Even when you feel like there isn't enough time in your day to relax, self-care should always be a priority. Here are 34 tips that you can use to incorporate self-care into your night time routine!
5 Ways to Stave Off the Quarantine Blues
Shelter in Place has left many of us cooped up at home for the past many months. You may be struggling with feelings of fear, sadness, and anxiety--all of which are valid. These are strange times that hold a lot of uncertainties and unknowns. The reality is, there’s no right or wrong way to feel. But many of us still have work to do, relationships to nurture, and lives to live!
If your feelings are getting the best of you, keeping you from doing the things you want or need to be doing, it might be time to reach out for some extra support (like seeing a psychotherapist!).
However, at Mindful NYC, we recognize that these uncertain times have left many of us with some financial anxieties. While we do offer sliding scale services, we also pride ourselves in providing resources through blog posts and social media to the larger-Manhattan community.
So! Here are a few of our favorite ways to keep the quarantine blues away:
1.Make your bed
New York apartments aren’t known for their square-footage, you might be surprised what a difference a made bed can make to your day. Making your bed every day can serve as a ritual, or cue, to let you know the day has started. While also acting as a micro-cleaning practice to help you keep your space clear and clutter-free!
2. Take a shower
When you’re not leaving the house for anything (except maybe to get groceries), it can be easy to let your hygiene slip. Take the time each morning (or night!) to shower, paying attention to your showering experience. Take note of how the water feels on your skin, use your favorite soaps and conditioners, savoring their scent--really allow yourself to be in the moment while you pamper yourself!
3. (safely) Get moving!
Movement has so many benefits, it can lift your mood, enhance learning, promote creativity, and decrease stress! Safely going for a walk, riding a bike, or doing some stretching on your balcony or in the park can make a BIG difference in your day--allowing you to take a break, change up the scenery, and get those feel-good neurochemicals going.
4. Cut yourself a break
It’s really important to remember that these are unprecedented times. We’re in the middle of a global trauma. There’s a lot of hype in the world right now about using quarantine as a time to learn a new skill! Get fit! Actualize your best self! Blah, blah, blah. Your value is not based on how much you can do. You deserve a rest, no matter how much or how little you’re doing right now. It’s ok to take a break and honor your limits.
5. Pay attention to your body
The pandemic is causing us all a lot of stress (individually and globally). Stress is a physical process in our bodies that raises our blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration rate--along with a host of other physiological reactions known as the stress response. When our stress response is sustained for too long like during a pandemic, our bodies become strained. We may find ourselves feeling depressed and anxious. Paying attention to what is happening in our body can be the first step to experiencing some emotional relief.
BONUS: Anything that helps us relax physically can help us feel better emotionally. Some ways to relax physically might be: taking a hot bath or shower, getting some movement, putting on a weighted blanket, taking a few deep, slow breaths, meditating, practicing some yoga, or drinking a hot cup of tea.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of ways to stave off of the quarantine blues. Still, we hope it gives you some idea of ways you might incorporate small, but impactful acts of care into your day-to-day routine.
10 Reason Why Your Children Should Do Yoga
Yoga is a series of stretches and poses that an individual does while controlling their breathing technique. Since it’s a gentle activity, almost anyone can do it, regardless of your age or fitness level. Yoga allows children to express their energy and joy. It gives them an opportunity to try out new poses, which encourages them to believe and achieve.
Yoga exercises can be intense and vigorous, depending on your personal choice. No matter which type of exercise you do, it will allow your mind and body to relax and reflect.
1. Yoga allows children to challenge themselves
Children will be given the opportunity to try out new yoga poses. To an extent, children get to overcome an obstacle.
2. Children get to take time off and reflect on their personal health
This allows children to understand what works well for their body, this can be related to breathing problems, anger management, and even time management.
3. Yoga encourages connection between each other
Children will learn to communicate with each other, especially when they are practicing poses with a partner.
4. Yoga provides a method, environment where children can explore themselves
The environment that the children practice in will be private, meaning they will learn about their strengths and weaknesses.
5. Yoga works as a “natural medicine” for people of all ages
Yoga is a natural, drug-free method for your body to reset and re-energize.
6. Children will understand how to control their emotions through success and failure
Failure does not always bring negative effects. In fact, children can learn about the process and how to prevent failure.
7. Yoga is non-competitive (Self-challenge)
Instead of competing with other, yoga allows you to set goals ( achieve whatever pose you like).
