Self-care and our Mental Health

This week taking care of ourselves is top priority

Bring mindful awareness to how we can care for our mind and our body using our senses instead of depending on outward sources to numb or shut out the mental noise within.

Our mental health is so important!

Taking care of our mind needs to be top priority.

Taking care of our body needs to be top priority.

Anxiety is on the rise, depression is on the rise. And all our thoughts, feelings, emotions and experiences contribute to both.

It is often said if we experience depression our mind is stuck in the past and if we experience anxiety it is our mind stuck in fear of the future.

So the solution would be to practice being in the now moment. This is where mindful awareness is essential and this week we dive into mindful awareness with our senses.

Let’s take a step back first and see if we can get some perspective on anxiety and depression and even all the experiences, sensations and emotions leading up to feeling anxious or depressed.

What if they were all just messages?

All of them

Messages from our body and messages from our Soul

From all the thoughts in our head, to the emotions in our body, to the anxiety and-or depression we experience in our daily life.

Our Soul is trying to get our attention

Ayurveda says; our body is always speaking to us and if we aren’t listening, the messages get louder. Our body doesn’t speak to us in words though, it speaks to us in the form of sensations, feelings and emotions. Sensations as in discomfort or pain or pleasure. We may experience a message as a tingle, a throb, warmth, fatigue or achiness. We may experience it in feelings of sadness or worry or joy and contentment.

When we don’t tune into these messages from the body, they get louder. The sensations get stronger and the feelings get more intense. Add this to the over-thinking mind and its tendency towards worst-case scenario and it is no wonder we all look outward for ways to numb the pain and discomfort and ways to shut out the mental chatter and internal noise.

Bottom line is if we are not mindfully aware of these messages from our body they can easily lead to unhealthy habits, behaviors, patterns and possibly addictions because we simply just want them to stop.

We can numb them and shut them out any number of ways – but looking outward for the solution to get them to stop is just a temporary relief from what we are experiencing. When we numb, ignore, deny or excuse away the sensations and feelings we experience – they will eventually grow bigger and louder.

Enter in anxiety, depression and illnesses of all degrees.

When the body is ignored the Soul steps in.

This is a crucial time to stop and listen inward. The Soul is always whispering to us. It is a wise intuitive voice within and it gets drowned out with the habits and addictions that we use to drown out the mental chatter. Intuition is under the mental chatter and we can hear it if we allow ourselves to sit in discomfort for a while.

To hear the Soul, we need to sit quietly and listen. It requires us to be with the mental chatter and internal noise. It requires us to sit with and be with the discomforts and pain in our body.

It is not the easiest thing to do, in fact it is downright excruciating at times.

When it gets too uncomfortable – the ego steps up and turns back to the old “comfortable” habits and behaviors. We all have an ego – we all need an ego to live a human existence, the problem is when we are unaware of the egos fears and pull on us, it will show up as self-sabotage and negative self-talk.

But that is just the ego that is UNAWARE

An ego that practices mindful awareness is an ego that is beginning to listen in to the messages of its body and the messages of its Soul. The AWARE ego is willing to sit with the negative self-talk and not be drawn into believing it anymore. The aware ego is willing to sit with the discomforts of the body and finally listen to its messages.

This is where a regular practice of meditation is the ultimate form of self-care and beneficial to the alignment of our body, our mind and our Soul.

We will be diving into meditation next week.

This week we are going to bring mindful awareness to how we can tap into and disrupt the unaware ego’s tendency to ignore and numb the messages and find a way to embrace the anxiety or depression through self-awareness, self-care and self-appreciation of our senses.

With the intention of our aware ego, we have the ability to calm our mind, respect our body and give ourselves the much needed attention and affection that our body needs – all through our senses.

Whenever we experience any sort of discomfort… our Soul is trying to get our attention.

Our Soul wants us to stop and take a couple of deep breaths. The breath is the doorway to our connection with our Soul or our “true self” if you prefer.

