6 Ways to Boost Your Self-Care

The following is a guest post by Ann Miszczak:

Hi there, my name is Ann Miszczak. I run lifestyle blog. I cover topics about Motherhood, Living with Mental Health & Personal Development. I have battled with Mental Health Disorders for 13+ years, I have spent the last year on a personal development journey and am sharing with you some of the goodies that I have learned over the last year that have helped me overcome my depression, shift my mindset from negative to positive and helped me improve my relationships with those close to me.

We all seek this idea of “Happiness” if I have “this” or “that” I will be happy. Well honestly you already have everything you could ever need to be happy. The only thing that you need to work on changing is your Mindset. You can “talk the talk” but can you “walk the walk”? I spent over 13 years with Chronic Depression, Anxiety & PTSD. I learned how to overcome my mental health disorders using the 6 tools to shift my mindset that I am going to share with you here.

This is NOT a quick fix or a change you do once and hope that it sticks. This is something you do consistently even when you don’t want too (especially when you are having a rough day) I tried to use these tools off and on only to see no real results. I started doing these daily and weekly and saw so much change not only in myself but in my life as a whole. I am going to share with you these 6 easy tools that you can do to help shift your mindset from crappy to happy.

1- Mantras

2- Counting Wins

3- Writing

4- Music

5- Exercise

6- Personal Development Books

Mantras:

This is a tool that many people find hard to do and maintain doing daily because we’ll we're all used to criticizing ourselves but there are plenty of people out there who do that enough, you don’t need to help those people out. Say affirmations, counter beliefs about yourself and positive things. Try doing 5 positive mantras every morning (ex: I am Confident, I am Productive, I am Beautiful)

Counting wins:

This is by far my favorite thing in the world and has helped me overcome my Depression in just 3 months. There are internal wins and external wins as well I will share some of each, wins are anything positive that has happened to you throughout your day. It can be as small as “I woke up today” or as big as “I bought my first house”. Inside Wins: Prioritizing your needs, self-care, a “ah-ha” moment, a habit changed, a goal reached, stopping a toleration, setting boundaries.

Outside Wins: Someone close to you changes a behavior related to you, gives you a gift or a compliment, notices your changing, money becomes more abundant in your life.

Writing:

This is a fairly self-explanatory tool that many of us do not use to our advantage. Writing when you are “emotional” or something happens in life is a great way to get things off your chest without causing a fight with someone you care about or saying something you regret. Many people think that “journals” are for kids and well truth is that it's for EVERYONE because it's a great way to let go of unwanted emotions without bottling up emotions to explode later.

Music:

Music is a great tool and one that many people use naturally. I suggest making yourself a positive playlist so that when you are working or feel like you're getting down on energy you can listen to it to help bring your mood up. Include uplifting songs, songs that make you want to get up and move, and anything that you feel a positive emotion with.

Exercise:

Yes, there are many things out there telling us that exercise is a must and being a world with obesity you would think that more people would listen. Not only does it change your physical looks but it also causes your body to produce more hormones which help lift your emotions and it's a great way to get more energy. Many people say oh it doesn’t give energy it takes it well truth is yes it takes energy while you're exercising but within 30 minutes of finishing a workout you become more productive and energize because your body is on higher energy hormones.

Personal Development:

Books, audio, online courses there truly is many forms of personal development. The reason I suggest this is because we all want to strive for more and through personal development even simple things like learning a new skill were always growing and evolving. Why not find something that you are interested in and learn about it read books, find courses, listen to podcasts, or videos about the topic.

Have you done/used any of these? Want to try? Start with 21 days doing it daily, it takes 21 days to create a habit and takes 6 months to make it a habit you do without having to think about it. I would like to take a moment and thank Anne Cohen for letting me guest post on her wonderful blog and I hope that you found this post helpful.