Sleep

It is much easier for me to be drawn toward a negative thought pattern or spiral when I am sleeping less. My mind is so much stronger when I acquire eight or nine hours of sleep every night. Sometimes this means saying no to things and letting certain people down, but I realized that I need to be okay with disappointing people if it means protecting my inner peace. 

 

Exercise

Exercise can look differently for everyone. Personally, I have decided that running, long walks, stretching, and yoga all need to be a part of my daily routine. Not only do these exercises help me stay focused in the present, but they also help quiet all of the unnecessary noise and thoughts that threaten to disrupt my peace of mind. 

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Rest

It is really hard to allow yourself to rest without justification in a society that only values rest as a reward. But there are days when I wake up and I just don’t feel like myself, and no matter what I do, I just feel off. On these days, I let myself decide what I want to do—whether this be not talking to anyone, laying in bed all day, or deleting the to-do list I made the night before. Sometimes rest for me can look like hours of sleep or taking a break from socialization by turning my phone off.

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Journaling

It can be difficult to bring yourself to write about how badly you're feeling, especially when you are trying to distract yourself from those feelings. The feelings do not magically go away after I write them down, but writing about them helps me understand myself better, so I can recognize those feelings and thoughts that are not necessarily healthy for me in the future. 

 

Journaling also lets me see on paper the way I am talking to myself in my head. I realized that I can be really mean and harsh and I talk to myself in ways I would never talk to another human being. Identifying this pattern allowed me to reverse these thoughts and make them more positive and constructive, and I started to talk to myself the way I try to talk to others—with kindness and understanding.

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Mindfulness

For me, mindfulness is about keeping my mind in the present. It is about recognizing the here and now. I practice mindfulness through drawing, painting, cooking, active listening, writing, going for walks and noticing everything around me. 

 

I also wanted to add an exercise that I was provided after going to therapy for a few months. It is an exercise I use when I am feeling especially overwhelmed, anxious, or just cannot seem to settle my inner thoughts, and it really helps me step back into my body. The exercise is called the 5-4-3-2-1 Technique:

 

What are five things you can see?

What are four things you can feel?

What are three things you can hear?

What are two things you can smell? 

What is one thing you can taste?

 

Sometimes I like to close my eyes after the first question to really become aware of my other senses: touch, sound, smell, and taste. The aim of this exercise is to ground you—to place your mind back into the present moment. 

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Setting Boundaries

There are personal boundaries I have set with myself, such as only reading or watching the news in the morning but not before bed and saying ‘no’ to making plans when I need to recharge my social battery alone. I still struggle with creating boundaries with friends, family, strangers, and even myself, but after reading ‘The Book of Boundaries’ by Melissa Urban, I am finding it easier to state my boundaries in a way that is clear and self-honoring. I highly recommend this book to anyone who struggles with being a chronic people pleaser, like myself.