Every once in a while, life delivers hardships that put our emotional and mental strength to the test. In the face of crisis, our thoughts can become clouded, allowing negativity to move in. This is a natural response to grief, disappointment, heartbreak, and trauma. While these can all take a mental toll, they are a part of life, and though they may be challenging, our growth and development depend on these moments.
These are the kinds of experiences that foster resilience. The more resilient you are, the easier you can overcome the effects of stress and negative emotions and not only recover but thrive.
However, we don’t have to wait until something bad happens to test our resilience. We can begin by implementing self-care in our everyday life to help empower us. Self-care is a way to stay mentally fit so that, when things get tough, we already have strategies in place that will help us to withstand, adapt to, and recover from adversity and stress.
Self-care is not just about what we do, but also about how we think and feel about what we are doing. It can be done in small ways or big ways — something as simple as taking a few minutes to breathe deeply or as complex as taking a vacation from work for an extended time period.
Taking time for yourself aids in stress and anxiety reduction, and may also help to enhance sleep quality, and improve moods, feelings of happiness, and life satisfaction.
You can download our collection of great self-care tips collected from our virtual community. These tips are not specific to remote workers, but rather for everyone. We hope they are useful for you.
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Download these great self-care tips – choose your favorite color (both downloads have the same information).
Tips contributed by:
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Jennifer Franklin, PhD, Psychologist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner specializing in the treatment of anxiety, panic, and functional medical problems like Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). www.donthateyourguts.com and www.opendoortherapy.com.
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Jennifer Riggins, eBranding Ninja.
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Maarten Koopmans, Uncommon principal software engineer and team builder.
- My favorite self care video: How to be alone by Andrea Dorfman.
Podcast production by Podcast Monster
Graphic design by Alfred Boland