Feel Good Friday - My Self Care

 

I've been trying to be better about self-care lately.  I've been trying to forgive myself when I don't get things done, rejoice in what I do, and be grateful for every minute I can.  So I thought that I would take this Feel Good Friday to share a few of the things that help bolster me when I'm having a tough time.

Insight Timer on the Google Play Store is something that's been topping my "feeling better" list lately.  I have the free version, so no courses for me, but there are still thousands of free meditations that I can access.  Often, I'll use it to help me fall asleep.  Lately, I'm been trying to get some meditation in outside of that daily.  The meditations last anywhere from one minute to over an hour, so I can find something no matter what kind of time I have for meditation.  I'm not "good" at it, but I am getting better at letting the thoughts pass by and staying focused on the now.

I recently started using Tusk Task Manager.  I've tried a lot of different task managers over the years and usually I'll use them for a couple days then stop.  This one, I think I'll stick with.  It's very customizable, letting me put in tasks that only happen once to ones that recur with whatever frequency (for example, I have my exercising happening every other day).  It also gives me the option to keep a task on the daily page until I actually do it and then restart the count from there.  It has a widget (only available in the paid version, but it's very reasonable at $14/yr) that allows me to mark things done without having to open the app.  And then there are the achievements that give me a little glow when I get it.

The outside of my Today I... Book

A sample page of my Today I...

A long time ago, I used to have a blog here that was just a list of things that I got done  on any particular day.  I liked the thought of having a place where I could look back and see that I wasn't a failure.  Of course, I gave that blog up after several years of not updating.  In January 2020, I decided to start it back up again.  It was very sporadic that year, but during 2021, I've managed to write down what I did far more regularly.  I write down a lot of different things - taking my meds, cleaning a particular room, board games played and books read, just to name a few.  And since it's in an undated notebook, I can just continue on directly after the previous date.  I'm about half way through this book, so I expect that I may need to look for another book that's similar some time next year.

One List a Day over 3 years

A quick glance inside

I love lists.  I love finding different things to list because it's interesting to look back whenever I find them and see what's changed.  One year, my dad even bought me the whole collection (at the time) of Listography books.  I grab one off the shelf every few months and fill out a bit more with dates when I've written them.  Then one day, early last January, I was checking for other listy-things to pick up.  I came across One List a Day, a three year journal where you just write a list of three items in relation to the prompt every day.  It gives me a chance to think about things, whatever the prompt brings up.  Sometimes, I come up with the answers in a flash.  Others have taken a lot of thought.  On even months, you are able to create your own list in between the months.  And the first list of every month gives me a chance to think about a couple things I want to do.  So far, every list is filled out.  I'm looking forward to the beginning of next year when I ccan start looking at what I wrote the year before.

Just me

Finally, I love taking my picture when I'm feeling good.  I can take a look at myself and say, "This isn't a perfect me, but it is still a good me."  And days like the picture above, I can be proud of my braid.  Sometimes I'll take a picture when I'm wearing a new shirt or a new mask, just to show it off.  Sometimes I'll take a picture just because I like the way that  I look that particular day.

So these are some of the things that I use for self-care, things that just make me feel good.  What do you have on your list of things on your self-care list?