Nice things I do for myself, mostly recent

[kaberett]

1. I just bought myself a big pump bottle of unscented moisturiser for use on my hands: it's an easy way to do self-care, it makes me less likely to pick at them during anxiety spikes, and I get to play the fun game of working out which essential oil I want to scent it with (I am thinking something "warm" - cinnamon or vanilla or something elsewise woody).
   
2. Keep two bottles of shower gel on the go. Whether I want cold/sharp scents or warm/soft scents (are those general associations? I'm not sure) is very dependent on e.g. the outside temperature, how well I slept, the time of day, and so on - and makes me much happier about washing (the shower is up the stairs; even with a shower stool, some days this is significant effort). Currently I have tea tree & mint, and shea butter & honey on the go. Next up in the "warm" stakes is "vanilla cookie", which I'm gently amused by.
   
3. Use SuperBetter (thanks for finding it, randomling <3) to prompt myself to do physio, drink enough fluid, etc - and then reward myself for doing so.
   
4. If a poem sticks with me, or someone says something particularly lovely to me, or I come across something I do find reassuring on the Internet - I make a special effort to copy it neatly and beautifully into my little black book (thank you jjhunter for suggesting this one!)
   
5. I bought myself B vitamins and have added 1 a day to my meds boxes. I go through phases of taking B complexes; usually, they provide some boost to my mood, but once I've realised it might be helpful to get them I've usually lost the motive energy to actually do so. (In the same order, I picked myself up a tube of arnica cream. This is Really Important to me, for reasons of National Identity and Feeling Like A Grown-Up. In spite of all my other drugs, now my meds drawer contains arnica and Savlon? I feel much more prepared to take on the world.)
   
6. Physio. Adding it to SuperBetter (and keeping a daily symptoms/life/etc diary) seems to be prompting me to actually do it more often. I do feel better when I get around to it (mostly during Workrave rest breaks), and it also gives me a chance to focus on my breathing a bit.
   
7. I've noticed that I'm much worse at getting to sleep when I think I'm settling down for a Proper Sleep than when I think I'm going to have a nap, regardless of how tired I am. That level of self-awareness is going to be super-helpful in nudging me into working out why and taking steps to remedy it. (I'll experiment a little tonight...)
   
8. I've started (patchily, but still!) filling my water bottle the night before morning lectures, so I'll have some fluid to be getting on with.
   
9. In a similar vein, I've started keeping small lumps of flapjack in my bag, because I always need a sugar/carb boost by 11.
   
10. ... and again: I've begun to prep mugs of tea for the morning (more intermittently than filling the water bottle ;): this consists of sticking a spoon of my nice loose-leaf rooibos (thanks to Aquarion!) into a teaball and leaving it in a mug, so the fine motor stuff is already dealt with when my alarm goes off (my motor skills tend to be worst in the hour or so after I've woken up, and when very tired).
    

Comments

[jjhunter]

Thank you for sharing this list - it's inspiring. :o)

[kaberett]

<3

[pipisafoat]

oooh. I do 4, 8, 9, & 10 myself. (well, I keep crackers and peanuts and sometimes fruit in my bag. same theory, different details. and also different tea in 10.) my little black book is a mystery tiny composition notebook that I found in a drawer last year with no idea of where it came from. it has some poetry and nice things and quotes from various religions & philosophies and also I recently discovered a page in it where my partner took it & added her list of random things she likes about me. I find that I don't read things I've written very often, but the act of recording these things in a specific place is calming & reassuring & all that for me. I like writing?

I poked at SuperBetter, but it didn't really work for me for whatever reason. Glad to see it is helpful for you, though! (also i'm mildly fascinated by your sleeps.)

[kaberett]

I will try to write more about the sleeps when I've worked out more about how it works!

& yes, I don't read it often? But having it there, & being able to look through it and find something - it's like a hug from my past self & from everyone who's contributed to it, and it's lovely. Sometimes I do just need to be reminded that I'm mostly water, or that the time will come when, with elation, I will greet myself arriving at my own front door.

I actually got into SuperBetter by being someone's ally, & it turned out that checking the site daily for them was a much more useful gateway for me than signing up for myself to start with would have been...

(also, hi!!)

[pipisafoat]

words! *collects*

SuperBetter felt like too much work for me to keep up with it just for me, and I'm weird about sharing things sometimes most of the time actually, despite what my prolific dw-ing might indicate. (I'm on Moodscope, but I don't share my graph with anyone. But someone shares with me. It's weird? I don't mind knowing her numbers; it's actually somewhat useful and also makes me feel helpful. but I feel weird about sharing my own. that I don't want her feeling bad if I am higher/lower than her, or, or, idk. I don't like to be a burden but perceive myself (wrongly! i know this!) as such all the time anyway. but whatever. that works for me just for me and is perhaps useful.)

hi! how's you, what's going on, doing anything interesting, etc etc?