How to make a self-care plan

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

It will help to overcome a difficult period and not unstuck.

What is and what a self-care plan is for

This is a roadmap to help you cope with stress, avoid despair and lose control if problems are piling 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 very process of drawing up a strategy, and then putting it into practice, will help you get to know yourself and analyze what you want and what makes you feel better.
• In order not to get lost in a difficult situation. Everyone has difficult periods: fatigue, breakdown of relationships, blockage at work, emotional burnout. At such moments, you do not understand how to cope with this chaos and not lose your presence of mind. But if you already have a ready-made step-by-step plan, then it will become easier to take control of the situation.
• To take care of yourself regularly. And learn to support yourself on your own. 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 get yourself together. As the saying goes, "I have me and we can handle it."

How to make a self-care plan

Step 1. Remember what helped you before

Analyze your past experiences. Think about the actions that made you feel a little better. This can be breathing practices, playing sports, sleeping, watching your favorite movie, talking with loved ones.

Make your 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

You may have come across some interesting tips, such as box breathing, which helps in a stressful situation. Or how to set up a three-day sleepy marathon and get yourself back to life after a hard week. Or maybe someone close to him said that he was literally saved by yoga classes or massage. Think about all the ideas that could add peace and joy to your life. Make a separate list of them.

Step 3. Divide life into spheres

Choose those that are important to you so that you can write a separate strategy for each of them. For example:

• Job.
• Relations with people.
• Body and physical activity.
• Emotional stability.

Step 4. Think over a strategy

For each area, make a to-do list that will help you feel more stable. To do this, use the ideas outlined in the first two steps. Be realistic: Everything should be easy to do. Here are some ideas for each area.

Work

• During the lunch break, spend time alone: go for a walk, if possible - retire to read a book or just sit in silence.
• Take tasty and hearty food to the office, buy aromatic tea or coffee.
• Decorate the workplace a little: bring a plant, photographs of loved ones, a beautiful notebook.
• Buy a comfortable pillow under the back and an antistress toy.
• Work in sections of 25-30 minutes and do many small ones instead of one big break.
• Listen to beautiful instrumental music on headphones (if it does not distract you).
• Discuss with the manager the possibility of at least occasionally working from home.
• Delegate some non-urgent tasks or postpone them until better times (if possible).

Relationships with people

• Talk to someone you trust by phone, video call, or in person.
• Get out with a friend to a new interesting place.
• Go to visit or invite guests to your place.
• Chat with friends.
• Seek the advice of a psychologist.
• Write about your experiences in a group or forum aimed at help and support. Before doing this, pay attention to how the other participants are responding and consider if this is right for you.

Body and physical activity

• Go for a run.
• Do stretching or yoga.
• Take a bath with oils, salt and foam.
• Go to the sauna.
• Dance.
• Have a sleepy marathon.
• Go for a massage.
• Go to a good restaurant or cook a delicious meal with a new recipe.

Emotional stability

• Keep a diary.
• To be engaged in creativity, needlework.
• Watch movies and TV shows.
• Light scented candles and read an interesting book.
• Listen to music.
• Meditate.
• Do breathing exercises.
• Walk.
• Lie on the couch.
• Give up the Internet and gadgets for a couple of days.
• Every night, jot down five reasons why you're doing great today in your notebook.

If these ideas don't work for you, you can pick your own. The main thing is to have activities on your list that fill you with energy and support you.

Step 5. Recall negative experiences

We often try to alleviate anxiety with less healthy activities that do not bring relief in the long term, but only make us feel worse. Someone smokes or drinks alcohol, and then wakes up broken and with a headache. Someone gets stuck in the phone, endlessly flipping through the feed in social networks, and as a result, the feeling of guilt for the time spent is added to the stress.

Write down any destructive stress management strategies you are addressing and think about how to replace them. For example: “I will not hang around on social networks all day, because this activity makes me tired and even more nervous. Instead, if I want to distract myself, I read a light book or watch a series. Here is a list of what I want to read and see."

Step 6. Make a list of reliable people

These can be friends, relatives, good acquaintances who you can turn to if you really want to talk. It is important that you trust these people and be sure that they will not criticize and discount you.

Step 7. Use the plan

Now you have a large list of activities that will help you get ready, come to your senses, and recuperate. It is divided into several categories, depending on your personal characteristics. You need to print it or save it electronically so that you have it at your fingertips. 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 spend at least 30 minutes taking care of yourself each day, and make a note of this in your diary. Psychologists believe that this habit helps to feel more stable, more harmonious and more resistant to stress.

Personal experience

I haven't tried making a full-blown self-care plan, but I have a truncated version: a small to-do list that makes me feel better and empowered to solve problems. It includes, for example, keeping a diary. Writing practices can help you at least a little to cope with depression, fatigue, burnout, crises and many other problems.

And also on my list are reading, knitting, mint tea, meditation, scratching the cat's belly, if possible - giving up the Internet and gadgets. If I am not feeling very well and I need to pull myself together, I just look in my notebook and choose things that can help me with this now. And it works.