Artist’s Guide To Self-Care And Mental Health

Heard that saying? Healthy body, healthy mind? Well, it works both ways. Stress is crippling to our immune systems and we need it strong now more than ever.

I worry all the time. Sometimes if I don’t have anything to worry about I will simply find something. Yup, I know I might have a slight problem;) I’m on it! But that’s not the point, the point is that my restless nature actually prepared me a bit for the state of mind that we all probably are in nowadays.

We are stressed, worried, restless and most of the time powerless. And if you are like me, sitting on your butt, staying home due to COVID-19 pandemic. There’s not much to do, might as well work on that self-care. Why it’s important? Heard that saying? Healthy body, healthy mind? Well, it works both ways. Stress is crippling to our immune systems and we need it strong now more than ever. So to strengthen our immune system, we need to deal with stress first. Here are a few ideas that are working for me, maybe you’ll find them useful.

I hope it will help you to find a little calm in those crazy times, but please, keep in mind it’s just my personal experience. It might not work for you the same way. Please keep in mind that I have no medical background what so ever so, it’s necessary to have your health in check and seek medical assistance when things get serious. I call it a common sense but sometimes it’s worth reminding it.

Mediation

I do it first thing in the morning (after I feed my cats and brush my teeth, duh ;)) Some people assume that’s just sitting in silence and that’s just unbearable, boring, and … simply impossible to do. But I beg to differ. Meditation is actually training your mind. It’s not that easy as it seems but it’s also fun. It will help your mind to be present, enjoy the moment here and now, instead of dwelling in the past or worry about the future. It’s like squats but for the brain 😉

The ability to stop the racing mind by focusing it on the breath is really helpful in times when you feel like your mind is spinning and not going anywhere good 🙂 I also like meditation because you don’t need anything to start practicing it. Just a few minutes of alone time will do. No gear, no preparation, you can start right this minute if you want to.

You’ll find super useful guides and materials online, or you can try an awesome free apps like Oak – which I use and adore 🙂

Talking to Someone

I used to have frequent panic attacks and let me tell you it’s not fun, not fun at all. The worst experience I had was the feeling that I’m dragged into a black hole filled with fear and a total lack of hope. This was happening primarily when I was alone with my thoughts and I couldn’t break that pattern no matter what rational arguments I was telling myself.

It’s crucial to break this snowballing effect as fast as you can. The thing that was helping me in such moments was talking to my partner. I cried and laughed about crying, and was getting angry at myself and my helplessness, but at the same time, I was feeling a lot better almost instantly. Talking to someone, hearing their point of view, and reassurance was breaking the snowballing effect for me.

So if you are feeling helpless or lost in the destructive train of thought, talk to someone. Talk your spouse, a friend, or a therapist (a lot of them are now available online, via skype), anyone that you trust and feel safe with. A problem shared is a problem halved. Often things are scarier in our minds than they are in reality, but we need a view from outside to realize that.

Yoga

Do Some Yoga! I’m sure you all heard about the benefits of Yoga to the point of exhaustion. I won’t bore you with what you already know. Instead, I’ll tell you one thing, take it or leave it 🙂 It’s nearly impossible to stress or worry about something when you are holding for your dear life on your yoga mat.

I do yoga every day and it’s one of the best parts of my day. And you don’t need a professional yoga class to start. Sure it’s super helpful to attend a course with an instructor, I highly recommend it if you can. But we are where we are today, lots of us locked at homes, but you can still do it. Go on YouTube and find Yoga With Adriene, you’ll love it! It’s super yummy and comforting. All you need is a Yoga mat. And may I also add, yoga muscles are so damn sexy! 😉

Sleep

Our bodies are marvelous machines. We have great self-regenerating power which is activated during our downtime. That’s why sleep is so important. I know that sometimes when you are stressed, worried, or excited it’s hard to shut the mind down and have a good restful sleep. Here’s what I do, hope you’ll find it useful.