8. Yoga improves sleep patterns especially in young children
Yoga can benefit sleep schedules, as well as breathing techniques.
9. Children learn about determination and perseverance
Without determination and perseverance, the chance of success is rather low.
10. Encourage kids to be patient and learn
In the beginning, children will have to pay attention to practice certain poses. They might even have to observe an expert first before trying it out themselves.
Yoga brings positive aspects to our spiritual and mental well-being. Growing up is a challenging period of parents and children, let us use yoga to de-stress and unwind. Yoga provides such a wonderful activity for the family. So why not try it out? At Lan Lan Yoga, we utilize a simple three steps method to take Yoga for children to the next level by having the children to reflect their own experience, helping them perceive, believe and achieve!
Breathwork
Chances are, you've heard of breathwork. In recent years, it’s made its way into yoga studios, the latest meditation apps, and wellness circles across the country. But what’s so special about breathing?
What is breathwork?
Simply put, breathwork is an intentional practice of breathing. It can be understood as a form of active meditation in which there is a sole focus on a specific breathing pattern for a set period of time.
Some techniques utilize a three-part breath--inhaling, holding, exhaling, and holding again for four counts each--whereas others practice six breaths per minute, inhaling and exhaling through the nose for four minutes or more. Consciously controlling the breath can have positive effects on our emotional, psychological, and physiological states (Morningstar, 2001).
How does it work?
Generally speaking, breathwork is a means of regulating the autonomic nervous system. When our sympathetic nervous system is activated by a stressor, we may feel anxious and overwhelmed.
We often spend more time than we realize in our sympathetic nervous system throughout our daily lives--feeling frazzled at work or in an argument with a significant other. Especially during the holiday season, stress can run high. Often, patients will report challenges interacting with family and having difficulty shifting gears to focus in on their internal experience. By taking even a five-minute break to check in with ourselves, we have the power to activate the parasympathetic nervous system and bring the body back into balance (Jerath, R., Edry, J. W., Barnes, V. A., & Jerath, V. 2006).
Tapping into the parasympathetic system, colloquially called the “rest and digest” system, improves the ability of regulatory centers of the brain to manage over-reactivity in the emotion-processing centers of the brain (Jerath, R., Edry, J. W., Barnes, V. A., & Jerath, V. 2006). Breathing techniques that stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system induce a relaxed state, allowing for greater emotional regulation and mental clarity (Morningstar, 2001).
Breathwork can be especially helpful for the following issues:
anxiety
panic attacks
depression
(Jerath, R., Crawford, M. W., Barnes, V. A., & Harden, K. 2015).
As we breathe deeper, we start to slow down and become increasingly present. We learn to quiet the mind and connect to our bodies. This heightened awareness allows us to not only feel more grounded, connected, and safe with ourselves--but also with others.
Using breathwork in therapy
In my experience, ignoring bodily sensations in therapy means we’re only doing half the work. Sometimes the body--and especially the breath--expresses emotions in ways that cannot yet be verbalized. In session, I utilize breathwork to help patients anchor themselves and begin regulating difficult emotions.
Sometimes, this can be helpful at the start of a session as a way of establishing safety in the room. Here’s how we might begin:
Close your eyes and identify sensations in the body.
Locate the breath in the body and notice if you’re breathing mostly in your chest or more deeply, from your diaphragm.
Begin to deepen the breath.
I would then guide the breath through a short exercise: inhaling for a series of counts, holding the breath briefly, and then elongating the exhale.
Guiding you through a breathing exercise usually takes a few minutes and may involve visualizations. With practice, it becomes easier to bring the body and mind back to a state of calm. Ideally, this is a practice that you could ritualize and implement into your daily life, outside of session.
REFERENCES:
Jerath, R., Edry, J. W., Barnes, V. A., & Jerath, V. (2006). Physiology of long pranayamic breathing: neural respiratory elements may provide a mechanism that explains how slow deep breathing shifts the autonomic nervous system. Medical hypotheses, 67(3), 566-571.
Jerath, R., Crawford, M. W., Barnes, V. A., & Harden, K. (2015). Self-regulation of breathing as a primary treatment for anxiety. Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback, 40(2), 107-115.
Morningstar, J. (2001). Breathwork as a therapeutic adjunct in counseling.
Morningstar, Jim,“Breathwork-Therapy of choice for whom?”, The Spirit of Breathwork, (2001).