Isabela's Journey into Self Care

 For my last OST (One Small Thing), I decided to follow Alice's posts  on becoming more mindful about waste. Making sure I finished my tea each time yesterday also led to me feeling more mindful in general.   Recently, I have been drinking tea more and more- (probably because of all the British television I have been consuming) and I ran into the same issues as Alice. I would drink my teacup until it was almost empty, and then leave it. Alice brought up some really interesting environmental impacts of wasting clean water like this, but I also took from it more a sense to become more mindful in general. I mindlessly was wasting tea. So yesterday, I made tea for my best friend and I- and I finished my cup! I did what Alice suggested, and when the tea became lukewarm at the end, I microwaved it. I love making homemade tea, it makes me feel like it is a form of self-care. Mindfulness can go hand in hand with self-care, which is why I titled this blog post part 5. I reall...

 Today, I spent a lot of time outside on my back porch, without my phone. I talked with my best friend about literally everything and enjoyed the nice weather. It felt so nice to be disconnected from my phone because I felt like time was a construct. I felt like not knowing the time and not being worried about how much time I was outside for, let me finally relax in a really satisfying way.  The views from my back porch Views from my porch pt 2 Eventually, I did have to go inside to text back someone, but not before I spent a wonderful 2 hours outside just vibing and feeling good! I really recommend this, maybe going to a park or something? Just spending time in nature I feel is really valuable to your mind and happiness. Especially because it will be getting cold soon!

 Yesterday, I spent an hour without using my phone. I decided to paint and work on something to help clear and calm my mind. It worked really well- I listened to my new playlist, " vibe " which has lots of smooth music that helped me calm down.  I struggle a lot with self-worth, and procrastination. Doing this painting really made me feel good on a couple different levels: I felt good knowing I had achieved something and finished it, I felt good knowing I was happy with the outcome, and I felt good knowing I had spent my time doing something productive. I could have just been on TikTok for a couple hours, but instead, I spent my time doing something that not only looks good, but made me feel good. 

Yesterday, I spent 30 minutes without my phone. I decided to take a walk with my mom and Ziggy my dog. She walks pretty fast, so I took some time by myself to just chill and enjoy nature.  My new favorite color is the color of leaves in the sunlight. I truly think I experience life better without being on my phone- but without music? That's a different story. Today I will try and listen to music, but put my phone on do not disturb and try and do something calming. If I am feeling artistic, I might paint something.  So far, I have felt calmer, and more grounded in the time I spent without my phone. <3

 For the next couple of days, I plan to chronicle my efforts to find self-care in other ways than what is typically in "self-care" articles.  Usually, these "self-care" articles go something like this: do your makeup, get a haircut, paint your nails. I think these can make you feel better and can lead to time for yourself, but they don't really care for your mind. (These are still really important though if they make you feel better- but I find even with my nails done and my hair washed, I can still feel pretty bad about myself at times) These kinds of images are common- but focus a lot on the outside and not nourishing your mind as much.  I instead want to focus on how to feel better on the inside... and one big thing I thought of was how draining phones are on our psyche. In a technological era with everything being on our phones, its rare that us-young people- ever take a break. And in our current political climate its even harder to take breaks without the f...