Blanket Fort

This is a place for the exhausted and those in need of comforting. Here you will find various things relating to self care and working through problems.

Note: the following points are based on personal experience and are not professional recommendations. Additionally, everyone is different so these things will not work for everyone.

My self-care faves

Little book of self-care: A small journal that contains lists of self-care basics, things to do in order to cope with various negative states, etc. I keep mine in an easily accessible location.

Playlist of comfort songs: music that soothes/calms/gives hope. Here are some ideas.

Positive Youtube channels: Each person's definition of positivity will vary. For me it's people who acknowledge tough realities of life but keep doing their best to move forward in a constructive manner. May also contain practical advice on handling life stuff.

Event log: A book in which I write positive and negative things that happened that day. I will often find that there were many little positives in my day and it doesn't feel as bad.

Organizing my surroundings: Even if it's just putting away the pots or throwing that wrapper on the kitchen table into the trash, bringing a tiny bit of order into my surroundings tends to help me feel slightly more at ease.

My problem-solving faves

Writing thoughts/worries on a piece of paper:
I get a piece of paper and write down whatever I'm thinking.

Reading what I wrote makes it easier to separate the different worries and figure out what is actually upsetting me/identify potential factors I can try to change.

One step at a time/come back to it later:
Confusing/stressful/exhausting tasks can often be divided into several steps. These can then be spread out over the hours/days/etc as is practical.

Note: if something unforeseen happens during one of the steps and it keeps me from moving forward, I treat that as an extra step. I find it's often easier to come back to the next time as I'm prepared for the thing that stresses me.

Only do part of a task:
Low energy can make it hard to finish some tasks, but it may be possible to at least do part of it. Doing part of a task is not losing - it's a lot more than doing nothing and means there's less of the task to conquer next time.

Examples: just cleaning a corner rather than the whole kitchen, only washing some of the dishes (if they need to be done by hand).