I spend a great deal of time talking about nutrition, training, fat loss and mental health on this page.
One of the things you may read about as you find the areas that overlap in all of those topics is how you manage your self care.
Many years ago, I had basically two outlets for my emotions: songwriting and drugs.
I gave up the drugs in 2006 and little did I know then, I would only have a handful of years left before the songwriting would fall by the wayside as well.
Fitness became an outlet that started in 1999 but became more prominent after I got clean.
However, as I’ve gotten older and my responsibilities and priorities have changed in life, so too have the coping mechanisms when life throws whatever curveballs it can my way.
These days, self care and stress management skills go somewhat hand-in-hand.
The things that I consider restorative and stress reducing are often synonymous with each other.
Now, I use exercise, writing, reading, playing guitar/singing, listening to music, certain household chores, cooking, going for hikes with Marissa (or Marissa and Sebastian), watching movies, getting a massage, etc. as ways to “fill my cup.”
If you’re struggling with something like fat loss, there’s a good chance that you don’t have effective outlets for your stress or feelings of boredom.
My kind advice to you this week is to make a list of the things you enjoy doing that help you fill your cup.
Those things may change over time (as mine did) but, in the short term, you need a list that you can utilize until you change those default patterns in your life.
For instance, if you’re someone who experiences uncomfortable/unsettling feelings when you’re by yourself and the default is to head to the pantry/fridge/freezer, visit your list and find something that can serve as not only a distraction and a break in the old pattern, but something you actually enjoy doing instead that’s not related to food.
You may hear the advice that it’s important to “sit” with your feelings and I don’t think that’s bad advice but sometimes you may need to put your mind and body into something that doesn’t feel as threatening as sitting with those uncomfortable feelings.
For myself, I no longer need to remind myself what things help me cope with downtime or uncomfortable feelings. I know what works, and I find ways to busy myself so that I’m not turning to food to solve every problem in my life (like I did with drugs all those years ago).
I came late to the game with things like hiking and only just started getting into it last year. Now I love it. It’s the kind of thing I can do that’s a complete distraction from my normal world. It doesn’t make my problems go away but it does give me fresh perspective to be able to handle stress when it’s higher than normal.
You may find something else does that for you and the most important thing is that you find it and use it.
Ask me in ten years what I’m doing for self-care and some of my answers might change.
But many of them will be the same.
Why? Because they work really well and when you have a moment, I’d love to hear what works best for you.
