Seven items to include in your personalized self-care kit
Self-care is a word that we commonly hear these days, especially after the COVID-19 health crisis wreaked havoc across the world.
With social distancing measures enforced in many areas over the past year, it’s been hard for people to manage emotional and mental stress without seeing their family and friends. It’s also a particularly rough time for anyone dealing with the loss of a loved one.
Whatever challenges you’re going through, don’t forget to step back and take the time for self-care. As the term implies, self-care is the practice of doing relaxing activities that help you relieve stress. It’s a way to take a breather and attend to your emotional and mental well-being to feel better. And once you’re relaxed and more composed, you can function well and face the daily challenges of life.
To help you manage stress, you can create a self-care kit that contains essential items for relaxation and for uplifting your spirits. If you haven’t made one yet, here are seven items you can put in your personalized self-care kit.
1) Weighted blanket
There’s a reason why weighted blankets are popular stress-relief items for many people. Besides keeping your body warm and cozy, these therapeutic blankets that are embedded with pellets or beads help relieve sleep problems while also inducing anxiety reduction.
They work by applying deep tissue stimulation to your body’s nerves, which prompts the release of a neurotransmitter called serotonin, which is responsible for balancing mood. Thus, wrapping yourself with a weighted blanket after a long day can make you feel more calm while also enhancing the quality of your sleep.
2) Comfy socks
Another item that can make you feel warm and cozy is a pair of soft and comfortable custom socks. Wearing fluffy custom socks after a stressful day feels extra comforting for many people. And if you tend to have cold feet when you go to bed, custom socks can help you fall asleep faster by keeping your extremities warm.
In choosing your custom socks, get a comfy pair that is made of smooth and breathable fabric. And for extra protection, it’s a great idea to buy men and women’s antimicrobial socks to keep your feet odor-free for longer.
These types of custom socks don’t skimp on comfort while fighting bacteria to help prevent smelly feet. Customize your socks with your preferred colors, patterns, or even your initials, and experience the ultimate combination of comfort and personal style.
3) A notebook and colorful pens
For other people, it helps to write down their thoughts and emotions in a journal when they’re feeling overwhelmed. Writing can help you process negative thoughts so you can let go of sadness, anxiety, or even anger that’s been bothering you throughout the day.
You can use your journal to track your mood so you can be mindful of things that cause you stress. Meanwhile, other people use their notebooks to doodle and sketch images that help them express their thoughts and feelings.
Keeping a journal or sketchbook encourages you to be creative, which is a productive way to redirect your emotions in these highly stressful times. At the end of the day, they provide you with an outlet to express yourself and release stress.
4) Calming essential oils
You might be prone to headaches when you’re dealing with stressful situations. To relieve such pains, try using essential oils such as lavender. To experience its benefits, you can simply smell its scent from the bottle.
If you want its soothing smell to permeate your entire room, however, you can use a diffuser or humidifier. Other beneficial essential oils include peppermint oil, which helps ease clogged nose, and orange oil, which is known to help reduce anxiety.
5) A DVD copy of your favorite film
When you’ve had a tough day, it sometimes helps to watch your favorite film to cheer yourself up. Many people identify with at least one film that makes them feel a little better every time they watch it again. So, try watching an old film you love to keep your spirits up.
While plenty of movies are now available online, you might not always find classic films you’ve grown to love. Thus, it’s better to keep a copy of your favorite film on DVD. That way, you can watch it anytime you need to take a break and de-stress.
6) Some snacks you love
Sometimes, self-care can be about treating yourself to tasty food that makes you happy. So, when you’re feeling down, it might help to keep a few of your favorite snacks and drinks at home. Whether you like chocolate chip cookies, potato chips, or strawberry pop tarts, it’s up to you. Just reserve a couple of packs of snacks and consume them only when you really have to. That way, you’ll always have snacks in your self-care kit during times you need them the most.
7) Toys that keep your hands busy
When you’re feeling anxious and stressed, it helps to keep your hands busy with different objects. Doing this can relieve stress because it allows you to focus on something tactile rather than things that you’re already worried about.
In many cases, just tinkering with certain items can help focus your mind on one activity to help calm you down. Here are a few toys that you can try to keep your hands busy when you’re stressed
A fidget spinner
This is a flat toy that spins and fits on the palm of your hand. It consists of a ball bearing in the middle with three protruding flat lobes that usually have round holes at the edges. You typically hold the center of a fidget spinner and flick the lobes to make it spin. This toy is also commonly known to help alleviate anxiety and stress.
A squishy stress ball
Playing with a stress ball can be therapeutic because it allows you to release tension from unexpressed anger. You can find squishy stress balls that are more elastic and are filled with different materials such as beads or glitter. These fillers give the stress ball more texture when you play with it in your hand.
Kinetic sand
If you enjoy molding and shaping objects, you’ll likely enjoy kinetic sand. You might think it’s just like play dough, but its texture is more like silky wet sand. The good thing is it does not stick to your hands or leave color residue on your palms. It gives you a fun way to mold objects and keep your hands busy.
Keep you personalized self-care kit handy
We hope the items suggested above help you alleviate anxiety and stress. When you’re feeling under the weather, it’s important to make time for a little self-care. And to manage stress better, it’s a good idea to keep a personalized self-care kit at home or anywhere you go.
