Carole-Anne gives us advice on how we can help ourselves to stay emotionally balanced.
On a recent walk with my dog, I was left thinking about our own self-care and how it can feel overwhelming trying to work out just where to start. I’ve been through this and wanted to share with you an exercise to help you BE BALANCED.
You’ll be pleased to hear that I have kept it simple and used a creative idea on BALANCING yourself and the importance of bringing BALANCE into our lives.
Here we go!
Take a photo or draw a picture of yourself (it doesn’t have to be perfect) and place it in the middle of a large piece of paper. Take a few sheets of A4 paper and split them into four sections, drawing a line from top to bottom and through the middle. Cut these boxes out, and then in each box write one of the following titles:
THINKING (what are you preoccupied with right now? E.g. work, stresses, pressures, etc.)
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES
PLEASANT ACTIVITIES
EXERCISE
RELAXATION
SELF-CARE
SOCIAL SUPPORT
GOALS
Using some glue, stick the boxes on the large piece of paper around the outside of your picture or drawing of yourself. Now, start writing in all the boxes giving examples of things you already do that fall under that heading. This might take some time, or it might take no time at all; everyone is different.
When you can’t think of anything more to add, stand back from your creation and consider the BALANCE. Are there any boxes that are entirely empty, or nearly empty? Are there boxes that could be expanded upon or even reduced? Whilst considering this, perhaps you would like to add some more categories, tailor-made to your own uniqueness.
By creating a visual view of the BALANCE of self, we can instantly see what is missing, what self-care is being overlooked at the moment, and what we want to change to enhance our lives. By bringing all these self-care tips together we are creating our very own MOT.
I hope this exercise is useful to you and wishing you all a more BALANCED self.
