As a mental health professional, I often try to find innovative ways to decrease non-preferred behaviors, (i.e. biting my cheeks), feelings (i.e. irritability), and thoughts (I should have…). I have found ways to use my growth and personal creative interventions to help my clients in their own work towards self-actualization. My hope is, that as you read this blog,
you feel inspired to find what will help ease your own anxieties.
As this pandemic brought havoc and loss upon the world, I found myself having the need to check in on co-workers, love ones, and clients. The more I reached out, the more I found myself feeling especially tired and unmotivated. I started feeling depleted and wanting to seek refuge within myself, however even in silence I wondered how others were doing. I knew anxiety was creeping in, yet I was placed in a situation I had never faced before- a pandemic.
How do you handle old symptoms in a new environment?
The answer: you try what has worked before! I decided to play informal researcher once more and try to develop a skill to help me decrease the worry I felt for others and at the same time increase caring for myself. I often tell my clients that we cannot be fully present for others whilst we are internally struggling.
If I preach, it is only fair, I also do. I tried skills that have worked for me before such as mindfulness, going on walks, writing. After about two weeks, I noticed that the strategies I had tried worked! Yet, the relaxing effect was short-lived. I decided to break down my goals even further: decrease anxiety and increase self-care. I also broke down the skills I was using and identified what I found most gratifying. It was then that I realized, self-reflection always came up.
I did some light research on ways one can engage in self-reflection. I found that self-reflection leads to productivity and feeling overall a sense of fulfillment.
Why? As you are slowing down, you make time for what matters. You also make time to notice what you are missing, such as “me time”. I decided to journal my experiences for a week. I wrote about my worries, my desires, and how I felt after trying the interventions mentioned above. I found the first two days were easy, then I felt I was investing too much time writing and wanted to give up. I told myself what I often tell others, if you want to change, it takes practice. At the end of the week, I found that I had reorganized my schedule to fit in my skills and the journaling. I found myself feeling that my emotional cup was getting full; it was no longer depleted!
How? Well, I believe that self-reflection gave me clarity by organizing my life to fit what mattered to me- to be “okay” for myself, so I can be “okay” for others too. I planned the left-over days of my one week research so that If I saw tomorrow was going to be tough, I planned ahead (a shorter walk, or more time to self-reflect, or a longer walk). I also organized other things I could control, becoming more mindful of how I spent my time. I found myself setting boundaries with myself and others on when I was available. I created a quick routine of when to send caring messages instead of having countless facetime calls or long texts. I requested from others to reach out when they need it and not just wait on me to check in- they can be held accountable too.
As an introvert, I know I need alone time to recharge. It seems silly that during a quarantine I would find myself lacking silence to refuel, yet I was. As I self-reflected during that one week, I was able to give me time for me to truly recharge. I felt I was me again even during these ever-changing times.
So what do you get from my little story? I hope that you will now take the time to identify what you need to help you feel recharged and more like yourself. This pandemic has taken so much out of what made our lives predictable consequently leading us to be taken aback and feel somewhat lost. My suggestion for you, if you are feeling overwhelmed, talk about it with your therapist or someone you trust. I would suggest you read up on self-reflection and maybe incorporate it into your daily life to regain a version of normalcy to our new world. The more we know what we need and want, the more we are likely to set goals to get us there.
Let’s use this time productively and find ways to reach our healthier selves, so we can encounter our new normal soon. New perspectives on old notions can really help heal, we can be upset over the anxieties this pandemic has brought, or we can use this challenging time to better ourselves.
Feel free to reach out to our IG page @brainhealth4all and tells us about your journey with self-reflection