Coping Strategies

You Are Important and Your Life Is Valuable

Self-esteem is the value and worth we place on ourselves based on our belief system. What do you think about yourself? Self-esteem can affect your mental health, relationships, motivation, and self-talk. Practice stopping, challenging, and replacing your negative thoughts with more positive ones. Accept your weaknesses, celebrate your strengths, share how you honestly feel, try something new or exciting, and practice self-compassion along every step of your journey.

You can be proactive about your mental health by creating a journal to write about the following things:

Identifying your triggers so that you can create a plan to manage them (triggers can be people, places, things, experiences, images, or sounds)
Clarifying the boundaries that you may need to set (e.g. using assertive communication, saying "no" instead of people pleasing, being selective about the content you consume, communicating less with negative people)
Creating a record of the ways you engage in self-care every day (e.g. morning meditation, afternoon artistic activities, evening exercise)

There are many benefits to being aware of healthy coping strategies, nurturing positive relationships, engaging in meaningful activities or hobbies, exercising consistently, eating balanced meals, maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, and committing to a daily self-care routine. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) affects approximately 10 million people. SAD is a type of depression that usually occurs during certain seasons, specifically the fall and winter. Symptoms usually include anxiety, feelings of emptiness or hopelessness, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, loss of pleasure in activities, social withdrawal, and thoughts about suicide.

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3 Ways to Practice Self Care

Here are 3 suggested ways you can start practicing self-care today. Feel free to give them a try and see which one you like the best!

Self Care Strategy 1:

Write

Have you ever struggled with overthinking? Sometimes, we need to slow down to acknowledge and process our thoughts and feelings. Everyone needs an outlet and writing can be a great place to start. You can use writing as a tool to vent or as a vehicle to assist you with identifying things you are grateful for.

Have you ever felt disconnected? When we are sad, we tend to isolate ourselves because it feels safer. I want to challenge you to do the opposite. When we take the time to interact with positive people, it can be a great buffer between us and sadness. Positive experiences can challenge the negative thoughts you have in your head.

Self Care Strategy 2: Socialize

Self Care Strategy 3: Practice Mindfulness

Have people ever told you that you can be hard on yourself? Mindfulness involves being a nonjudgmental observer of yourself and your surroundings. The next time you feel a sense of guilt or shame, try to accept yourself instead of judging yourself. Self-love demands you to be compassionate towards the parts of yourself that you are most ashamed of.