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Self Care List

Raggamuffin

Raggamuffin

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
I'm a very forgetful person, and I know that my self-care peaks and troughs

I figured perhaps a visual list might be useful for me. Tomorrow I start with my new therapist doing EMDR. She wants to complete a preliminary assessment similar to CBT where you number your anxiety and depression etc. Frustratingly simplistic in my opinion.

But then I figured, maybe chart my own progress and see if patterns emerge. An A4 paper print out I can just fold up and keep in my back pocket. When I do a thing, tick it off the list.

See what you think to the below. The top section will be a simple tick list. The mood section below it will be low/med/high. Might even end up doing monthly graphs, because n e r d :

self care list.PNG


There's a lot in a day. I don't expect daily exercise of walking, cycling, staffing etc. But it'll be good to see a pattern if self care is slipping when anxiety, depression etc is increasing.

Ed
 
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Raggamuffin said:
I'm a very forgetful person, and I know that my self-care peaks and troughs

I figured perhaps a visual list might be useful for me. Tomorrow I start with my new therapist doing EMDR. She wants to complete a preliminary assessment similar to CBT where you number your anxiety and depression etc. Frustratingly simplistic in my opinion.

But then I figured, maybe chart my own progress and see if patterns emerge. See what you think to the below. The top section will be a simple tick list. The mood section below it will be low/med/high. Might even end up doing monthly graphs because n e r d :

View attachment 93883

There's a lot in a day. I don't expect daily exercise of walking, cycling, staffing etc. But it'll be good to see a pattern if self care is slipping when anxiety, depression etc is increasing.

Ed
Click to expand...
Cool! I noticed you have scheduled time for Wim Hof breathing! :)
 
Rodafina said:
@Raggamuffin & @MildredHubble

Do you guys do the exposure to cold thing too? I don’t mean to trivialize here with my language, my understanding is limited. Just curious how comprehensively you study his ideology.
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I don't do the ice cold water part. Ironically I was going to give it a try but then I got diagnosed with a heart condition and apparently it a big "no" as it can cause arrhythmia if you have issues with your heart.

I think things may have improved a bit, but I also had to pause the breathing as I was getting some funny feelings in my chest. It may have been nothing but I decided to wait until things improved. I may try some of the breathing today.

I think the most important part is the breathing, but apparently the Wim Hof method is even more effective when you do the cold water thing. But it's not for everyone, and I think that's understandable really! Cold water isn't the most pleasant thing really! :)
 
MildredHubble said:
I don't do the ice cold water part. Ironically I was going to give it a try but then I got diagnosed with a heart condition and apparently it a big "no" as it can cause arrhythmia if you have issues with your heart.

I think things may have improved a bit, but I also had to pause the breathing as I was getting some funny feelings in my chest. It may have been nothing but I decided to wait until things improved. I may try some of the breathing today.

I think the most important part is the breathing, but apparently the Wim Hof method is even more effective when you do the cold water thing. But it's not for everyone, and I think that's understandable really! Cold water isn't the most pleasant thing really! :)
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Yes, safety first. Stay alive.
 
MildredHubble said:
Wow that's impressive! If I tried that I would probably end up with several head injuries! :smilecat:
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I've had a few head injuries. Popped a main vein on my arm once too. Much like old horror films - the blood does actually spurt out in jets. Thankfully a drunken Scotsman who claimed to be with St John's ambulance service staggered over to me seconds after it happened (in a city park) and tied a tourniquet and waited with me for the ambulance.

Normal injuries are just cuts, bruises and jammed fingers.

Ed
 
Raggamuffin said:
I've had a few head injuries. Popped a main vein on my arm once too. Much like old horror films - the blood does actually spurt out in jets. Thankfully a drunken Scotsman who claimed to be with St John's ambulance service staggered over to me seconds after it happened (in a city park) and tied a tourniquet and waited with me for the ambulance.

Normal injuries are just cuts, bruises and jammed fingers.

Ed
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Ouch! That could have been nasty, well it sounds like it was and lucky someone was around to help!