I have my own getting-ready-for-sleep routine. I try to go to sleep before midnight. And about two hours earlier I limit my screen time. I clean the kitchen or take a bath, and get myself to bed around 11pm. I read a few chapters, and when I feel sleepy enough I simply go to sleep. It works great most of the time. I think setting up your sleep cycle to the same hour every day is a great help. But sometimes it’s not enough, in that case, I listen to sleepcast in the HeadSpace app, and then I’m out in like 5 minutes 😉

Weapon of mass relaxation

If you are master of disaster you better master the fine art of making yourself comfortable too. Or you’ll go nuts faster than you can say ‘bubble bath’ 😉 Nothing works better for me than my ultimate relaxation bath. What you’ll need: a bathtub (duh, figures… ;)), bubbles, essential oils (I use lavender, rosemary, tea tree, and eucalyptus – 16 drops total) candles (make sure you’re cat, dog, kids won’t reach them), small towel dipped in hot water to cover your eyes, and last but not least a good audiobook… You’re welcome 😉 If you don’t have a bathtub, don’t worry I got you covered, just keep reading 😉

Guilty Pleasures

A lot of the pressure that I feel is actually the pressure that I put on myself. Sounds familiar?

Especially when you are running your own business. It’s that hustle mentality. Every minute should be productive. There’s always some research to do. Techniques to learn, business strategies to discover, and test out. When we are not working we’re learning. We’re busy all the time but still have that feeling that we are underachievers. You can see where this is going right?

More stress, more anxiety. Sometimes we need that time to relax and regenerate. But it’s the hardest thing to do when you are in that “hustle” state of mind. The worst part is when you already set aside the relaxation time but you feel guilty that you are not productive. And the whole thing is ruined, because you’re not working nor relaxing, and this all feels like a waste of time.

The good news is it’s fixable with some practice 😉

When I was a kid I loved to read books, but my parents were very strict so I always had to do my chores first and then have the time for myself. The best feeling was that anticipation of doing what I want after my chores were done. I still love books, video games and Netflix, but I also have a ton of responsibilities. I noticed that it’s super easy to lose that childlike excitement when you are getting older. That drive powerful enough to wake up you at 5 AM because you’re going on a trip that day. Remember that feeling?

One day, when I felt like I’m just going through the motions, I decided that I’ll dig up that childlike excitement from the depths of my heart. I found a book that I wanted to read for a long time, I planned my evening, music, blanket, snacks, and delicious tea, the whole shebang. I also made a point to work until 6pm, and do my best to do as much as I can. That day I was more productive than any other day, without any techniques or tools to help me with it. I also enjoyed the evening so much, because I was able to spend my time as I wanted without the guilt of not being productive all the time.

So, what I wanted to tell you today, it’s ok to slow down sometimes. Ask yourself what makes you happy, what makes you excited like a 6-year-old on a Christmas Day, and treat yourself to some guilty pleasures. After all, life is a little bit like dancing. The point of dancing is not reaching the point from A to B, the point of dancing is to enjoy the dance! It’s about enjoying the time that you have right now. If you are working hard, you deserve a reward. And most of the time it’s really the little things that are making us happy. So? Let’s play a game and complete this sentence: I would do the 6-year-old’s happy dance if I could…

Chocolate

I need to watch my weight like a hawk! I mean, I merely stand close enough to a doughnut and I instantly gain some pounds. But with all the yoga, my body forgives me a piece of chocolate with my coffee. My favorite is milk with whole hazelnuts, YUM!

