Small Win Self-Care: Maintaining Self-Care in a Crisis

Wow. The world has changed for all of us a lot since we last blogged. We’re feeling a lot of uncertainty and fear. Experiencing gratitude for our areas of privilege as well as exhaustion. We’re trying to ride the rollercoaster of how fast everything is changing. We’re worried about our loved ones, the people we care about who work in health care, our own patients, our students, and our neighbours. We’re trying to learn how to work remotely, coping with being physically isolated, looking after our children, and trying to get some sleep.

When we’re worried, or overwhelmed, or stretched to our limits it can be easy to give up on self-care. Time is the most commonly cited barrier to engaging in self-care activities. Our experience, right now, is that time is something we no longer have a lot of. Others might be experiencing more time than know what to do with, and that might not even feel that good.

Our blog post this month is about “Small Win Self-Care.” It’s about how to take self-care and make it manageable, so you don’t give it up entirely when you’re experiencing a prolonged crisis. This is when we need to invest in our own emotional resources, and self-care is a wonderful way to do that. But the ways you used to do self-care? They might not work for you right now. Or they might not even be possible. You have perhaps shifted into a new season of your life, albeit a temporary one, and your self-care will have to shift accordingly.

There are 3 steps to Small Win Self-Care:

1. Stay grounded in your values. Remember, connecting self-care to your values is how you find self-care strategies that are best for you. When we engage in living consistently with our values, we are more resilient in the face of stress. For more information about that advantage, check out our previous post here. Need some help identifying your values? We cover all of that in this post here. Touch base with your values and decide: What would refresh my spirit right now? What do I need to do to fill up my own cup, so I can give to others? How will I give myself something in this uncertain time?
2. Take that self-care goal and make it smaller. Shrink it down! This might mean making it smaller in size, time, effort, expense, or any other factor you can think of. What can you shrink about your ideal self-care to make it manageable right now? What is the bare minimum you need to get by?
3. Find some support! Self-care feels better when there are others to cheer you on! All month we’re going to be talking about #smallwinselfcare on our Instagram feed. Drop by, tell us your #smallwinselfcare and get the support you need to prioritize YOU in this difficult time.

In self-care solidarity,