Here at The Family Place, May 9th – June 20th is our Be Kind Utah campaign which falls during the Utah Family Month. Be Kind Utah encourages individuals, families, businesses, schools, and organizations to spread kindness throughout the state of Utah. Our goal is to spread 1 million acts of kindness within 40 days! We believe kindness builds stronger communities by increasing compassion for one another, bolstering emotional resilience, and enhancing our abilities to empathize, respect, and support other community members. This month as you spread kindness and love, take the time and make sure you are including yourself and your family. As the saying goes, you can’t pour from an empty cup.
This past year has been especially difficult. The Family Place Utah recognizes that sometimes individuals forget to practice self-care. As we face more cases of burnout and fatigue, with less boundaries between work and home life due to more people working from home. It is more important than ever to create a self-care plan, because after all kindness can start with you! If you find yourself starting to become tense, take some time to practice self-care. This can be different for every individual, you could want to cozy up with a good show, read an inspiring book, or finally go to that restaurant you’ve been eager to try.
Self-care is important because it to teaches you to be kind to yourself, builds self-confidence, recharges your heart, builds your resilience, protects your mental health, and helps you be more ready to help those around you. It is a good reminder to yourself that you and your needs are important too. Life is stressful and practicing self-care helps to create a buffer between you and stress. Having a plan in place for when the stresses of life happens means you will already have built in support in helping get through tough times. Not only does having a self-care plan work during stressful times but it also helps you become the person you want to be, it helps you be true to yourself.
Because self-care can be practiced in many different ways, creating a plan can actually be pretty simple. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:
“What is currently giving me stress in my life?”
“What is one thing I could do today to improve how I feel?”
Write your answers down and you have now created a self-care plan!
Practicing self-care can feel awkward at first but keep going, keep trying. One day its going to be an automatic response and you will find joy in taking care of yourself.
The point of practicing self-care is to help let off some steam, so while it is important to follow your plan in times of need, try practicing self-care daily. Showing kindness to ourselves is skill that we sometimes forget to use, so this month practice caring for yourself. At the end of the day, you are the only person who can do the things you do and that is something worth celebrating!
Don’t forget to pledge acts of kindness and share your kindness stories with us at BeKindUtah.org!
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