I once did something quite similar on a smaller scale. I was working on my car, I can't remember exactly what I was doing but it involved contorting myself into a pretzel and wrapping my arms around the brake disc and the brake caliper. There's these thin metal shims to stop the pads from rattling round and squealing.

I felt my sleeve get caught on something and kinda pulled my arm back very firmly. I felt a bit of a pinch on my wrist, nothing painful, but again my wrist was stuck. So I realised that I was probably caught on one of the tangs on the shim.

Only it wasn't my sleeve, it was my wrist and when I freed myself a spurt of blood hit the inside of the wheel arch! At first I didn't realise what it was and thought I had torn the flexy hose and it was brake fluid. Then I saw my wrist and rather a lot of blood.

All I did was get some kitchen roll and make a big wad of the stuff and used electrical tape to hold it in place. It healed up fine but there was a nasty puncture mark and there's a little scar on my wrist! It's funny that I was completely fine about it lol! It was just getting in the way of the repair and that irritated me.
 
Ouch, that does sound painful. I remember as a child falling on a pile of rubble and bricks and I got a nasty cut right next to the main vein on the wrist. I freaked out big time. Thankfully it happened at home, so my mum cleaned it up and reassured me it'd be ok.

Ed
 
Raggamuffin said:
Ouch, that does sound painful. I remember as a child falling on a pile of rubble and bricks and I got a nasty cut right next to the main vein on the wrist. I freaked out big time. Thankfully it happened at home, so my mum cleaned it up and reassured me it'd be ok.

Ed
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It's certainly a dramatic area to injure! I'm glad you were close to home where you could get help quickly.

I've had blood tests where they've slipped with the needle and it got a bit spurty. Thing is, when it's in that setting, I get quite queazy.
 
WhitewaterWoman said:
The staffing is outstanding!
Click to expand...

Thank you, that's kind of you to say so.

It's a little off season for me at the moment. With the wind chill and cold hands, I find I don't enjoy being out for very long. Also I find the cold leads to more injuries, and hitting your hand against metal isn't pleasant at the best of times. Let alone when your hands are cold.

I went out yesterday after I got hit with pretty severe blues. Depression, frustration, anxiety etc. All that stuff inside needed a release, so I went staffing and did 5 or 6 big throws. I guesstimate I can throw about 9-10 metres. I'm 6'4" which gives this picture from yesterday some reference:

tujuhjhjh-png.93830



It's just shy of 3kg in weight, which doesn't sound like a lot, but when you add the momentum of the staff as you're spinning it - it all adds up.

That release of all my anger and energy into a throw and seeing the staff fly up into the air. I guess it's a physical and visual release, as I focus on what's upsetting me and with the throw I wish it all away. As if the throw is somehow exorcising all the upset and pain. If the upset is really bad I let out a scream as I throw it too. Mind you, that's highly situational. I prefer that to be well away from anyone as I don't like to cause a scene.

On the flip side, sometimes I like to go to parks in cities and staff by the paths. A lot of people see, and stop, stare, look amazed etc. This gives my confidence a boost. So sometimes it's nice to do that when I feel low.

Seems to work a treat.

Ed
 
Raggamuffin said:
It's a little off season for me at the moment. With the wind chill and cold hands, I find I don't enjoy being out for very long. Also I find the cold leads to more injuries, and hitting your hand against metal isn't pleasant at the best of times. Let alone when your hands are cold.
Click to expand...

The more I learn about Staffing, the more in common it seems to have with working on cars, as strange as it sounds! Nothing quite like a wrench slipping and punching a car radiator in the middle of winter! Except for maybe staffing! :smilecat:
 
I feel bad for the mechanic over the road in winter. He's waiting on the weather to improve to do the rust and bodywork on my van. I don't mind a little delay this month as it keeps me out my overdraft. As I won't see much change from £1000. Still, his hourly rate is low and his talents are high. So it's a good balance.

dragons den sale GIF by CBC


Ed
 
I seriously need to make something like this, too. I'm always forgetting to take supplements and losing track of how many cups of tea I drank and wondering why I can't sleep anymore :fearscream:
 
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