Tag: #selfcare

Mental Health Day? YES!

Mental Health Day? YES!

Have you ever just felt like you can’t (or won’t) get out of bed and go to work?  I think we all have been there. We cannot seem to find any exact ailment, but our brain is just tired….tired of dealing with much of anything. We just want to roll over and go back to sleep. Or we want to get up, have a cup of coffee and just BE with our day because we just cannot BE at work.

Do you know what? It is perfectly ok to take a mental health day

If you had a cold, you might decide to power through your workday. But if you had the flu, you’d likely need to stay home and rest — and no one would call you “weak” for getting the flu. In fact, your co-workers would likely thank you for not coming into the office when you’re sick.

Mental health rarely gets the same respect. Instead, people are told to “get over it” when they’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or similar issues. And when those of us try and “power through” a mental health symptom, it can make us feel worse and can potential cause a mental overload that is not so easy to overcome. But mental health is part of your overall health. If you don’t proactively address it, you won’t be able to perform at your best.

sleep-depression-insomnia

One thing  PLEASE try and remember – DON’T FEEL GUILTY FOR TAKING A MENTAL HEALTH DAY!!!!!!  Taking a mental health day doesn’t mean you need to curl up in your bed, unless you think that’s what is going to bring you the most self care;  you may want to go outside, take a drive, take your dogs for a walk, even take yourself out to lunch…that’s all ok as well. Whatever you need to do for YOU is what is important. This might be a good day to schedule a day with your therapist. I have done that in the past. I have spent an hour with him and then spent my day taking care of me. Typically I would walk the dogs and then a late afternoon nap. By the next morning I felt ready to go back to work. Usually!

relax-pillow - mentalhealthday

When was the last time you took a mental health day? Never?  That’s not good. Those of us with mental illnesses have to constantly keep our health a priority. It can be exhausting, but you and I both understand that in order to keep our symptoms to a minimum, we must listen to our innerselves and make sure our brain is running like it should.

Take a mental health day and share with me what you did!!!

Take Care

Jenny

Photo credits:
unsplash-logoANMOL

unsplash-logoAlisa Anton

unsplash-logoKelly Sikkema

Check out this $0.99 download!:

Groceries and Self-Care

Groceries and Self-Care

Hello!  Do you love watching unboxing videos?  How about watching vloggers trying out the latest beauty products or tasty foods?  Do you enjoy reading reviews about a blogger’s favorite recipe that include pictures?  I can say YES to all of those!! I don’t know why it is; do I enjoy taking a peek into someone elses life? I think that may be part of it but there is this feeling that someone is letting us in that feels like a gift they are sharing with their readers/viewers.

I went grocery shopping yesterday.. I know the last time I shared my “food haul,” readers enjoyed seeing what my shopping day was like, so I thought I would do so again. I am so thankful to have my son help me. I am still having to use a scooter through the store, so having him follow me with a cart and loading and unloading the cart is soooo very helpful.

What did I get today?

food 3

Shhhh..you don’t see t hose M&Ms do you? haha I have them in a drawer in my bedroom now for a little sweet treat that teenage boys can’t find!  We are all eating a lot of eggs and sandwiches recently thus the two 18 packs of eggs, lunchmeat, sliced cheese and pickles. The coffee was buy one get one free which is a deal! Probably not the best tasting roast, but when I add my vanilla creamer it all tastes good.

I have this ground sausage which along with the spinach I bought will be part of a recipe that I may try tonight or tomorrow:

 

 

BACON AND SPINACH PASTA WITH PARMESAN

Bacon and Spinach Pasta with Parmesan is a quick and flavorful weeknight dinner that only requires a few ingredients.

INGREDIENTS

  • 6oz bacon (1/2 12 oz. pkg)
  • 1small onion
  • 2cups chicken broth
  • 1/2lb pasta
  • 1/4lb 3-4 cups fresh spinach
  • 1/3cup grated Parmesan

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Cut the bacon across the strips into one-inch pieces. Sauté the bacon in a large skillet until it is brown and crispy (no extra fat needed). Remove the browned bacon to a bowl with a slotted spoon. Carefully pour the fat off into a separate bowl, leaving about one tablespoon in the skillet.
  2. While the bacon cooks, dice the onion. Once the bacon is removed and the fat is drained from the skillet, add the diced onions and sauté until they are soft and transparent. Allow the moisture from the onions to dissolve some of the browned bits off of the bottom of the skillet.
  3. Add two cups of chicken broth to the skillet and dissolve off any remaining browned bits of bacon drippings from the bottom of the skillet.
  4. Finally, add the uncooked pasta to the skillet, place a lid on top, and let the skillet come to a boil over high heat. Once it reaches a boil, give it a quick stir, turn the heat down to low, and let simmer for 10 minutes with the lid in place. Give the skillet a stir to loosen the pasta from the bottom every few minutes or so, replacing the lid quickly each time. After 10 minutes the pasta should be tender and most of the broth absorbed. There should be a little bit of thick, saucy broth remaining in the bottom of the skillet.
  5. Add the fresh spinach to the skillet and stir until it has wilted into the pasta. Turn off the heat, add the cooked bacon back to the skillet, sprinkle the Parmesan over top, stir to combine, and then serve

Yum! Doesn’t that sound good and easy?  The recipe does call for bacon, but I found this sausage at the store on sale and decided to give it a try. Bacon can be so expensive these days. I think sausage is a good alternative – they are both pork, right?