Once we stop and take a few breaths, we have created a space or a gap to choose to handle the experience or sensation in a different way. Instead of reaching for our mobile device, TV or the bag of chips, glass of wine or pain medication bring mindful awareness to all our senses first.

• Smell – we can balance an anxious mind with scents such as lavender or rose. We can activate a procrastinating or unmotivated mind with scents such as citrus or eucalyptus. We can cool a “hot head” angry or over-thinking mind with scents such as mint or sandalwood.
• Sight – we can balance an anxious mind with earth tone colors or pictures. We can activate a procrastinating, unmotivated mind with bright, bold colors or pictures and we can cool and soothe a “hot head” with soft, pastel like colors and pictures.
• Sound – we can balance an anxious mind with slow, relaxing, grounding sounds or music, we can activate a procrastinating, unmotivated mind with energetic, upbeat music or sounds and we can cool a “hot head” with cooling sounds and music (such as waves or water running).
• Touch – one of the best ways to calm an anxious mind is to tap your thumb onto each one of your fingers (starting with your pinky, ring, middle & pointer finger and then go back to your pinky…) while saying simple words such as “calm begins with me” one word for each finger. Repeat this over & over until you feel your anxiety starting to decrease. Do this with both of your hands at the same time. (I do show this in the video). Rubbing our feet at night with some scented oil is a beneficial evening ritual to prep our body and mind for sleep. It grounds our energy out of our thinking mind and into the healing energy of our natural state of being. Rubbing the center of our palms at any time of the day is a great affectionate check in to our body and another beneficial practice for calming an over-active or anxious mind. Do not underestimate the power of a hug either. Touch is so very underrated as to how healing and calming it can be when delivered and received in the energy of love and respect.
• Taste – feeding our body wholesome healthy food is one of the best ways to care for and show respect to the miraculous body that each of us live in. The foods we eat affect how we feel and affects every cell in our body. The foods we eat affect out mental mind and our overall state of health – so choose to nourish your body and your mind with good food. Balance and moderation is key and our body will “speak” to us when we are not feeding it right.

When we learn to tune into our senses to balance our body and our mind, the whispers of our Soul becomes louder and we are able to tap into our intuition and the messages of our body. This is key to healing. Whether we want to heal our body, our mind or both, we need to listen to the wisdom of our body and the wisdom and intuition of our Soul.

Self-Awareness is the ultimate self-care

1. Self-awareness of our body – listen to the messages of the body. When we use smell as the awareness tool – notice with full engaged awareness the reaction or response from the body. Do this same practice using sight, sound and experience different touches and taste different foods. How does our body respond in the moment and continue to check in after the experience to notice any lingering messages from the body. Be curious and release judgement – this is discerning (not judging) how our body is speaking to us. Very important to remain curious throughout these practices.
2. Self-awareness of the mind – listen to how we speak and communicate with ourselves. Notice how our body responds to different thoughts and inner dialogues we have within. Play with positive affirmations that resonate and notice how they change how we feel inside.
3. Soul awareness – connect with our Soul (our true self). We do this through connecting with our breath, through yoga, meditation, practicing mindful awareness (see the blog post from Feb 6^th for more on this powerful practice), practicing non-judgement and practicing self-love.

Self-care of the body-mind-Soul is all about taking care of ourselves with;

• Self-love
• Self-awareness
• Self-acceptance
• Self-appreciation
• Positive self-attention
• Self-affection
• Self-respect
• Positive self-talk

This week’s intention

1. Today, I bring mindful awareness of my senses to calm my mind when I begin to feel anxious or strong emotions and sensations.
2. Today, I bring mindful awareness to using my senses to take care of my body and make better choices.
3. Today, I bring mindful awareness to how I communicate to myself. I am aware of how I speak to myself and I consciously choose to speak with love and respect.
4. Today, I practice self-love. (or any of the other self-awareness practices)

If you are interested in private coaching sessions, to improve your self-awareness practices contact Leslie at leslie@wellnessdefined.ca

Call or text at 780 722-3442