Tag: Self Care

Weekly Check-In

On By beinggoodeIn WeeklyLeave a comment

A bit of a hectic week but with some good surprises.

Traditional Volunteerism

  • 1 hour Stop Hunger Now – My company had a volunteering event that had a Stop Hunger Now activity. We packaged 10,000 meals. I highly recommend this as a team building activity. You get to wear hair nets! haha.
  • 4 hours Crisis Text Line

Charitable Giving

  • $0

Personal Kindnesses

  • We all get busy and it’s easy to be a flake. It’s easy to put off plans or change your mind. I did my very best this week to make sure I kept commitments to friends or were clear with them that I just couldn’t make it.

Self Care

  • With the three day weekend I got to fit in some extra time with friends. I also took my dog to a coffee shop. She’s a rescue and after 3 years she’s finally mellowed enough (and been rehabbed enough) that I can take her to a coffee shop and sit outside and enjoy myself.

How did you do this week? Share in the comments!

One in a Million

On By beinggoodeIn Thoughts, Uncategorized, volunteer1 Comment

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“Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”

– Howard Zinn

When I had that awful cold last week (which is still lingering) I started to feel frustrated that I couldn’t help. I get so much joy from being productive and helping others that to have to sit on the couch all day and sleep isn’t something fun for me. Especially after my big amazing week of volunteering at the Invictus Games. I had to cancel my Crisis Text Line shift and my appointment to donate blood and had to end another Crisis Text Line shift early.

Missing my blood donation appointment was hard on me and I’m still looking for a good time to fit it back in but I really do need to feel 100% to donate. Donating blood as much as I’m able is really a big focus for me this year. And of course I got a few emails that this last weekend my blood type was in short supply for platelet donations. I felt even worse.

Then today I came across this Howard Zinn quote and it reminded me to calm down. Two weeks or a month out of the year focusing on myself and my health doesn’t matter. The small things I do the rest of the year can transform the world. I’m one of millions of people who volunteer, who donate blood, who counsel those in need, who help with events. Together we’ve got this. I can take a rest if I need it because someone is out there to help pick up the slack. And when I get back to full health I can give someone else with the helping spirit a little slack when they need it.

Weekly Check-In

On By beinggoodeIn Uncategorized, WeeklyLeave a comment

Sorry for the absence… I had the worst cold last week that only allowed me the energy to do the necessities. Mostly I just slept as much as possible. I’m still getting over it and have a bit of a lingering cough but at least I’m awake. I had to miss my blood donation appointment though and am hoping I’m feeling 100% soon so I can get back on track.

Traditional Volunteerism

  • 4 hours Crisis Text Line

Charitable Giving

  • $0

Personal Kindnesses

  • I tried my very best to keep my sickness to myself. I avoided doorknobs and touching shared surfaces without breaking out the cleaning wipes. I wouldn’t want anyone else feeling this way.

Self Care

  • Letting myself be sick and just resting is hard for me but I did it. Lots of quality couch time.

How did you do this week? Share in the comments!

Weekly Check-In

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I happily busy preparing for the week ahead. I’m very excited for my first volunteer based vacation.

Traditional Volunteerism

  • 4 Hours Crisis Text Line.

Charitable Giving

  • $0

Personal Kindnesses

  • There was an accident at work and I was able to stay calm and get into action to get the woman medical attention. Everyone needs help at some point and I was happy to do what little I could to help her.

Self Care

  • Daydreaming about my trip! Planning and organizing can be part of the joy of vacation. Also I’ve been cleaning my apartment in preparation which means I’ll come home to a nice clean place.
  • There is a little pond where I work and this week there were nine baby ducks! The little fluffy balls of spring brought me so much joy.

Please share in the comments how you’re doing this week!

Weekly Check-In

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I had a hard week but I had a great week on Crisis Text Line and that made all the difference.

Traditional Volunteerism

  • 4 Hours Crisis Text Line.

Charitable Giving

  • $0

Personal Kindnesses

  • There is a security guard where I work that I got to see on Thursday morning when I came in. He is so happy and his smile and wishing me a good day always seems to have a lot of power. I try to smile at people and hope I can have the same impact. Eye contact and a smile go a lot further than we think.

Self Care

  • I’ve been failing a little bit this week. Aside from dog snuggles I haven’t really done much for myself. Going to change that this weekend.

Please share in the comments how you’re doing this week!

Weekly Check-In

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So sad that Prince is gone. Again I’m seeing so much art, music, and writing -the best way to heal from tragedy.

Traditional Volunteerism

  • 4 Hours Crisis Text Line.

Charitable Giving

  • $5 – There was a pancake breakfast for the local fire department. They raised money for burn victims and I got pancakes. Win-Win!

Personal Kindnesses

  • One of my co-workers lost their job this week. It was just a day after I had said to her that I hoped she’d stay. I really genuinely wish her the best and very much respect her positive attitude about everything.

Self Care

  • I got to do something nice for my niece. I made her a running tutu for her first 5k. Now my apartment is covered in glitter. I hope she’s as excited as I am for her.

Please share in the comments how you’re doing this week!

