Hi everyone! My name is Diana Garcia and I’m a licensed mental health counselor in Florida and founder of a private practice called Nurturing Minds Counseling.
I’ve been doing 12 tips for the holiday season. These are tips you can use regardless of whether you celebrate, what you celebrate, or if you don’t celebrate. Today we are on tip number seven. I encourage you to check out videos 1-6, or blogs 1-6, to check out those tips first.
Watch Video: “12 Days of Tips for the Holidays: Day 7: Self-Care”
Read Blog: “12 Days of Tips for the Holidays: Day 7”
Today’s tip might feel a little repetitive, but it’s the importance of self-care. I know when we say self-care, myself included, I’m like ‘something else I have to do on my list of never-ending things to do.’ Honestly, it’s really important! Self-care sometimes feels like it’s this big and major thing, you have to go get a massage, you have to go to a retreat, or you must be doing things like having a green smoothie. However, self-care it’s very individualized, so what can look like self-care for me can be different for you.
Self-care can be sometimes simply sitting in front of the television and just watching something fun and brainless. My go-to for self-care tends to be hanging out with friends. Self-care can be going for a walk or hitting an intense gym session. Self-care is identifying those things that are going to help you recharge. When it comes to the holiday season, I know it’s really easy to forget about recharging and all your routines go out the window because there’s more things to do, holiday gatherings to attend, or virtual gatherings to be in. Whatever the case, what you typically do to take care of yourself goes out the window.
What I encourage you to do is list one or two small things that you can keep doing through the season. Whether that’s practicing three minutes of breathing, making sure the dog goes out for a longer walk because it helps you both, or building 20 minutes of just watching television. Self-care can also be limiting things like limiting the endless scroll of social media. Identify one or two things that you can commit to doing for your own well-being to keep yourself going during this holiday season. I know it’s tempting to forget about all that during the holidays, but it’s really important so that you don’t get too overwhelmed.
If there’s a day that you miss out on doing that, that’s okay! Self-care is not about perfection. You can just pick it up again the next day! I encourage you to let me know what those one or two self-care tips that you’re willing to do for yourself and remember that it’s okay to put yourself first – that’s allowed. Thank you for reading and I hope you all have a great day!