What else did we buy?  I have not tried the Michael Angelo’s veggie lasagna before, but thepicture sure makes it look good. My son wants to cook stir fry in the next night or two so he went off to the produce section and made his picks. As you can see I have bagged spinach and awesome looking parmesan cheese for the recipe above. The steamed clams for $2.99? definitely an impulse buy so we shall see how they taste.  And I have become so enamored with almond milk! I love the taste and how low the calorie content. I’m trying to cut way back on my dairy, so drinking almond milk helps.

I mentioned self-care in my title. We all know that self care is important and those of us with mental illnesses it is even more critical. I have talked about self care in past blogs, but I wanted to share with you something  I buy myself every month. This may not be what we traditionally believe of as self care, but this little treat that comes in the mail makes me happy and that I am treating myself to a gift and products that I can use to care for myself.

Have you heard of an Ipsy glam bag?  If you enjoy skin care or beauty, then is is a great $10 a month to spend to treat yourself ($10 total including shipping). Every month a bright pink shiny delievery bag arrives in your mail box and in it a cute or stylish bag with a variety of 5 products related to skincare or beauty.  Here is what mine looked like this for January:

IMG_2350

I know this little Ipsy bag bay not be for everyone, but for me treating myself is important. When I my self esteem is faltering, or I just don’t feel that great, know that it is ok to have a little something sent TO me, FROM me, every month is a positive in managing my mental health.

I hope you have enjoyed today’s blog. It’s a little different from recent topics, but shaking up my blogs  at times is good for me, and I hope for you.

Take Care

Jenny

 

affiliate represented:

You are a PRIORITY, not an OPTION!

You are a PRIORITY, not an OPTION!

Have you ever heard the term “self-care?” It is a term that you hear in the media, when you are reading, or listening to a podcast or talking to your therapist. Self-care is a crucial part of managing  mental illness, but it can be so easily forgotten about., especially whe we are in the midst of a mental upset. So how do you go about practicing self-care? It can be difficult to get started. Some of us even feel like we don’t “deserve” down time, but that is not the case. It’s easy to read a list in a magazine article and say, “ok great ideas, but unrealistic for me.” I know that I don’t have a luxurious bath arrangement where I can put candles around and relax. I know when my kids were younger it was all I could do to get 10 minutes alone in my room – taking a walk alone in a park was not realistic with 4 little ones at home.  Read a book?  Usually when I need self-care, my mind is so filled with “stuff” that the last thing I can do is sit down and concentrate on a book. Have you ever felt these things? Those lists of self care can be awfully daunting (and depressing).

The KEY is to make YOUR OWN list!!  Find what works for YOU!

Making a self-care list that works for you is so important. When your stress is high and your patience is low, taking a look at that list and picking a couple of ideas to bring your SELF back to a place of calm is wonderful. With time you might be able to just look at your list and feel a bit more peace.

Another piece of your self-care list is to make it fun, or beautiful or interesting to look at. If you are artistic or not, you can make a list worth looking at. The more you WANT to look at it, the more you can sort out the ideas in your busy mind and find a self-care item that can work for you – in that very moment. Having a selection of self care activities is also important. If painting your nails makes you feel better but you are at work, you may need something that works at work!!

10994858366_936647a310_b 1.jpg

Keep your list everywhere! On your mirror, in your phone, on a file of your computer, on your bedside stand.  Keep that list in places that you can easily access it. When you are feeling stressed or just don’t think you can cope in that moment, have that list where you can look at it and pick what may be right for you for right now.  It’s amazing when you come up with your own stress reducers your success in self-care and self-calm is so much higher.

Here are a few of things on my list. I know when I engace in certain calming activities that I am trying to shake my brain into a new mode of thinking as quickly as I can. I think of all of my senses (vision, hearing, taste, touch and smell) and what may work best if I am stressed:

  1. I love those little strawberry candies that are wrapped in red foil to look like a strawberry. Do you know the ones I mean?  I keep them at work all of the time so I can suck on them and have a little mental break if I need one. The sweet taste and sugar sensation can bring me to a happier moment.
  2. Going outside is always a good choice for me. I don’t necessarily have to walk anywhere or do anything special, just getting outside, no matter the weather, taking some long deep breaths and finding some Calm
  3. Play with my dogs. For those of you with pets, you know how great o\pet therapy  can be. Getting a few treats and playing with my dogs or maybe relaxing with my cat next to me is very healing.
  4. Writing – writing can calm me – be it for this blog, for myself or just getting out “blech” from my brain to paper. I used to only write in black composition books, but I have come more adept at writing or typing whenever I need do. It is very brain cleansing.

strawberry.jpg

How do you  practice self-care?  Again, above anything I can say is MAKE YOUR OWN LIST!  You know what is good for YOU. There are tons of websites with self care ideas. Check them out and find what works and write it down. Seeing a huge list of someone else’s ideas can be stressful in itself when you are having a tough moment.

Let me know your self-care ideas!

Jenny

Join shareasale.com, Earn Cash!