Weekly Check-In

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So I’ve taken a nice recovery week and am feeling a lot better. So many good things on the horizon.

Traditional Volunteerism

  • 6 Hours Crisis Text Line. My normal 4 hour shift plus 2 hours as make up for last week (I might be able to get another 2 in this weekend).
  • Happy #NationalVolunteerWeek ! I hope you’re celebrating the volunteers in your life and celebrating that you get to volunteer. I know I am very thankful to be a volunteer for some great organizations.

Charitable Giving

  • $0

Personal Kindnesses

  • A large part of my job is customer service so I’m supposed to be nice all the time but it’s not always easy. There are times when people come up to you with stress, anxiety, anger, and in just a general tizzy. That can make it hard but it’s also an opportunity to change someone’s day. This week I was able to face a tizzy with some calm and the person walked away feeling better. Difficult but wonderful.

Self Care

  • Last weekend I went to the LATimes Festival of Books. I go every year and even though I was exhausted and it was raining (LA rain so sprinkling) I went. It was important at the end of last week to do something that was just for me. I got to visit my favorite food truck and just think about books and writing for a little bit.

Please share in the comments how you’re doing this week!

Q2: Volunteering

On By beinggoodeIn Thoughts, volunteerLeave a comment

I’ve spent the first three months of this year looking at self-care. Why it’s important and strategies for how to do it. For me friends, exercise, and naps/tv are very important and I’ll always struggle to not feel guilty about taking care of myself. The difference between selfish and self-care can be hard to see but it exists. It’s been wonderful to explore but now it’s time to turn to volunteer. Why do I do it, how can I do it better, and what kinds of things can I do?

 

This week is National Volunteer Week. Great timing to kick this off (I wish I could say I had planned it that way).

I’ve been volunteering nearly all my life. I started selling Nutcrackers at intermission at the Ballet and stuffing and labeling hundreds and hundreds of letters and invitations to local non-profit events.

Last year I hit 202 volunteer hours which is a little more than a half hour a day on average. This number shocked me at the end of the year. I knew I put a lot of time in but I never went out of my way to log hours. I didn’t volunteer for anything to get credit or to hit some arbitrary number. But the hours added up anyway.

I’ve been volunteering so long and I think I do it without much thought. The next three months are going to change that.

 

I hope you’ll share your volunteer stories with me.

 

Weekly Check-In

On By beinggoodeIn Self Care, WeeklyLeave a comment

It’s a hectic time for me at work and I’m trying to keep my head above water. Another week and things should calm down.

Traditional Volunteerism

  • 4 Hours of Crisis Text Line

Charitable Giving

  • $25 The Nature Conservancy. Plus $25 that my company will match. Plus Delta is matching some. I bought a plane ticket and Delta had a link to calculate and donate for a carbon offset. I was very excited by this and although my flight would only cost $9 for carbon offsetting, I upped it to $25 so that my company would match. Air Travel is so awful for the environment but travel is something I love so much. It was nice to ease my conscience a bit.

Personal Kindnesses

  • I’ve tried to regonize my co-workers when they do a good job (always). This week I went out of my way to do it and complimented two different co-workers.

Self Care

  • I searched YouTube and found a full ballet barre (tradional not those trendy new workout classes). I loved getting a little bit of ballet magic back. I should have been a ballerina.

Please share in the comments how you’re doing this week!

Friendship as Self-Care

On By beinggoodeIn Self Care, ThoughtsLeave a comment

I have great friends, I really do, but I’m also an introvert. I’m social and enjoy going out but being doesn’t recharge me the way it does for extroverts. I revel in alone time and can’t seem to get enough.

 

When I’m going through a hard time all I want to do is stay at home on my couch and watch TV or sleep. My instincts tell me to stay in and ignore the phone calls, ignore all the invites to grab a coffee or go to an event. But really, just like exercise, it’s something that might help the most when you least want to do it. Being social and engaging with others is so very important.

 

One of the first things I ask when I’m counseling others is if they’ve talked to anyone else about their problems, if they have any friends or family members they’d feel comfortable talking to. I understand that you can’t necessarily talk to every friend about everything but hopefully there is someone in your life who will understand.

 

The other thing I recommend to people sometimes is even if you don’t feel like talking through all your problems; go out with your friends, talk about movies or actors you have crushes on or anything. Sometimes just being social and light and having the human connection can do a lot for you long term even when you don’t feel it short term. Now of course there is a balance and if you really don’t feel like going out sometimes it’s okay to stay in and stay to yourself. I just know for myself, sometimes it’s the nights I’ve fought the most against going out that I’ve ended up having the most fun.

 

For my birthday I went out to dinner with a couple of my friends. This has been a fairly typical celebration for the past few years and it brings me so much joy. It’s wonderful to be around people who know you and like to talk about interesting things.

 

Self-Care can sound self-centered and it normally makes us think of things we can do for ourselves, by ourselves but being social is a great tool for self-care. Laughing, making others laugh, it is a wonderful way to take care of yourself and heal when you need it.

 

How do you use your friendships to help with your self-care?