Self-care for your mental wellbeing in lockdown times

 

Calm your fears with our Lockdown Self-Care Toolbox.  

If you’ve been following us over on Instagram lately, you’ll know we’ve been talking about tools. No, we’ve not been spending our Coronavirus lockdown doing DIY, we’re talking about the self-care tools you can use to navigate your anxieties in this incredibly difficult time we’re all going through right now. So read on to find out about our Lockdown Self-Care Toolbox: a selection of tools for each day of the week to make things that little bit easier, because we believe moving through each day mindfully can help you manifest more positivity into your life. ⠀

 

Monday: Untangle with a Braintangle

As the first day of the week, Monday can be overwhelming with all those to-do lists, worries and expectations buzzing around, so it’s the perfect day to de-clutter your mind with a Braintangle. Ali created the Braintangle for our Positive Planner after being inspired by an art therapy technique. It’s essentially a brain-dump to help untangle all your thoughts and feelings, leaving you to start your week with clarity.

And it couldn’t be easier than starting with a scribble! Just take a pen and scribble all over two journal pages, or one sheet of paper, to create spaces to write in, then draw a cross dividing it into 4, as we’ve done here. 

 

 

You then write in the different spaces

• how you’re feeling
• why you’re feeling these things
• what will help 
• A plan of how you can go about this

If you already have a Positive Planner, you can find detailed instructions in the first section, if you don’t, head on over to our Instagram highlights, Ali’s put a Braintangle one there. 

 

Tuesday: Positive Affirmations

Positive affirmations are an amazing practice to add to your day and we can honestly say they’ve got us through some really tough times. 

 

 

Affirmations are statements that aim to transform the conscious and subconscious mind, thereby affecting our behaviour, thinking patterns, habits and environment. If you make them specific to you and repeat them regularly, they can really help encourage and lift you.

The statements are written in the present and are spoken as facts and truths, like ‘I am filled with love, and confidence when I look in the mirror.’ Our Positive Affirmations Cards are great for finding inspiration for your daily affirmation.⠀

 

Wednesday: Take a Breath

Mid-week. A time to take a moment to relax and centre yourself with our Lockdown Self-Care Toolbox. Here’s what the wonderful Suzy Reading wrote about breath for our Positive Wellness Journal: 

 

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‘The way we breathe has a potent impact on the quality of our mind and our perceived energy levels. The mantra is ‘when we breathe better we feel better.’ Working with the breath is the ultimate self-care tool - it doesn’t take any time or effort and we can literally do it anywhere. What we’re aiming for is a relaxed, expansive breath, and just by tuning in with the breath it tends to smooth itself out on its own.’

So why not play around with bringing awareness to your breath today and see how this impacts how you’re feeling? You might even like to try meditation. Our friends at The Soul Spa are currently running online meditation slots on Zoom and we also like the Insight Timer app which offers loads of free content. 

 

Thursday: Fill your Heart

Today’s all about what you love and are grateful for. Simply draw a heart and fill it with all the things that make your heart sing. From friends who make you happy and foods you love, to books you enjoy and songs that lift you. 

 

 

These are simple things you can turn to when you’re feeling low and need a quick pick-me-up. 

 

Friday: Let Go 

Yesterday you held what you love close, today you’re going to let go of things you don’t.

Draw a balloon. Visualise your worries and fears and using a pencil, write them down inside the balloon. Now stand by a window looking out and slowly visualise a balloon carrying each one away, floating into the distance until it finally disappears. As you release each worry, rub out the word in the balloon and replace it with a positive and encouraging thought. 

Top tip: open the window when you do this and go back to your breathing, the fresh air will be super refreshing!

 

Saturday: Intention Setting 

How do you want to feel at the end of next week and what do you need to do to get there? We love intention setting, taking time to consider how we’d like to feel in the future and then putting small manageable steps in place to get there. ⠀⠀

 

 

Intentions are conscious choices that bring awareness to that which you want to create. Every choice we make starts with intent, from having a shower to feeding ourselves. Setting intentions to manifest positive mindsets aren’t really any different, but they can only grow if we start by bringing awareness to what they are. It’s a great thing to do at the start of each day. But be careful, these don’t form a to-do list! We like to think of them as a ‘to be’ list.

Not sure where to start? Take a look at Finn’s Instagram Writing highlight, she’s put a bunch of hers there.

 

Sunday: Time for Vision Boarding

Sunday’s the perfect day for this. After a week of using the Positive Planner Lockdown Toolbox and being more mindful, you’re probably in a place now where you can take some time to start looking at what you really want your future to look like. And could there really be a better time to be thinking about your future than now? It's so important for us to hold on to hope in tough times like these.

 

 

Vision boarding is a gift of time to focus on your wildest dreams! What do you want in life? What are your hopes and desires? Where do you want to live, work and love? Take a little quiet time to dig deep and think about what you’d like to invite into your life. ⠀⠀

Now get some magazines and start tearing out whatever says a big fat YES to you and stick it on your page. It might be words, pictures, landscapes or people, it really doesn’t matter, just see where your heart takes you and watch as your dreams and inspiration find their space. And if you’re at home with no magazines to hand, why not use Photoshop or Canva? When you’re finished, put it somewhere you’ll see it every day and revel in the positive vibes it gives you!

You can find ideas and tips to help you on our Instagram VisionBoards highlight.  

 

Now it's over to you!

So that’s our Lockdown Self-Care Toolbox in seven days. We’ve put it in a week here, but don’t feel you have to keep to it rigidly; we’re all under so much pressure right now, so do what you can, when you can. And don’t forget to show us what you’re up to! We’d love you to tag us in your Instagram posts of the tools you’re using so we can see how things are going and what’s working for you. 

 

 

Sending you all a virtual hug!

Ali + Finn xx