Talk to your Plants

I know that sometimes life can gets a bit overwhelming. Especially now, and especially when you happen to be alone at the place you’re currently staying. That feeling that you don’t have any control over anything, can be a bit scary and demotivating. It’s easy to question the sense of existence, it’s easy to feel a bit depressed at those times. But don’t worry 🙂 I believe in tiny steps. I believe that a tiny, maybe insignificant step forward will always be a one, tiny, step closer to whatever you want. So, I encourage you to get a plant if you don’t have it already. You can buy some herb seeds such as basil or rosemary, plant it and care for it, talk to it even. You’ll have something that will depend on you showing up, you will have a hand in creating something alive and growing, but at the same time, it will not be overwhelming with responsibility. Start small, start tiny, get used to it. Next step will be bigger, but you need to start somewhere:-)

Stop Scrolling and Start Calling

It’s easy to be under the impression that you know how everyone is doing based on their social media feed. The thing is almost no one will broadcast that they have (pardon my french) a shitty day even if we all have them more often than we care to admit. So today I encourage you to turn off your Facebook and open your phonebook 🙂 Call someone, just to hear their voice, talk about stupid little things, you should immediately feel better 🙂

Music

How often do you take time to do nothing but listen to music? I’ll take a wild guess and say… not often 🙂 That’s the thing, music is our background noise every day, we listen to it in the car, during work, it’s streamed from the speakers while shopping, in the elevator, waiting rooms, and so on. But we rarely take time to listen to the music on headphones with quality sound and nothing else to do. Where nothing else exists at this moment but you and the sound.

Music can set the mood in every scenario. It can make your dinner more romantic. It can make a horror movie scarier. It can make you buy stuff while shopping, or calmer while waiting. It can help you keep the rhythm while working out, or focus while working. It can even make you frustrated, agitated, and angry if it’s not the type of music that you fancy. You see where I’m going with this? If music can do all those things it can also calm you down and help you with anxiety when you are restless.

I have my Spotify Calm SOS list ready at all times. Sometimes it’s all it takes to make me feel better 🙂

Dance like nobody’s watching

If you bottle things up, you eventually accumulate a great amount of negative energy inside you. You need to find a way to release it safely. Dancing like nobody’s watching is by far my favorite. 😉

Play Games

If you are thinking that you are too old to play, there’s something wrong with you 😉 I’ve played through some really scary and tough times in my life. Times when I couldn’t do anything but wait and worry. Trust me, it’s far better than sitting and thinking about the worst possible scenarios, especially if there’s nothing you can do to help the situation.

Rage Clean

Sometimes, especially when you don’t feel like dancing rage-cleaning is the way to go. Preforming physical, repetitive tasks can take your mind of things. Just focus on releasing negative energy and don’t stress about what’s bugging you too much because you may make things even worse. Let it go 🙂

Create Something

Art is wonderful therapy, but the same statement can be applied to any activity that involves creativity in any way, you can create a blog post as successfully as you can create a batch of delicious muffins <3 Everything you do is some form of creation, if you put your mind, heart, and soul into it, you’ll soon see how much satisfaction it can create for you 🙂

Apart from drawing, I personally really enjoy and feel extremely relaxed while doing anything that involves my hands: gardening, woodworking, pottery, baking bread. Try it and let me know how it went 🙂

Don’t bottle things up

Bottling things up is the worst. Keeping it cool all the time in all situations can bite you in your gorgeous behind sooner than you expect. I know I bottle up my feelings pretty well but if it finally finds it’s way outside, it’s ugly and disproportionate to the situation. It’s ok to feel all kinds of emotions and it’s ok to let them out, otherwise, you’ll end up like Bruce Willis on the episode of Friends, you know, “The One with the Ring”, and we wouldn’t want that 😉

Aromatherapy

There are lots of natural remedies that can help us soothe our nerves. On one hand, you have natural essential oils and aromatherapy, on the other hand, you have candles that can warm up the mood in an instant. Now put your hands together and you’ll get a perfect mix 😉

Get a Pet

I can not even count all those times when watching my cats sleep didn’t calm me down. Yes, they are a handful, but it’s also kinda the whole point because if you are focused on them you don’t worry so much about anything else 🙂

Things will get better

And if you’re having an off day, week, month, year, we all do, just remember to hold on! Everything passes, the bad times, the good times, everything has an end. Plus, you will need those downs to enjoy the ups. So for now, just hold on 🙂

All those things inspired me to create Self-Care & Mental Health Icon Pack check it out it’s Good Stuff 😉