I agree Shelll, it can be hard. That's okay. Hugs.

I had NO IDEA what I was doing with being told to do "radical self-care" in attempts to help my daughter out of her darkest places.
I said "are you kidding me?"
The psych said NO! Just DO IT lol.
I Google searched it and it's a thang, who woulda thought?

Are there things that help lift your mood?
Comedy or laughing at silly things?
Putting on some jivey music?

Not to ignore your feelings, even if they're low.
Tapping into these can be nurturing toboot.
Then saying "enough, I've done you enough" lol I need to get on with my LIFE.

I've become obsessed with Bailey Sarian on YouTube!
Her Make-up Saturdays are awesome to watch.
After a week of watching these every day, I did more facial self-care stuff... using micellar water to remove make-up, moisturising etc.. working UP to the fancy make-up she's doing.
Tonight I cleaned the bathroom mirror REALLY well whilst watching her and am inspired to go a bit nuts with make-up JUST FOR FUN.
I could really go some nice make-up brushes or ANY make-up brushes lol.

FUN. That friendly f word lol.
I love how you were silly with that race on the escalator!
WHY NOT!

Hey Tay
I KNEW you were holding out on us! LOL!

Oh yeah me getting a Chai from a Cafe is FANCEE!
And I like it.
Absolutely this is self-care.

I'm so inspired by all those things you do like facials & wax melts (not max welts like I typoed then lol).
I want to do those too!
Well my replacement for max welts lol are incense sticks.
Facials for SURE!

Do you wanna join a thread I'm thinking of starting?
Not sure what to call it.
But this self-care thing needs extending yah.
Bringing in lots of SPARKLE to our lives.

Sometimes we need to change things UP.
Fun.
Music.
Laughing.
Fancy make-up lol.

Caring for ourselves in these ways.

Love EM

Nice ones Sleepy!

Oh gosh the post I just wrote will come after you just posted.
Sorry about that!

I'm so happy you went out with your friend sweet girl!
How NICE is that!

Awesome.
I'm including YOU and everyone in an invitation to join the thread I mention.

Love EM

Hi all,

Oh Em! You have just reminded me of how much fun it was when I put my salsa dvd on and tried to follow the moves. Fun and excercie! Altho it did hurt for a bit after- my old creaky hips lol- so I might do some yoga first. Which works well cos H is asleep before he goes to wrk, and I need to have the house to myself for salsa lol!

There's my self care for the day!!!

Em, another thread??? You're so lovely! Always thinking up new things!

Which reminds me, I have to post in the craft thread....

Cheers, all, off to stretch!

Love J*

Hi all,

Another self care for today (haven't gotten around to the dancing yet ;)

But while stretching I'm watching Embrace, on Netflix- a total must see Australian doco, so good!

Check it out girls - and guys!

Cheers,

J*

hi j

i've read the book and should have it somewhere?
She talks about sparkly activities in the book.. reminded me of her when you mentioned this EM

sending everyone sparkles and glitter today

"Embrace" Sounds awesome J*.... I must look that one up.
So it's a good book too Sleepy?
One can never have too many books lol.

I needed extra self-care today, just sayin'.

My self-care today...

~ saw my Podiatrist, golly gosh she's awesome. She basically healed multiple foot issues in her complete adjustments to how I walk (all over) and I'm so good now. Quite unbelievable.

~ told a few ppl about the recent grief news I got this morning.
I selected the ppl quite carefully.
They were all beautifully compassionate.

~ Tay will be proud of me .... lol.... I did a face mask, and used a Vit C facial scrub AND a Vit C cleanser (omg that cleanser was the bomb!)... then did my arms too!
Oh why not hey.

~ rearranged all my skin care products and make-up on my shelves. It's organised and easy to access now.

~ sprayed a nice room fragrance in my bedroom and other rooms.

~ spent time with God Praying... this one probably should've come FIRST lol. It was calming.

Many Blessings to you all
Love EMxxxx

Self care

1...Vacuumed and cleaned the living room. It feels more restful in there now

2...walked and spent time with my sister. She is the one person on earth they values what I say. And it's okay if I talk with scattered thoughts or if I am mixed up etc

3...talked to our kitty (who adopted us) We called her Lily

Today I:

1) Spent my time doing my makeup

2) Engaged with my friends on social media

3) ate a really nice home cooked meal

My 3 self-care things today

1) Got to buy my fav shirt
2) Went shopping with some friends
3) Ate a delicious meal

From a very happy janine :p

Oh my goodness!

