To keep up with my goals of posting consistently, I’d like to start first of many posts to come in this section I’d like to call Self-Care Sunday’s. Working in the field of mental health this is a common practice that we practice and preach and it would be hypocritical of me not to do the same. Self-Care is just about everything and everything you can do to assist you on an emotional, physical, social, and spiritual level. Most are familiar with the with the term self-care as something along the lines as skin care care, but its more to it than that. Meeting with a therapist is self care, taking a brief walk counts as self care, watching a film… yep counts as self care; which is why having a specific term for these activities lowkey annoys me. Though I’m sure there has only been positive benefits with the movement with this all encompassing term — there has been a large surge in searches for “self-care” in the past 5 years.

Fitness

My first obstacle course race was the Terrain Race in 2019 and I’ve done several Spartans, Tough Mudders, and fitness races since and a few 5ks before. I’ve always been more drawn to physically engaging activities, whether it be from skateboarding, running, working out, hiking, or snowboarding, I’m always exploring new ways to get active. These days I have found several groups to work out with, notably I’m more consistent with Black Men Hike LA, and Hardkour Performance. My next fitness goal is a half-marathon coming up Feb 5th, ideally I’d want a sub 1:45 time, but my last half was 2:00:13,so shooting for at least a sub two hour time first.

Days until the Surf City Half-Marathon

Mindfulness on Social Media Apps

Its so easy to fall into the trap of mindlessly consuming social media, and putting off tasks. My platform of choice being Instagram. Most social media platforms have some built in activity limiter as well as most phones OS also have this feature. Instagram also has a neat feature where it will remind you in intervals when you should take a break after spending X amount of time on it. My main way to avoid the social media trap is the Screen Time feature on iOS will breakdown how much time you have spent on a particular app as well as how often you are on your phone in general.

Gaming

Speaking of time spent on a screen; being a millennial, we’re the first generation to actually grow up with video games being the norm. Outside of occasional mobile gaming apps I only play video games on occasion, but it is something that also been pretty consistent in my life. On paper, I have my most logged time on any video game ever playing Dota 2. The original was a Warcraft 3 mod that inspired the whole MOBA phase in the early-mid 10s, League of Legends & Dota 2 being the most recognizable names. I stopped playing it for years and have gotten back into it recently, logging a game or few in a week. The strategy and 5 v 5 aspect of the game is addictive and fun test to though who are into strategy in real time. Chess I’ve been playing a lot more the past two years, frequently playing matches with old co-workers via Chess.com, just like Dota 2 the strategy aspect of it just keeps me going back. DBZ Dokkan Battle a game that has a guilty pleasure of mine. Being a life long Dragon Ball fan this game is fan service in an addictive way, definitely a good toilet seat game💩. Last but not least, Smash Bros, though I don’t play this too often these days, I’ve been playing since the very first one and always down to play it.

DuoLingo

I’m not going to lie, I’m not sure how great the learning retention is using DuoLingo. As its teachings in grammar and particulars about languages isn’t too in depth. The video game style lessons, rewards, and aggressive notifications from Duo the apps mascot definitely make it easy to continue a streak. I definitely have a much better understanding on my 200+ day streak in Spanish, pero Duolingo es no
solución hablar con fluidez. Definitely use it as a stepping stone to learn a language and learn new terms, but I’d recommend still speaking/chatting with native speakers of that language, and taking other free courses online to retain it.

Journaling

This is something I’ve picked up more with since working at my current organization. Everyday, the clients start their day with morning intentions and end their night with evening reflections. The clients answers a set of three questions, depending on the morning or evening it will consist of; what they are grateful for, what they are looking forward to, things that could have made the day better, highlights of the day, etc. At the very least I try to do this once a day and occasionally will just journal about life current happenings. Sometime using prompts online that pique my interests or prompts from my therapist to process certain past experiences. Technically, blogging in journaling too so this counts as today’s entry.

Till Next Time,

— TheKwazimodo