A Follow Up to Audrey's Rough Day

I thought I would share the follow up to Audrey's Rough Day and show you the other side of her Klutz activity yesterday.  One thing you most likely know by now is that I am a very big advocate for teaching self-care and well-being using practical practices and tools.  I have made it my actual job. I work mostly with adults, however making sure that my daughter has this knowledge and information is priority number one.  Because our emotional selves have for so long been undervalued and emotions themselves written off time and again in our society, it's so incredibly common that when it comes to taking care of ourselves and our emotions, most of us feel like we are out in left field.  Therapy is an incredible way to do this, and I highly encourage it.  But there are also things we can do daily to help support our emotional health that don't require anyone but ourselves.  They are often simple and overlooked.  At first glance they can seem like they wouldn't really do much, but once we take these daily rituals seriously and begin to turn to them regularly, we not only see but feel their impact.  Making sure that our daughter not only knows this, but has a firm grasp on how to do this is vitally important to me. 

So yesterday, I made it a part of our Daily Klutz effort after a day that was emotionally challenging for her.  While we are rightfully so putting so much emphasis on being kind to others, I do not want her to forsake that same kindness towards herself. This morning, she happily sat down and made a list of "Being Kind to Myself" practices.  These all came from her own brain, though I am sure that some of them are what she has seen occur around here.  This list will now live on the fridge and anytime she is feeling the need to do any of them, she can turn to them. Justin and I can also reference this list in times when it's clear to us she may need some self kindness practices.  I will never tell her what practice she should do, I believe that must always come from the practitioner themselves.  But we can lovingly guide her towards that list in times when she may forget to she has it as an option.  That is something that we all forget at times too, we have so many options.

In hopes of inspiring you to remember your own practices, I thought I would share Audrey's.  I'm sharing the photo of it on our fridge in her "kid writing" and I will translate below: 

Being Kind To Myself

1. Looking into the mirror and saying kind words
2. Go outside
3. Take a little rest
4. Taking deep breaths
5. Journaling
6. Playing in my room
7. Listening to music
8. Painting
9. Coloring
10. Yoga
11. Meditating
12. Moving my body
13. Eat Veggies
14. Sleep
15. Playing with oscar

Be kind to yourself my friends.