SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) – October is Emotional Wellness Month, and depending on your constant day-to-day demands, your emotional health can be affected negatively affected.
This month is a great time to focus on and identify your biggest stress offenders. To help, our health expert, Karen Owoc, is here with some everyday self-care tips that can help you cope and calm down.
Stress Weakens the Immune System
Stress can affect the immune system. When you’re stressed, the stress hormone, cortisol is released, which can suppress your body’s ability to fight off foreign invaders. That’s why those who are under chronic stress tend to get sick more often.
Give yourself some time to break free of the crushing stresses that drastically affect your daily life and your longevity.
Self-Care Activities
- Review Your Financial Plan.
• Money issues can be a source of stress. By creating a plan that lines up with your savings, income, and your personal goals will help relieve anxiety.
• Adjust your spending habits, if needed, to plan for the future.
• Plan a vacation that fits with your financial plan to improve your emotional wellness.
- Learn Something New
If you used to spend 3 hours a day getting to and from work, by working at home, you may have up to 15 extra hours that can be spent caring for yourself.
• Binge watch some TEDx Talks.
• TEDx Talks can be no longer than 18 minutes. According to the TEDx organization,18 minutes is long enough to be taken seriously, but short enough to hold your attention.
• A motivating 3-minute TEDx Talk: “Try Something New for 30 Days” presented by Matt Cutts.
• Take some online classes. For example, Skillshare and Masterclass online learning communities that offer “real life” classes — from business, photography, music, design, creative writing, to entrepreneurship.
- Start a Gratitude Journal
• Gratitude is a learned skill. It’s a perfect antidote for when you are feeling stressed. When you’re stressed, it’s hard to focus on anything else.
• A gratitude journal has been shown to change your perspective. It can improve your relationships, your life, and your health.
• Write down the things you are grateful for — from things like the small kindnesses you may have received that day to your health.
- Cook and Bake
• Healthy cooking is a form of self-care. Experiment in the kitchen. Be in the moment.
• Learn basic knife skills and cooking skills at your own pace.
• There are online culinary schools, YouTube, and thousands of food blogs on the Internet to learn these skills.
• Cook/bake with your kids while they are home. Children learn when they cook. They learn:
• Reading — building new vocabulary and following step-by-step instructions
• Science — biology (how plants grow) and chemistry (how cooking works)
• Math — measuring, numbers, counting, shapes, patterns, proportions
• Motor skills — stirring, cutting, pouring, etc.
• Creates bonding time.
• Makes family memories that your kids will treasure forever.
• Builds healthy habits while they’re young and impressionable.
• Teaches a life skill.
• Produces fewer fussy eaters. Kids typically eat what they helped to plan and prepare.
- Declutter and Rearrange Your Home
• What better time to do something that there was never time to do for before. Since you’re spending more time in your home (and many with multiple family members, decluttering will give you more space.
• Letting go of old, unused clothes, household items, and toys can be very liberating and will force you to decide what’s actually important to you.
• During this time, lots of cleaning is essential. By decluttering your home, it’ll be easier to clean.
• Rearranging your home may help you visualize your world from a different perspective, which can always spark some creativity and positivity.
- Watch Something Fun!
• Turn off the news. Watch shows or movies that make you laugh, mesmerize you, or transport you to another time and place instead of bombard you with negativity.
• Watch favorite shows or movies from your childhood as they can be a way to calm down, relax, and feel grounded when life is in turmoil.
• Watch sitcoms or stand-up comedy shows. Laughter releases endorphins (natural pain killers that trigger positive feelings) that can reduce stress, depression, negative thinking, and feelings of isolation.
The Takeaway: Fall is the season for change. It’s the perfect time of the year to do things you didn’t have time for before