Its Time to Care about Self-Care Melissa Hannah TIPS ON - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

It’s Time to Care about Self-Care

Melissa Hannah

TIPS ON SELF-CARE

Neglecting self-care can have negative effects on mind, body, and spirit, leaving parents/caregivers depleted and out of balance.

Let’s have a discussion on Self-Care

• Healthy Eating
• Active Living
• Personal Care
• Positive Thoughts
• Inhale/Exhale- Breathe
• Mental health/Mindfulness
• Emotional Health
• Sleep
• Spiritual Healing

Healthy Eating

“Good Food = Good Mood”

Healthy Eating and mental health

• Serotonin
• Helps regulate sleep, appetite, moods, and reduce pain.
• About 95% produced in your gut
• Your gut is lined with a hundred million nerve cells, or neurons
• helps you digest food
• “good” bacteria
• Protect the lining of intestines
• Strong barrier against toxins and “bad” bacteria
• Limit inflammation
• Improve absorption of nutrients from food
• Activate neural pathways that travel between gut and the brain.

What to do

• Try eating a “clean” diet for two to three weeks.
• Add fermented foods like kimchi, miso, sauerkraut, pickles, or kombucha.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-201511168626

Active Living

“A healthy mind lives in a healthy body”

• Exercise helps memory and thinking- directly and indirectly.
• Directly
• reduces insulin resistance and inflammation
• Indirectly
• improves mood and sleep, and reduces stress and anxiety.
• Better endurance, increased energy and stamina
• Weight reduction
• Aerobic exercises, such as jogging, swimming, cycling, walking,

gardening, and dancing are proved to reduce anxiety and depression.

• caused by exercise-induced increase in blood circulation to the brain
• improves mental health by reducing anxiety, depression, negative mood,

and increasing self-esteem and cognitive function.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1470658/

Personal Care

• Schedule those

routine Dr. visits

• Get your hair/nails

done

Positive Thoughts

• Think positive
• Imagine positive outcomes in a particularly challenging

situation.

• What to do:
• Smile More
• A University of Kansas study found that smiling—even fake

smiling—reduces heart rate and blood pressure during stressful situations.

Inhale/Exhale…Breathe

• Breath focus/deep breathing/diaphragmatic breathing

evokes the relaxation response.

• What to do:
• The first step is learning to breathe deeply.
• Air coming in through your nose fully fills your lungs and the lower

belly rises.

• Breathe out as if you were whistling.
• Do this breathing 3 to 10 times.

Mindfulness

• Definition: A mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness
• n the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and

accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.

• When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we're

sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.

• What to do:
• Think of the acronym SNACK
• Stop
• Notice
• Accept
• Curious
• Kindness

Emotional Health

• Parents often have feelings that others will look down on them
• r think their selfish if they were to take time off for

themselves-

• Call or see a friend
• Hang out for lunch or dinner
• Find time to have coffee with a friend or relative
• Get your hair done
• It’s ok to say no to friends and children and say yes to your

husband, boyfriend or partner.

• Set limits on personal time to make relationships possible
• Seek ideas on ways to have a weekly date with your

partner

Sleep

• A good night's sleep helps foster both mental and

emotional resilience.

• Deepest stage of sleep produces physiological

changes that help boost immune system.

• REM (rapid eye movement) sleep- dream sleep.
• Body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and

breathing increase to levels measured when people are awake.

• Studies report that REM sleep enhances learning and

memory, and contributes to emotional health.

Spiritual Healing

• Pray/Meditate
• Join a bible study.
• Attend a church service
• Listen to inspiring music
• Write in a journal

Thank you!!!

Melissa Hannah United Parents OAC Grant Coordinator 805-384-1555 Like us on Facebook Parents and Caregivers for Wellness