Skill Builder No. 17: Self-care

Skills Guide Content

Goal: Emotional state recognition, and learning to address feeling depleted or stressed

Self-care is self-awareness. Don’t be fooled into thinking self-care is just indulgences and laying around. Self-care is the practice of checking in with yourself, your energy, your mental capacity, your physical capacity and then taking steps to improve your well-being.

Two skills are presented:

• body scan exercise
• identifying the “pain points” in a usual week or day

Activity from Planner

What is self-care? Is it sitting by the pool or getting a massage? Is it something only adults need to do? No! Self-care is simply evaluating what you need to be less stressed or more content. Self-care is self-awareness.

1. Body Scan – Try asking yourself how your body feels right now. Start at your head and work down to your feet. Can you do something right now to make your body feel better?
2. Future Self – Thing about a time in the week that’s always stressful. What can you do right now to care for your future self in that moment?

Do one of the self-care activities.

Extended Activity

Self-care is a trendy concept, but what is self-care? Is it sitting by the pool or getting a massage? Is it something that only adults need to do? Definitely not! Self-care is simply evaluating what you need to be less stressed or more content. Self-care is self-awareness. Because you are unique, the care for yourself will look different than what someone else needs to do. It should include checking your mental and physical health and doing what your body and mind need. Here are some examples of ways to be more self-aware and care for yourself.

1. A body scan is a great way to check in on yourself. Try asking yourself how your body feels in this position. Do it right now, even as you read this. How is the temperature of the room? Check-in on all your physical body parts, starting at your head. Mentally check your forehead, jaw, neck, and shoulders. Then check your arms and your hands. Think about your entire back, your chest, and your stomach. Move on to your hips, backside, legs, and feet. Can you do something right now to make your body feel better? It can be simple, like standing up, stretching, lying down, or drinking water. Whatever it is, do it now!
2. Think about a time in your week that always feels stressful. Maybe it’s the morning rush to get out the door or the “Sunday scaries” at 9 pm on Sunday when you realize you didn’t do any of your homework due tomorrow. Whatever it is, think about what you could do now to care for your future self. It might be showering at night instead of in the morning or adding a reminder to your phone for 10 am on Saturday when you know you’ll have time to do that math.

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