your self care. By changing that, you can maximize the benefits you get from taking care of yourself. Start by letting go of the past.
You can’t change what happened. Whether it was something that you said or did or something that someone else said or did to you, dwelling on it gets you nowhere. All it does it keep you mired in the emotions you felt when the situation occurred.
Just release it. You can simply say, “I let go of__” and then fill in the blank with whatever it was in the past that kept you mired in negativity. Whatever it was, it’s not worth you not taking the best care of you and letting go is a power only you have over the situation.
Release the negativity and stop believing in self defeating thoughts. These are things that you say about yourself that aren’t kind. Negative self talk can limit your belief in yourself – in your ability to achieve success and in how you value yourself.
Set boundaries with negative people. They drain your energy and fill you with stress. You leave their company feeling irritated, upset or mentally wiped out. They always seem to see what’s wrong with the world, with other people, and with you.
By setting boundaries – limiting contact, walking away, or even cutting them off when they begin to spew the negativity, you’re acknowledging that you need to take care of your own needs.
Fill your life with positivity. Engage in things that you enjoy doing. Spend your time involved in whatever relaxes you. Seek out people who are kind and supportive. Let yourself be accountable for the negative mindset.
This might mean facing the truth that your go-to response has been one of negativity. Begin your day by setting the stage so that negativity doesn’t get the first say. You can do this by writing down five things that you’re thankful for.
You can also write down things that you’re looking forward to. If you can’t think of anything you’re looking forward to, that’s a good sign that you’re not practicing self care.
Stop juggling drama that’s not yours.
Sometimes a negative mindset develops because you’re trying to handle everyone else’s emotional drama – your family, your friends and coworkers. You hear the negativity without the resolution, so it leaves things open ended and it’s human nature to want things to work out for the people we care about.
How Helping Others Can Actually Help You Take Care of Yourself
Helping other people by volunteering your time and talents is a way that you can practice self care. By reaching out and giving of yourself, you also gain. When you’re investing in the lives of other people, you’re giving yourself an outlet.
As you go through your day, you experience things that give you stress. These things can also add to your emotional burden and cause you to feel upset, anxious, sad, or even depressed.
When you volunteer, the act of reaching out to other people alleviates your stress. Many studies have shown that people who volunteer have a higher happiness factor than people who don’t.
One theory for the higher happiness level is thought to be because when a person volunteers, he or she has others around that help to combat negative feelings. When you give of yourself to other people, it causes the brain to release endorphins, which instantly improves your mood.
Some of the happiest people on earth are the ones who spend time volunteering and investing in the lives of other people. It can make you happy to see other people happy just because of something you did.
When you volunteer, it takes your mind off whatever negativity is in your life and helps you focus on the positive. When you feel like you’ve done something uplifting for other people, you end up liking yourself better and you view what you’ve done with a feeling of deep satisfaction.
This allows you to feel peace with your life and with who you are. For people who’d like to find ways to embody self care and choose volunteering, this can give them a sense of direction.
It helps them not dwell on the chaos in their own lives and by pouring out their own time and care, they’re getting that back – whether they realize it or not. When you volunteer, you gain a sense of community, which helps you not feel the weight of your own burdens as much.
Plus, it cuts out feelings of loneliness and can help you forge friendships. You reap physical and mental benefits when you volunteer. Your mood improves, your stress dissipates and that helps you feel better physically.
Studies have shown that volunteering can boost self esteem, and help with anxiety among other benefits. Places you can volunteer at include food pantries, animal shelters, nursing homes or with organizations that build or repair homes for the poor or elderly.
How Gardening Can Soothe Your Soul and Your Sanity
Gardening is a great way to not only get in touch with nature, but to practice one of the most soothing forms of self care. Plus, you can grow whatever you like – from flowers to fruits and vegetables.
When you’re digging around in the soil, it gives you an endorphin boosts and your mood lifts. You feel happier and more relaxed. Watching things grow that you planted and nurtured gives you a feeling of having nourished yourself and you’ll be able to see the fruits of your labor.
There’s something positive about sitting outside in the warm, gentle sunshine with the cool soil on your hands. It makes you more aware of yourself and your life. Plus, it helps with the mind, body, and spirit connection.
You’ll feel at peace and the stress just melts away. Digging in the dirt helps bring you back down to earth, to recognize and realize what’s important. It helps you understand that the 101 irritations and the busy life you lead don’t have to weigh you down.
As you’re preparing the soil to accept what you’re planting, you’re letting go of what’s not allowing you to grow freely. It’s a transformation of both plant and person. You gain clarity when you’re gardening.
Whatever it is that you’re trying to figure out is easier to do so when patting a seed down into the hole you’ve just created in the dirt while you listen to the wind dancing through the trees and the birds chirping as they watch you from above.
While your hands are busy, your mind is relaxed and open to ideas. The fretting, the wondering, the worrying that you might normally experience doesn’t stick around when you’re gardening.
The earth and connecting with it reminds you of your own roots – of the person that you are regardless of all the trappings in your life. Gardening allows you to strip away pretense and simply be you. It’s freedom and joy.
When your hands are in the dirt, you’re engaging in the act of creating and building something out of nothing or of stripping away what doesn’t belong. The weeds in the garden are symbolic of the weeds in your own life – those things that crowd around you and choke out the warmth and brightness that you need to flourish.
As you garden, you become more settled within your spirit and you feel a healing that can only come from the earth that you’re connected with. When you’re finished, and you look back over all that you’ve done, you get a sense of accomplishment and know that you’ve given beauty to the area and to yourself.
You’ve created an oasis where you can enjoy nature and you’ve practiced the kind of self care that’s long lasting. Seeing your garden will be a reminder every day to take time to look after yourself.
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