Hello! My name is Faith and I am one of the general interns at 1N5. I recently graduated from the University of Dayton (UD) and Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law. My undergraduate degree is in Biology from UD and my masters is in law from Northwestern! I am passionate about making sure everyone receives the care they deserve for all aspects of their health — physiologically AND psychologically.
Truthfully speaking, I have not always had a good relationship with self-care. I grew up thinking self care looked like meditating or taking an entire day out of my busy schedule to spend time on me. In the past, I have also really struggled with understanding that taking time for myself is a necessity, and not optional. As I have gotten older, I have realized that that is just not the case. This realization is what changed the self-care game for me; it can look like whatever I want it to look like and what works for me is not going to work for everyone else. I think I struggled with conceptualizing that it can be whatever I want because you most often hear of people meditating, taking a whole day to relax, or writing multi-page journal entries but that is just not realistic with a busy schedule sometimes- and sometimes those methods may not even work for you.
I learned very quickly that meditation is not something that is beneficial for me, my mind spirals too much to sit down and meditate. However, I did find methods that allow my mind to stay busy but I am still caring for myself is best for me. A few of my favorites are listening to my favorite podcast or movie during a candlelit shower completely resets my mindset- even better if I take the time to do a hair mask and a body scrub! In addition to this, every two weeks or so, I take the time to sit down and paint my nails without rushing. It is the only thing on my agenda that afternoon or morning and after turning on my favorite podcast or movie I relax and take as long as I need- this was a good compromise for me instead of shutting down my entire day. Having my nails painted, just in general, is something that makes me feel good and put together which is why I prioritize this time for myself. Methods of self care similar to these allow me to take care of my physical needs but also relaxes me mentally, especially in the evening.
Lately, I have also been taking care of myself through journaling. I am not someone who will just write out the entire day in a “Dear Diary” format writing down pages on pages; I like to switch between writing letters to loved ones in my life (that I know they will never see so I can say whatever I please) and using guided journaling prompts. I like to find guided journals that are small enough to fit in any bag if I am traveling and have simple prompts to help you reflect on the day without needing to spend a ton of time every night journaling BUT still allows me to work through the emotions I had been experiencing all day, without spending hours doing so. I have found that this time for myself is much easier when I am given direction on where my mind should travel!
I try to take care of myself in a few different ways with similar tasks to be able to make finding time to implement self care into my daily routine easier. I would recommend finding things that work for you through trial and error. Feel free to try things I suggested or other suggestions from other posts to see if it will work for you. Even if you start to feel defeated, just keep trying to find what works for you, after all, you have all the time in the world to figure it out.
In the end, all the hard work finding what works for you will be worth it.