I am going to go and spend time on my face and hair now- thanks girls! A nice face mask, wash my hair and maybe even a hair mask! I could paint my nails too!

Its a wild and rainy day, and I don't think we'll make it out of the house for our lunch date (me and H)...what better way to spend the day than with some beauty self care!

Its interesting, after watching Embrace I am looking at myself in the mirror differently- more lovingly. Yes, even naked!

Cheers all,

Love J*

1. let my co workers take over my house, some are doing my house work!

2. used hot pads twice on my back even though is hot today.

3. took dog for a walk along a new track.

Oh my!
Look at all the wonderful self-care going on you peeps!!
So marvellous reading about it all.

Excuse me seasoned BB members while I extend a HUGE WARM WELCOME to janine is happy!
HOW WONDERFUL!
Wonderful you're happy, wonderful you joined us.
Great you got a new Tee!

Alexa bought a "Charmed" Tee for $5 and she's over the moon! LOL.

Everyone else, also thankyou for sharing and giving everyone else some really GREAT ideas about self-care!

We're also in the midst of some flooding stuff going down so I need to keep it short today.
Apologies.

My self-care lately:
~ doing fancy make up (between you and me almost ANY make up is fancy lol)

~ re-jigged my wardrobe with it's organisation. Getting a it OCD about it I think but BF likes the idea and does it himself, so I'm good lol.

~ packed stacks of healthy food for work today and came home feeling FULL. hahaha.

Thanks for sharing!!
Love EM

Today for my self-care:

1) Home-made coffee, always a win :)

2) Made some food! I really love cooking but I don't do it often enough

3) I will play some video games tonight to unwind

My three things

1 - been to my osteopath

2- seen go, got antibiotics for a seriously infected toe from flood waters

3 - my daughter has came and I have my beautiful granddaughter asleep on my lap 😊

Hello everyone!! Sending lots of positive vibes out and hope you are all able to spend a few (if not many more) moments each day looking after yourself.

My 3 things today:

- Taking my dog for a walk outside (he was so happy to be out again after all this rain we've had!)

- Allowed myself to sleep in without an alarm.

- Gave the house a good clean which has made me feel productive and knowing that I did the cleaning first, has allowed me to now forget it and move on with my study & exercise in the afternoon :)

Awww my faves are the coffee with missep with carnation milk? hahaha every time I buy carnation milk for work, I think of YOU!
AND the hugging a baby grand daughter awww harpbird
AND a walk with your dog Scribble awww.

TODAY YES! What a magnificent day of SUN SHINE omg so grateful for a bit of drying out with that... not much drying but still grateful lol.

My 3 self-care things:

~ drove to the bakery at lunch time and bought a yummy bread roll, oh yum

~ followed my instincts at work in 2 situations.in 1 I took things UP a few notches lol and in the other I brought things down a notch. Happy to report both things worked VERY well.

~ helped my youngest daughter dye her hair after work. This is self-care for me too, because I got to play with her hair again! She's a teenager so it was a rare opportunity lol.

Love EM

Great work, all. I've had a bad run with self-care lately, a lot of stress and insomnia. Trying to pull myself back from a dark place and do more of what's good for me. Starting with:

- Taking sick leave. My exhaustion is severe enough to come with constant nausea and brain fog, with depression rearing its ugly head and trying to hook its claws in. Nope to that!

- Got sleeping tablets so I could sleep more than a few hours before waking up and ruminating again. (Don't fret, I know they are a short term solution.)

- Went for a wetland walk. So many birds out. Saw some I don't see too often - musk lorikeets, a Willie wag-tail, a heron and a pelican. And of course loads of corellas, they love it there at this time of year.

- Hopped on the exercise bike while I was on the phone - did 10km.

- Started my diet. Nothing too drastic, just committing to a) one reasonable portion of each main meal instead of a heaped one and maybe seconds, and b) easing up on desserts - swapping them out regularly for fruit or yoghurt, and keeping it to one small piece of cake instead of two big ones. In essence, breaking the habit of comfort eating before it becomes something else I need comfort from.

- Watching some Netflix and playing video games.

Yep, I know I'm far enough down the gurgler to need some radical self-care.

Blue.

good job blues clues! hope u can get some sleep, too. Hang in there, i think ur self-care is beautiful!!!

- got a hair cut :)

- ate some vegetables

- rested outside on a big leather couch

My 3 things are

enjoyed lay in

got washing done / thanks sunshine

my son took me for my 2nd injection, so now to rest up in recliner.

