Many of us have been doing our best to stay productive, be successful, keep our passion-built ventures on the ground and put food on the table, let alone trying to maintain all of this and our emotional wellbeing and self-care through the trying times, an off-centre world, natural disasters, pandemic, and economic downturn.
Resourcing yourself looks like taking intentional and impactful action to follow your needs in times of strain that move you from a state of reaction (survival) back to a state of response (thriving). Resources are anything, or anyone that supports you makes you feel safe, calm, inspired, healthy and happy.
Resourcing yourself is of immense importance to combat mental health challenges. Even when you want to seek out support, sometimes barriers arise, such as; Accessibility, Availability, Affordability, and Acceptability are the 4-key challenges someone must overcome to engage in individual or community-based mental health support/programming during a mental illness health crisis. Sometimes it can feel vulnerable to seek support in a community that knows us well. We must do the best we can to take care of ourselves and seek outside resources.
Here are some things you can do to resource yourself:
Understand who you are:
People who are attuned to their strengths and weaknesses can clearly define what they enjoy doing every day and what’s essential for them to be doing. When you spend time learning about yourself, this strengthens your ability to recognize your likes, wants and needs. Make a list of your strengths, weaknesses, goals and needs to better reflect on who you are and where you would like to see yourself down the road.
Incorporate daily activities that use your skills, strengths, and passions:
Adjust so that the maximum time possible is spent on activities that benefit your body, mind, or spiritual wellbeing. Even when all you can do is bite-size actions.
Balance your life:
This part is to be done as much as is realistic. First, SELF CARE – to thrive physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. Try to be intentional with eating, sleeping, participating in movement outside of work, invite meaning, develop a routine, set limits (boundaries). Second, REST and make time for play. All these things are essential for emotional wellbeing. Third, listen to your body for what you may need or start by choosing one (and only one) at a time to focus on.
Remember the hard times:
Remind yourself of the things you have gotten through and the challenges you have faced before. You got through it because of certain people who supported you and/or specific actions you implemented. You will come through this time of adversity too! Sometimes choosing to thrive feels more complex than simply surviving. Thriving is also not a permanent state. You can expect to move in and out of survival mode and a daily state of being. The key is to notice when you are in a survival zone and have the awareness to move from reactivity into a responsive state when you feel you need to by resourcing yourself.
Create a resource toolkit:
Make a list or, on separate pieces of paper, write down all the things or people that support you, make you feel safe, calm, inspired, healthy and happy. When you are dealing with emotions/behaviours that are based on reaction, seek out your resource tool kit, assess what you need and pick something from the list to take action towards that will help you at that moment make a shift. Your list should include things such as your favourite activities, movement that regulates you, food that brings you health and comfort, people that support you, things that bring you joy or make you calm etc.
Developing the resilience to turn crisis into opportunity will ultimately serve you in every area of life. Remember to treat yourself with the compassion, support, and encouragement you would offer to others. Take one small step at a time, build yourself up, celebrate your blessings, and never doubt that you are worth it.
