September: The month of Self-Care Awareness

Here at ECBC we love spreading awareness about self-care and it’s importance when living with a mental illness. Self-care is all about taking an opportunity to focus on yourself and your needs – it’s not selfish, it’s self-love. In fact, it’s self preservation! We spend so much time looking after others but not enough time looking after ourselves.

Last year we ran a month-long campaign all about self-care and it was so much fun. There are so many things you can do – a lot of people think it’s all about wearing a face mask and eating a tub of icecream (even though that’s definitely on the list), it’s so much more than that!

During our campaign we highlighted over 30 different ways you can practice self-care… but for this post we will narrow this down to 6! (what can I say… I have some self-care to focus on…)

Reading a book

One of my favourite things to do to relax and switch off for a bit is reading. This is particularly relaxing when sat in the sun with a pina colada… however, as I live in Manchester I often end up reading inside with a coffee. My favourite book to read is Jayne Hardy’s Self-care Project, which we previously wrote a book club post on.

Cooking or Baking

Feeding your mind can have an excellent affect and is a great stress-reliever. Cooking or baking is a great escapism with fantastic yummy results! Our campaign covered how food can be comfort in dark times.

Meditation or Yoga

Focusing on clearing your mind and practicing yoga can have a great impact on your mental health. Yoga is a great way of taking a moment and making a connection with your body, meditation is the same but with the mind. Breathing techniques, muscle relaxation and sensory techniques that you can do can be found here.

Cleaning or de-cluttering

Having an organised and clean space can really help clear your mind. Also organising and cleaning a space is some self-care therapy in itself. We wrote about how we love a good clean in our campaign.

Treat Yo Self

Some retail therapy can go a long way, and it doesn’t have to be big spending. I do agree with some mental health blogs online that a lot of retailers are taking advance of the self-care movement and making it soley about spending rather than the therapy itself. However I do believe buying some self-care related goodies can help. I have previously purchased Blurt Foundation’s self-care buddy box.

Listening to a Podcast

We love a podcast at ECBC. Especially a lovely mental health podcast. It can be fantastic self-care to have a podcast on in the background to help you relax or refocus on something else. We made a list of podcasts we really love listening to here.

You can find out more about our Selfcare September campaign from last year here.

What do you do for self-care? Comment below to let us know.