Wow Blue I'm so grateful you know these self-care steps will support you! Hugs!

New haircut Sleepy - nice one!

Yep I'm with you Harpbird - thankyou SUNSHINE lol.

My self-care involves:

~ cleaning up a bit after the rain

~ being positive and supportive with a big change to plans on the weekend

~ cancelling a work man on the weekend to accommodate the new plans

~ getting a new hairdo tomorrow (I hope!)

Beautiful self-care everyone.
Love EM

keep it coming, everyone!

self-care today

-nice cup of tea in my fave chair

- read my book

- slept in

1...put an avocado mask on my face

2...made use of left over soup and added lots of vegetables

3...texted my mum

hi all -

ate a little extra at lunch, coupled with a fantastic hot choc

shared slowly and intuitively with psych

found and made time to speak to someone who helps me, allocating a generous chunk of time to do so

Great self-care everyone!

My 3 things:

~ bought a yummy delivery lunch, like most ppl at work do on Fridays.

~ got a new hairdo at the hairdressers yay!

~ bought lots of food to roast tomorrow, first time in a loooong time that my own family will be together for about 2 hours lol. I'm grabbin' that window!

Hope you can all plan some beautiful self-care over the weekend.

Love EM

Stopped negative words before thinking them and accepted I made a mistake

didnt take a family members comment personally

took time off from volunteering to visit family

Hi all you fantastic selfcaring dudes!

I read recently the term self-compassion, and it resonated with me differently than the term self care, but it has the same meaning, so I'm sharing with you all!

Today I took the morning off, packed d's scooter in the car and took off to the beach/park together.

Bought us some snacks- gluten free for me as I'm experimenting with a connection b/t cakes and headaches....I want to see if cutting out cakes with raising agent in them helps. Gluten free options like almond cakes seem a good alternative! Hopefully my gut thanks me.

Got home in time for huge ham/salad wrap, so doing well!

It's my intention to replace breads and cakes with more vegies,and fruit, so watch this space :)

This evening I will prepare my clothes etc for my first day of work in about 10 yrs...bit nervous! Hope I can sleep...

Cheers,

J*

Hi quirky, gorgeous self-care! Spending time with family today was heart warming for you I hope. xxxx

Hi J*

Wow first day of work tomorrow!!! omg!!! LOL!
I'm so excited for you!

I've found the dynamics of my family and my and their reactions HAD to change with me going back to FT work. It's a thang!
I held strong in my mind that getting to work was my priority and I'd deal with most other stuff before and after work.
Bringing me to the mind work of "the wheels can fall off the wagon as long as I don't fall off the wagon" lol.

Self-compassion was a concept Sleepy told me about last year about when I joined!
Kristen Neff was the 'agent' of my learning.
"Holding your own hands" was pretty powerful. Like LITERALLY holding your own hands.

My self-care for today:

~ came home at 8am after driving 2 lots of kids to work early.. and had a 2h nap.

~ bought my fave rice paper rolls for lunch out clothes and shoe (and GAME) shopping for him lol... but the rolls I bought backfired on my digestion... 2 had cabbage in them and erghhh not good. Plus I ate an apple for breakfast and that's not good for my tummy, sadly.

~ SO had another nap when we got home. I had 4h disturbed sleep last night + late to bed + early rise... felt whacked.

~ added the sweet potato noodles to my Thai soup in the crock pot before we went shopping, so it's ready for work lunches maybe ALL week since it's a short week.

~ bought STACKS of fruit for work yum!

~ need time for self-compassion tonight... putting p.son on the train literally felt like I was handing over my baby tonight and I felt like crying. He's told me lots this weekend and it's really sad what he's dealing with living down south.

Finding just ONE self-care thing to do that makes you feel warm or comforted or SPARKLE can be a real lot.

Love EM

the four self care things i did today were:

1)got dressed

2)brushed my teeth and hair

3)played with my dogs

4)made a full meal and snacks for every meal time (3 meals and 2 snacks)

CookiexCream a REALLY warm welcome to our sweet group of BB self-carers! 🤗

AND a HUGE welcome to the forums! 💖

We are so glad you're here and like... where have you been? lol.

Those are GREAT self-care things and ever so important.... especially the playing with dogs 😉 lol.

What a trooper you are getting all those meals prepped! I feel SO much better when there's food in the fridge ready to go.

I'm sure I speak for everyone on the forums when I say we're so HAPPY you joined our beautiful BB family. We look forward to getting to know you and relish the opportunity.

Love EM