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Tag: Mental Health

3 important things to include to your everyday routine for well-being

Congratulations! We have been in Community Quarantine 🇵🇭 for over 100 days! 🤣

©8list.com
Read article at https://8list.ph/100-days-of-quarantine/#read-more

One thing is true and sure about the situation we have right now: that everything is still quite uncertain for us at the moment.

Anxiety level is at record high, people are real scared of both acquiring the virus as well as letting their families go hungry, jobs are displaced and employees are worried if they’re going to still have their work the following morning; students are confused with the terms synchronous vs asynchronous/ fully-online vs blended learning, and much more, parents are at loss on how on earth are they going to afford the required gadgets that can be used for the online classes. Decidedly the most important confusion of all, our government has showed that they are as disoriented and bewildered as all of us in battling this pandemic.

©Google Images
©Google Images

But I have just realized that even though we are in a very difficult and confusing time, what we can do is to just take hold of whatever things we can actually control. And the virus’ transmission rate, the world’s economy, and the breakdown of PDU30’s loans are all way beyond our circle of control. What’s within our power are how we manage our anxiety and stress levels, as well as structuring our daily routine so it can help us maintain well-being.

I just would like to share one of ‘tactics’ that I’m doing to take control and take care of my own mental and emotional health. I’m aware of myself as someone on-the-go, and that actively “doing” something is one way that can make me feel happier. So whenever I start to feel stressed out, there are three things I will myself to do: (1) something productive, (2) something relaxing, and (3) something fun.

Doing something PRODUCTIVE

Productivity doesn’t mean you have to start out being the best; what’s important is you just have to start. When you’re productive, you can develop other aspects of your life, like your mental ability, relationships, creativity, health and physical strength, and even your happiness level.

But this ‘doing something productive’ shouldn’t be on the expense of your Mental Health. The idea is that being productive must boost our morale, by keeping our motivation on a high level since having goals to accomplish gives our days some direction and purpose. We shouldn’t force ourselves to be “productive” if it’s already straining us and draining us of joy and energy.

For me, these are the things I do on a daily basis to make myself productive:

  1. Work from Home
  2. Tamang walis lang at ayos ng bahay/ doing household chores
  3. Attend scheduled webinars ng PGCA
  4. Paligo kay Ella, pakaen kay Ella, laro kay Ella
  5. Exercise (yes, nasa point pa lang ako ng buhay na isang productive activity kong itinuturing ang exercise 😅)
  6. Try to write something for IG/ blog

Doing something RELAXING

This is self-explanatory. Charot hahah. Rest and relaxation should of course be one of our top priorities every day! Whether it’s a 4-hour nap 😅 or just a 5-minute stretch, doing something relaxing can give us the energy we need to tackle our workload or the problem we are facing. Not only should we start our day feeling refreshed but we should continue to refresh at various points throughout our day.

Here are the relaxation activities on my daily routine:

  1. Writing to-do lists and some updates on my planner (it calms me)
  2. