Self-Care Toolkit

39:40

39:40

Self-Care Toolkit

by Srimanju katragadda

Rated

4.9

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

408

In this episode, I am sharing some tools and techniques to bring self-care into your daily practices. These are simple easy to follow and implement in your current schedule. Self-care is to maintain a healthy relationship with yourself. I share the myths and struggles we all go through and how to overcome and practice. Let me know which is your favorite one and what changes are you planning to bring in.

Self Care Self Love Limiting Beliefs Stress Emotional Support Trust Self Judgment Affirmations Meditation Self Care Tools Self Care Planning Spiritual Self Care Self Judgment Release Health Affirmation Self Care Meditation

Meet your Teacher

Srimanju katragadda

Seattle, WA, USA

Meet your Teacher

Srimanju katragadda

Seattle, WA, USA

Transcript

Hello beautiful selves welcome back to this week's podcast where I'm going to share about self-care tools and show exactly how we can bring them into our life and what can we do and how we are going to benefit from it. Now self-care has been my favorite topic all these years but to begin with it wasn't easy and I did have many struggles but here I am in a comfortable place that I can talk about it and what I have done to bring the changes and how I take care of myself and that most of the things here that I'm going to share I usually tell my clients and the students as well. It's so important it's the basics but then because of our culture because of the way the society has tamed us each one of us we haven't used these gifts up enough to use these gifts we struggle. Don't you agree with that? Like the conditions or the limiting beliefs that comes up when we talk about self-care or self-love is like a big no-no or it's not something for us we don't deserve it or yeah we are not worthy right? There are so many limiting beliefs do come up and also very ever told you need to look after everyone else that's your priority. You need to look after yourself and others it's always others first and then yourself isn't it and by the time you come to yourself we are so tired we don't get the time we can't make the time and it doesn't happen in our schedules. So here in this self-care toolkit or the techniques that I'm going to take it's all the things the little bits like you know no matter how busy you are no matter what you do you can always incorporate the help you to ground recharge and inspire you as well and why exactly is our self-care so important because it helps us to maintain a healthy relationship with ourselves so that we can just transmit this beautiful good vibes good feelings to everyone else as well. Now think about a moment who is your inspiration and why when you just think about it there is a character there is a person who comes into your life the mind who has always been in the good vibes or taking care of themselves or very much like their aura speaks to you you just love to be under their shade or just be with their energy so you get consumed and you feel inspired right and that exactly is that good vibe that is spreading and here immediately what happens is self-care is sickle to selfish isn't it we just rule it out like no they are lucky enough like you know they can do it not for me not with my responsibilities with looking after the parents children everyone like you know it's not for me at all is again like a limiting belief we put it out in our mind and here is some of the things like you know you need to understand to be mindful of your own needs is the best thing because there is no one else who can better understand you or tell you what is right what is wrong for you more than ever there could be only the suggestions or options given to you but you know deep inside and that is the most important thing this is how the self-care will help you to rediscover yourself get into the deeper spot that nobody can come in or nobody will know about you you are taking time out to maintain our self-care there are several benefits of it one is like you know you are having a better physical health as you are caring for yourself your emotional support is strong and also if you are taking care of others you as you are strong you're become a better caregiver as well and also it helps you like to break that cycle of rollercoaster wheel of the stress cycle of the anxiety relief like you know and it helps you to create that little alone time where you can just rejuvenate or re-look into your life like you know from your own perspective and just recharge yourself yeah and this allows you to give that good feels about your own self like worthiness that definitely comes in like you know and here the stress like you know how do we even break the stress cycle it's always going to be there it's just knowing the patterns and what can be done and how to release them out of your mind is the most important thing think about like you know a child is showing a tanturn not to leave the playground what do you do you bribe them saying that you're going to get them an ice cream or you are going to say that you're going to watch a movie with them something better you're going to show them right and you distract from the tantrum of being in a playground the same thing when you're in the stress that is like a tanturn how do you break it by giving yourself a better time of saying like you know what do I love like do some creative stuff or something that inspires you and that is your better kind of goal or like showing you or distracting you from your cycle of the stress and getting into a better zone like you know and here we are able to take time to meet your own needs more than anything else and here then what exactly would self care do for you even deeply is your health it gets better because you're not putting more and more and more strain on your body on your thoughts you're keeping it up very minimal or you're having a better coping mechanisms that you are able to prioritize what exactly is important for you right now and you're able to better take care of others as well like you know in the same time given and that's the most important thing it's just like nothing is going to change reprioritizing is happening like you know self-care is start from you to the others yeah whereas it has been others to you we are just reprioritizing no one is being excluded here you're not ignoring anyone you're not excluding anyone to think about it you're just reprioritizing everything and how many of you struggle with self-care to begin with when I first heard about this around good few years ago when my journey with Ricky started hearing Luis hey audio tapes and affirmations and everything I felt a bit embarrassed like how could she say that like you know how do I break the cycle or how do I do this when I have two young children like there were only babies and a toddler working and having a family how do I even do this like you know my babies are everything to me of course I can't ignore them I can't take time for myself even to have a shower was a quick in and out like you know because they might cry like that is me putting a lot of strain on myself but actually all the time after giving some time for myself through the meditation through the Reiki it just clicked in I was so knackered by evening by doing the meditation or doing that Reiki helped me to be active as well in the evening and be more productive with them and then it clicked to me ah self-care is this for me rather than pointing out something else like you know spa or like having a bath maybe not those at the time but at that time doing that meditation even for 10 minutes tapping and also doing self healing Reiki were doable were incorporated into my daily routines like watching TV after the babies were sleeping like you know half an hour there at that time I was using to do self-care like yeah and I was not trying to do like let me get up before or let me stay awake after but trying to do it within the timings that I had it so that helped like a lot of shift in my self care but I do understand because I have been there struggling when I heard this concept or how it can be benefited and I didn't find a way out of it like you know the tunnel was long and dark that's it I didn't see the light there but after I took the focus out I could see the light here and that felt so good yeah and what exactly we understand by self-love like you know or loving ourselves or prioritizing ourselves like yeah and something simple is when have you spoken to you with loving kind words we are so used to saying I don't have good eyes I don't have a good posture I don't have a great dress to wear tonight like you know I don't look good I have so much of patches on my face like whatever it is like you know we are just deconstructing we are just giving out to ourselves or someone say something like we don't have a confidence and we take those words and live with them forever and the person might have said only once like and may not be even the truth maybe it's a mirror reflection like you know but we have left with the truth so-called truth in our head for over 20 years 30 years whatever it is like you know and here like now give a chance give a moment just for today speak to you yourself in a loving way because you deserve that and once you start doing that loving and kind words to yourself people around you will shift people around you will be inspired by it and they'll stop abusing you or using those words that are not comfortable to you because we have taught them it's okay to do that because we didn't have any boundaries and this is so important to take back that and have that circle the definition of it and stay in together that's the most important thing here and this helps us to prioritize ourselves self-love I am worthy and reprioritizing will help you to get your things done not others because your own things have been pending you wanted to write a book or you wanted to study further or you wanted to travel like you know you wanted to get a freedom or you wanted to date someone like you know these are your priorities which have been put on hold because you were a caregiver or you became a caregiver looking after everyone else now it's the time to prioritize yourself and give yourself always that break of a self judgments said like you know these things do come in your head but it's about you how you control those things and immediately ask yourself where is this coming from where has this thought originated is this yours or is this someone else and is there anything you can do about it like you know and that will help you to reprioritize and love yourself and this will bring a bond to you as trusting trusting yourself if you don't trust yourself who can trust you you want to hike you want to climb a mountain only you know the strength can you do it or not when you say yes I can do it I need your support that's where you will find your tribe who are going to hold your back and push you forward but if you say like I can't do this of course you're going to attract the people who are going to say oh yeah of course you can't do it because you're not fit enough or do you have pains in your knees you have never done this you give up easily it could be any of these excuses like you know you'll be hearing and when you start that self-love or self-care you will find you are actually loving yourself unconditionally and you're true to yourself true to your emotions true to your needs and being nice to yourself and have these boundaries prioritizing and biggest of all you forgive yourself for the past because you have brought yourself or you're bringing yourself into the present moment and you know you can do this and this becomes such a beautiful act that you are as a whole and a complete person yeah there are few other reasons why some of us don't tell take self-care as relevant or important is we never heard about it or we haven't seen people or we haven't been inspired we can do this like you know we think it's really not important or we don't treat ourselves in that way and we don't realize the burden it's putting on our health mind spirit and everything like you know and the biggest of all is we don't know how to like I didn't know how to and that is one of the things I keep hearing and how about you shift and say to yourself effort I'm figuring it out or I'm finding my own nugget or I'm finding inspiration in the way I'm doing the things like you know and also retune your mind saying self-care is self responsibility and that is a you're bringing calm not the selfish talk that you hear but it's a responsibility each one of you having it if you are a caregiver if you're a mother or if you're a father or if you have young children teens and around you you are doing self care you are directly teaching the next generation how relevant it is and how important it is yeah by doing it now the children don't learn easily by listening they learn easily by watching us so think about what am I teaching my children what am I teaching the next generation like you know and only when we find it doable we can teach them as well and also don't think about like hey self-care is comforting like or it's a laziness like you know no not right at all like yeah and this is again like another limiting belief that comes in with like it is only nurturing your soul your health your vitality your growth everything about you and think about why is it not important to spend some quality time for your self-discovery healing growth like you know or what you like one of the things that I ask the client sometimes is if their solar plexus chakra is stagnant do ask them what is your creative portal like what do you enjoy most like what are your favorite colors many of them have a space or like a blankness because they have never been taught about it and they really never taught like what is there even favorite color like you know some of them and a surprise but I'm not shocked at this stage because we are always living in the need of others so this is where like we have forgotten ourselves in the whole thing of serving for others now you're bringing back bringing back yourself and when you are doing this let me tell you there's a healing crisis that comes up with a little warning now what happens is when you take time for yourself get you are going to open up some emotions from the past and which are going to trigger some sadness anger or unforgiveness or left out like you know these are the emotions that will come like thinking why was I doing this what was the point like you know I am NOT being treated well or one of the classic things is I'm being treated like a doormat like you know but the first thing is who let that happen we did now don't beat yourself hard accept it write them down and move forward because it's not about being stuck in the past again doing the self-care but it is about acknowledging and moving forward think about your sailing you're sailing forward and the waves are going to come and go but you're just going to tune into the waves and understand the path and go easy on it yeah and it is going to be uncomfortable but definitely you can do it yeah and one of the instances that I remember is a few years ago I really love coffee and I wanted to go out for coffee and sit down and be in my zone a channeling tuning in writing and I was there before I was ordering just one cup of coffee I felt so odd I felt such a energy of a loneliness confusion not knowing what to do with myself there was a bunch of emotions all of a sudden it kicked in in that moment of time because I have never ever been on my own to a coffee shop always been with my friends or with my family always was in a company and when I got the time for myself I just didn't know anything like when I would be at home of course I would be spending time cleaning up tidying up things and everything or doing art but I didn't know what to do in the coffee shop and it was such a bizarre moment and that made me write my book chapter self-care as well and it was it was just the birthing of a new thing coming out of it and that was only recently again like saying that like no having a coffee on my own but after that I so look forward to it I so enjoy it now I love my own company because there is so much I can do with myself now of course I love my family friends everyone but that alone time is not lonely when you are having a good time that is what a reminder came to me like you know so do something that you have never done get out of your comfort zone because you will love yourself yeah it's not a hype it's not a trend but it is the most needed thing to be done for yourself and sometimes some your relationships could be triggered because you might enjoy what you do and you're saying it out but your family members are not aware of your changes why you're doing it and there could be surprises shocks as well but bring them along let them understand why you're doing it and why is it so important for you and what it means to you as well that's the most important thing to acknowledge here and once you understand it once you acknowledge it it becomes much easier to work and have a plan for it we got this life only once in this body so rather than wasting it up to do things start cleaning up the homes changing things or taking care of everyone else try to enjoy that rain try to sip the tea by yourself or just enjoy a bubble bath or reading a book by yourself these are little happy gifts that you can bring into your life doesn't cost you much and it's totally worth it for your soul you will never regret taking care of yourself and definitely I can promise you on that so here are some tips like you know how do you write your own self-care plan what you can do about it what are the ideas where do you begin about like you know first thing is first give it a simple like exactly to who you are even though you're hearing me saying some tips here but try to see what you can incorporate into your current times again rather than coming out of it and you might be as you're thinking about it you know you might be inspired by others hashtag self-care and see how all others are doing like you know so that will help you to add more ideas to it rather than adding more pressure saying that I need to take every day an hour out of my schedule no let's not do