Self Care Pick Me-Ups (Part 1)

If you’re in the Rare Community, it’s essential to nurture your mental wellness and develop the fortitude to respond to all the family-building challenges that come your way.

Mindfulness is one way to fortify your mental health. Mindfulness is the act of tuning into the present moment in a non-judgmental way. It provides a lens of awareness that will transform your approach to life and how you care for yourself.

Here are a couple of ways to offerings that can help boost your inner-self.

**Affirmations to enhance your self-worth**

Whether you’re a Rare Caregiver or the Rare One yourself, the path to through life can engender feelings of shame, isolation, disconnection and just being lost.

With each day, the ups and downs, lefts and rights, can leave you feeling like there’s something wrong with you, and experience a diminished sense of self-worth. Many Caregivers also begin to change or second-guess their lifestyle, whether it’s their work schedule, fitness regimen, or how they eat or drink—and, while some of these changes can be healthy choices, sometimes they result in a loss of sense of self. During these tough moments, it’s important to remember to extend self-compassion and grace to yourself. Your inner critic often says the harshest things, so challenging these detrimental thoughts is key to enhancing your self-esteem.

Action Step: Mindfulness strategies like Affirmations or Mind ReMapping can help boost your sense of self-worth. Affirmations are words or phrases that offer kindness, love and support. They act as reminders of your inner power. Here are some examples:

I am strong.

I feel I am capable.

I believe I am worthy.

Write down some of the phrases that you need to hear throughout your day or week. Say them to yourself during tough times. Write them down on sticky notes and put them on your mirror so you have a daily reminder to say these phrases to yourself. With repetition, your mind will start to hold on to these empowering words of encouragement. Or I can show you how to do it even quicker with Mind ReMapping.

**Cultivating gratitude to shift your mindset**

When your attempts at moving smoothly through your day are unsuccessful; negativity can start to take hold. If you’re focused on what you’re lacking, it can feel hard to shift to a place of positivity. With the help of mindfulness techniques, you can shift your mindset from one of lack to one of abundance.

Cultivating gratitude is a mindfulness strategy that utilizes awareness to identify things that bring you joy. When you tune into the present moment, you step outside of the chaos of challenges and instead focus on the good things right in front of you. Under the circumstances, it might be hard to think of things that you are grateful for. Know that it’s totally okay and normal to feel this way.

Action Step: One way to jumpstart the process of gratitude is to think of obvious things that we take for granted like waking up, breathing, having a cup of coffee. Starting out this way can make it easier to pinpoint other things that bring you joy. Over time and with practice, your brain will develop a greater ability to access gratitude and joy.

Stay tuned for more suggestions!

Sending hugs,

Pamela