SLEEP well

Good sleep is a foundation for wellness. Your body and mind quickly starts to lose function when sleep is problematic. Find ways to make your sleep joyful.
Enhance your sleep and otherwise make sure you get enough sleep; somewhere between 6 to 8 hours every night.
Tools: L-Theanine in combination with Melatonin (all natural and sold over the counter), blackout curtains, calming white noise or background music that ends after 20 minutes, and otherwise turn off all electronics 2 hours ahead (unless meditation related).
Make sleep a positive sensory experience by finding the right pillows, bedding, and bed for your individual body.

Rest and Reset Your Brain During the Day

Your brain is awesome but is not a machine. It needs rest; about 15 minutes for every hour of work.
Stop regularly and simply engage your senses. Get up and walk away from work and look outside. Listen to inspirational short meditations Resilience Time on DIY Resilience YouTube channel.
Put in inspiration, nature, animal interaction, and sensory enjoyment every hour. You might use my Resilience Bag idea for this (Sensory Grounding: Resilience Bag)

Play Intentionally

Do this often alone and with others. There is value in playful independence and playful cooperation with others.
Make snow or sand angels, use the swings at the playground, make silly faces, and joyfully engage your inner child in positive ways.

Cultivate You on Own

You are the one person who will be with you every moment of your life.
Take time with the 4 L’s; Live, Love, Laugh and Learn all on your own…consciously breathing and being without external input other than your own positive thoughts and curiosity.
Confidence is partially built on knowing you can do many things on your own. You’ve got this!

Invest in Positive Relationships

Look for ways to simply and consistently loving your friends, family, and colleagues. How can you make someone else’s day a little lighter, happier, easier with a text, a gesture, a helping hand?
Consider that every human being is worthy of your time in some way, shape or form, then notice how positive interaction helps your heart, gut and mind.
Consider finding information and help to improve or remove yourself from relationships where you are not seen, not heard, or are otherwise abused physically or emotionally. Remember that you cannot control the actions of others but you can work on your understanding of good relationship. Work toward being honest about relationships and free yourself of abuse as much as possible; people can, and often are, abusive in intentional and unintentional ways. If you are experiencing physical or emotional abuse, this is not healthy or positive for you. Reaching out to a confidential domestic violence prevention centers in your area for information is an awesome way of loving yourself. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is a good place to start: 800-799-7233.

Celebrate and Give Your Self a Break

Celebrate every small step on your journey….literally; give self a round of applause, a pat on the head or shoulder, or something you come up with on your own.
Self-Criticism and harsh judgment does NOT support health and is useless as a tool for growth. Acknowledge what you can do better, apologize if appropriate, move forward.
Get help if you find this hard to do. There may be some negative patterns you learned in youth that could use some understanding and release. A good coach can help.
Maintain a list of what you’re learning, how you’re growing, and what you have and are accomplishing. Look at it regularly.

Filter In the Good

Intentionally find the good in every situation you can.
If you failed, you also learned … unless the misuse of judgement got in the way. You learn more when you put negative emotions in a jar and allow yourself to see what there is to learn and how you will grow as a result.
Notice how negative emotions are frequently associated with narrowed vision and the feeling of a knot in somewhere in your head and gut. Expand your vision to include the fullness of what’s around you; sky, hills, people, buildings, talking and laughter, color…so much for your senses to enjoy.

Limit Negative Input

Catch the news from humorous outlets. Know what’s happening, but consume it with a grain of salt and a huge amount of laughter (as it counters negativity).
Give yourself permission to unfriend or back away from friends or family that mostly engage in attack, gotcha, or otherwise focus on sharing negativity.
Avoid television shows that portray “reality” in terms of the least common denominator, ridicule, negative judgment of others, hatred, tearing down contestants, or otherwise lifting up negative behavior.

Engage in movement that stretches, healthifies, strengthens and makes your mind sing.

Dance (I recommend modern dance as it includes a broader range of natural and unnatural body positions)
Martial Arts
Running, Walking or Hiking
Biking
Tai Chi
Trampoline

Care for Your Body

Your skin is the largest organ of your body. Let it absorb goodness in the form of oils, nourishing baths, lotions that heal and soothe.
Your senses take all in and can bring you as much joy as you will allow or is appropriate. Feel, touch, taste, see and hear things that produce positive memory or sensations regularly and consistently.
Give your body a massage now and then. Include your head, feet, elbows, nose and sinus area, heart and gut. All of you deserves to be loved.

Focus on Nutritious Food instead of dieting and learn how emotions are connected to the kinds of food you eat and when.

Invest in making your own food without the use of processed items in boxes, cans and bottles. Processed sugars and chemicalized foods are connected to the major diseases of our time (cancer, diabetes, heart disease, stroke) and contribute to stress in your body and mind. Check out my book for more information on this Sugar + Stress = Sick book
Reduce eating at restaurants, coffee bars, and fast “food” locations.
Get to know how individual foods impact your body.
Notice how your body feels on veggies, proteins
Make and carry your own salad dressing and sauces. Yes…really.
Limit to rare celebration or discontinue your use of “accessories” like alcohol, cigarettes, sugary foods (highly addictive), drinks or drugs that make your heart race, and drugs that create temporary highs or lows and are highly addictive.

Here’s a brief Love Yourself Checklist:

__ Be Kind and Gentle to Yourself. If you find you are mean to yourself, find out why and work to adopt yourself some new ways of loving self.

__ Be Kind and Gentle to Others. See how this impacts your heart, gut and mind.

__ Feed Your Self Nourishing Food for your Body and Your Mind.

__ Move

__ Filter in the Good. Most of what goes on is neutral or positive. Invite self to see that a little more right now.

__ Surround Yourself with Positive People.

__ Be ok and even joyous on own. Explore.

__ Play.

__ Celebrate EVERY little Step.

__ Live. Love. Laugh. Learn. That is your balance.

__ Care for your body as you are deserving of this love.

__ Remember to Rest and Sleep.

#LoveYourselfChallenge

Jean Morrison, Trauma & Resilience Coach

Behavior Therapist, 5th Degree Black Belt

Board Certified Cognitive Specialist, IBCCES

Find You Within, LLC

Ways to Love Yourself Every Day of the Year

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