Here are a few self-care practices that can help us stay empowered and resilient in this current climate.

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

-Audre Lorde

As we enter a new year, we are flooded with all of the ways we should be doing self-care. In reality, ‘self-care’ is more than hot baths, lit candles, and facemasks. While those are all fantastic and make us feel great in the moment, there are deeper and more direct ways we can use “self-care” in a radical way to aid us in times of political unrest. Over the course of the last year, we have had to fight back against waves of misogyny, racism, homophobia, and transphobia throughout the election cycle and the fight for freedom only continues.

In order for us to continue to be advocates for our communities, we should try to give the same amount of dedicated attention to ourselves. By creating a personal tool belt for yourself that provides quick and accessible methods of practicing self-care is something that can become a real part of our lives and heal us deeper over time. They become a muscle that we strengthen each time we use it and gradually become a reflex we do not have to even think about. 

Boundaries

The first tool is creating and setting personal boundaries. While this might seem unrelated to self-care, it is one of the most healing acts we can do for ourselves. Creating and setting firm boundaries, we are rising against the current oppressive system that feeds on exploitation and overworking individuals. This type of system erases personal autonomy and is extremely emotionally taxing on our minds. Without boundaries, it becomes easier for us to be taken advantage of through many facets of our lives–jobs, friends, relationships, family, etc. As women, femmes, and especially women of color, we are conditioned to accommodate the world around us for our own safety while our own wants and needs are pushed to the side and often overlooked completely. Boundaries prioritize YOU and your well-being and safety, allowing us to have healthier relationships with those around us. 

How: 

Ask yourself your personal wants and needs that are unapologetically for your own peace and happiness. That can be in a job, relationship, or within facets of your daily life. Once you establish what you need, you can begin to more easily communicate those boundaries to others.

Begin to set personal limits on things that can become tiring and stressful. Working extra hard on a project or spending time with loved ones is always rewarding, but there can become a point where it starts to wear down on you and can lead to burnout. You are more than a cog in a machine that has endless hours of labor to give. By being intentional with our time, we can make space for ourselves and continue our passions and activities.

Practicing saying “no”! This is a challenging task for a lot of us who feel the need to ‘people please’ and never feel like we are letting others down, but saying NO to things that you do NOT want to do is an act of empowerment that helps build our esteem and self-value. We can learn to reframe our thinking of saying “no” to really be saying “yes” to ourselves and what we value as individuals.

Intentional Rest

Rest. This might sound counterproductive, but it is the complete opposite. We are living in a world that is a constant stream of content, noise, ideas, and technology; it can feel impossible to take a rest without the judgment that we are “lazy” or not “grinding” as hard as others. The problem with this ‘grind’ focused mentality is that it quickly leads to burnout. Rest is a powerful tool we can use to heal this year. Leisure is something our capitalistic society tries to diminish to keep us in a constant state of production. We can use rest as a defiance against these systems of exploitation and labor by taking time to not be productive and not allowing corporations to profit off of our exhaustion. Our brains were not designed to be productive for an endless amount of time. Deliberate rest is a form of productivity that allows us to come back with more mental clarity, energy, and improve our general well-being to be better. 

How: 

The first way we can incorporate rest is by simply prioritizing the sleep we get at night.By gradually increasing our sleep per night to 7-9 hours, we set ourselves up for a higher quality day. Another form of rest is spending time outside, disconnected from our phones. Even a 10 to 30-minute walk outside can greatly help our minds reboot and get a mental break. On days off, it can feel hard not to be productive in some capacity when the time feels limited, but on these days, it can be beneficial to take a day off– have a slow morning, spend time stretching, nap, and pause for the day. Your body, mind, and soul will thank you for the time you take. 

Gratitude & Reflection

Another tool of self-care we can incorporate into our daily practices is cultivating gratitude and reflection. We can easily get caught up in our day-to-day tasks and the current global issues and lose sight of what we have right in front of us. Acknowledging the abundance of incredible things we have now can begin to help shift our perspective from a negative one to one that is not only positive but powerful. 

How:

Meditation is a way we can incorporate this tool into our daily lives. Many might hear ‘meditation’ and disregard it as boring and time-consuming, but that is not the case! There are various forms of meditation that can cater to your preferences and lifestyle, such as mindfulness, mantras, guided meditation, and more. If you are someone on-the-go, a way to practice can be taking 1 to 5 minutes anywhere in your day to close your eyes, breathe, and sit presently in the moment. That is your moment in time to be completely and unapologetically alive. This is a great time to reflect and list the things you are grateful for. It could be the coffee you had earlier, a book you love, or how incredibly strong your body & mind is. There is no right or wrong!

Skills & Hobbies 

Our self-care tools can expand beyond our minds and bodies and be directed into something more tangible. Learning a new skill or developing a new hobby is a way to fuel our creativity but also release energy in a way that is rewarding and exciting. The joy of creation comes from the act itself and not always the end product. There are no “perfect” outcomes to focus on or amount of productivity to be satisfied, it’s meant to feel enjoyable! There are also countless benefits to challenging our minds by learning something new, like increasing dopamine, building connections between neurons, helping our brains retain information, and more. There are many ways to incorporate leaving a new skill or hobby that do not take endless hours or cost money and can help you continue to create a fulfilling life.

How:

There are ENDLESS skills one can learn or acquire and equally endless hobbies to pursue. Knitting, coloring, baking, language, puzzles, and painting are just a handful of the plethora of ideas to try. It can feel overwhelming at first and we often want to give up the first time we try something, and it is not “perfect” (Fun fact: perfect doesn't exist!). Certain skills or hobbies can be more time-consuming than others, but finding what makes your heart full is what matters most. This can look like winding down your evening by coloring or painting while watching a show. It can also look like taking a dedicated hour to practice and fail and practice more! Or trying a new dinner recipe that you might have steered away from before thinking it was “too challenging.” By engaging our brains in mentally stimulating ways, such as learning, we increase our self-esteem and become more equipped to handle other challenging tasks that we face daily and simply have fun without the external pressures of capitalism.