that way but here like you know understanding few things is so important so here I'm sharing some self-care tools for the mind body spirit heart and on the different sections I was writing like I was compartmentalizing in different areas like you know if you think about something is relevant to you on the mind basis or the physical body or the heart or the spirit wise feel free to pick them up and use them so let's begin with self-care tools for the mind or psychological things the first thing is have a stress ball so you're helping yourself you're identifying yes acknowledging I'm stressed and spending some time with the stress ball or I love to do the juggles as well like you know with oranges or the apples no I didn't try but aren't just yes and or you got some stress balls couple of them you can juggle with them just I force the change like you know it helps you get new ideas or take you out of from that peak of the point like where you just can't think or function well it shares mandala coloring book or any coloring book will do as well now with the self-care time like say ten minutes I'm just going to give a break from my work my routines and I'm just going to do the coloring book like and it could be a half page or a full page anything that you feel good about feed your mind with positive positive affirmations or a good documentary or something on now inside timers some talks or YouTube anywhere you find something inspiration listen to it at least for ten minutes or reading good books like you know that inspire you that would be a good one again I wouldn't say you you need to find time to read a book of course some days are going to be crazy as of today like it's been a month I have read a book which is very unusual of me but summer has taken over and I have no regrets but I did miss it so if you had a difficult challenging times maybe say ten minutes I'm going to do this like no so that way you're bringing back affirmation cards are great you can find so many Oracle decks with some affirmations or the angel cards anything that you feel good or inspired pick a card out of the deck and sit with it and feel the energies that itself will be a good self-care because that is going to give you a positive spin to your thoughts that's the most important thing and this allows you to define your boundaries boundaries what are they where are they coming from why do you need them or where do you need to place them with is it with the relationships with yourself or with colleagues it could be like you know or with your hobbies it can be anything having those boundaries is so important to be defining aim for the mind I'm going to the art galleries or the museum or by the sea event like you know spending some time out in the nature or in the park forest anywhere spending some time this allows you to be in connection and diverge you shift you from where you are stuck and that helps you to be in the creative flow and gives you new ideas having in hobby pick up an a hobby there are so many places great places that you can find tutorials to do it like you know it could be candle making embroidery crochet photographing like you know or developing an app it could be like or all checking out on the shares like anything now just find it you always wanted to do it check it out from your bucket list pick one and spend some time woodworking it could be anything to wait again ten minutes a day it could be young so areas of your interest creating a quiet and reserved area will help you to get your work done which also means like clutter free from your mind is most important thing now one of the best things I love is gratitude journal which is great for the mind because you are acknowledging identifying a couple of far grateful things in your life rather than giving out or being in the chatter box of things are not going great or this is not working out like this is so crazy no you're coming back to it like saying hey I'm so grateful for this moment of time like you know or grateful for this app that you can listen to you in anything I see moment moment for your mind and also your body that helps as well pi G comes as mine distracts us I love Tai Chi and yoga for that reasons because when you're with the instructor you definitely have to follow the instructor you can't be in your mind if not your fall or you lose track of what they're telling it will be the wrong pose and identifying your overthinking patterns and stopping so these are some of the self care tools you can use it for your mind again they don't take more than 10 minutes if you want to begin with like you know so easy to identify and work on them so make a note which is your favorite one and we can come back to it in the meditation so next one self care tools for the body so for the physical body there are loads of them loads of them most of the people do talk about these like you know let's begin with like come if you got a time like no spa getting manicured pedicure could be like you know or our flouration it could be like your aura simple as having that part time in your own home 20 minutes and I'm not disturb time with your family members just for yourself with the book or nothing at all like you know just being there that's most important thing for having some bath scrub time like salt scrub is great because it detoxifies your skin and also the energy portals as well on dry brushing is great like you know essential oils diffuser as well it's great for your mind and the body as well drinking water is really recommended hydrate yourself weighted blanket is too good as well for the body because it helps you to be grounded acupressure mats are great for your body again activating all the cells all the meditian points on your feet helping your nervous system to calm down as well a good sleep like with the drops of lavender oil could be dry brushing I said that's one of the things for scalp massager that's great as well because you are spending some time rather rushing taking care of yourself yeah juicing again like herbal teas face rollers dance gentle dance moment again Tai Chi and yoga I would recommend here as well eating a healthy meal or at least couple of times in a week organizing a healthy meal engaging in exercise or a sport that you love having that term sunlight watching the sunrise sunset again those are mesmerizing as well like and taking care of your body these are again doable doesn't need much time 10 to 15 minutes again or 20 minutes at the max but doable in your day so here take your pointers let's come back to it again now moving on to the next one self-care tools for the heart heart is the portal for your emotions and this is one of the triggers where we feel anxious limiting beliefs lot of stuff thoughts and energies from relationships relationship to yourself and all that holds up and now here the things that you can do is journal laugh watch a comedy show be curious for the day like you know Oh practice receiving compliments or give compliments to others be kind show kindness there's just a bring such a beautiful vibe out from your heart center say loving kind words to yourself some self-love affirmations and taking time for self reflection that's the most important thing paying attention to your inner experiences like your thoughts feelings attitudes what's happening like you know identifying those things is so important again trigger warning that it might lead you into a healing crisis which is good visceral easy practicing mindfulness meditation yoga Thais she again these are so good for your heart opening as well that you feel such a shape that you're not feeling heavy stagnant block anything you are more of a welcoming it here and the last one is self-care tools by your spirit but the spirit what can we do here like you know using some essential oils diffusers some sage smudging sun lamps are great like to recharge from those blue days like yeah being creative by engaging with your hands so you're totally engaging with like a pottery staff or are doing something that you always wanted you contributing to the causes of being part of a food dumb hygiene drive like you know food drive or hygiene drive or cooking for sheltered meals spending time in the nature engaging in the inspirational videos or audios and um having a clutter free space that's again important as well because the clutter does take up a lot of stagnant on your spirit and your heart your body or your mind as well so it's so important to organize ourselves and shift those yeah so here are some of the ideas that I have been using it doing it that might inspire you do pick up which resonates with you and maybe think about like you can bring the others later on don't be overwhelmed like oh my god I need to do all of them no do one thing a week or one thing for two weeks practice one but having something for yourself is so important here definitely that will help you to shift gain do new perspectives you shift and dimension in your way of thought and I'm just going to guide you with a little meditation here I know I haven't done this in a podcast before I'm so guided to do that so let's do a little meditation and if you are driving if you are in a not a comfortable place that you can stop by you can pause and come back to it again but once you are in a relaxed state have a journal and a pen and so you can write the things that are coming up now write these things spontaneously don't overthink and these are your own inner mind talking to you rather than someone else speaking to you so get comfortable relax your mind by breathing into your belly and breathing out breathing in relaxing your shoulders and relaxing your mind your feet your arms visualize a beautiful white light around your aura and flowing through your crown chakra the top of the head gently going into your third eye into your throat into your heart into your solar plexus upper belly into your sacral chakra lower belly and into your root chakra the base of the spine let that beautiful energy travel up into your hands into your fingers through your hips legs your feet your toes and into the Mother Earth anchoring you into the very present moment allowing yourself to be here now think about how important is self-care for you let the thoughts come you right now where do you find we are most stressed at identify your areas and what's triggering you and think about what can you do right now to release this stress let the ideas come now create your own personal self-care plan from all the ideas that you heard before or that you is coming to your top right now and think about which ones you can incorporate at this moment of time and which are your priorities now repeat in your mind I am free of self-doubt and self-sabotage I am in control of my negative thoughts I love accept and appreciate myself and my talents my self-care is worth making time for I chose to let go of what I can't control in my life I chose to live in the moment I am strong and powered and capable of anything I'm committed to my self-care routine I deserve the best feel those words in your heart in your body in yourself let it all sink in take a moment to breathe in and out and now slowly coming back into body take time to journal things down and take time to add more pointers so with that I'm going to leave you here and good luck with your self-care routine and plans do let me know which one was your favorite what are you implementing oh and what are you going to do with the changes how do you see yourself moving forward anything that has been inspiration to you or you thought so thank you for listening to this and hopefully you found some good nuggets here and I love to hear from you and how these have been helpful or what have you taken up and what has been your inspiration do keep in touch I'm you can personally message me or email or find me on social media let me know what are you going to implement and what's your self-care plan is like so wish you all the best with that and yeah happy to see you on the other side with your routines now thank you guys for listening in tuning in please do leave a review if you liked it you heard till this point I love it that goes a long way thank you and have a wonderful wonderful day evening there where you are thing in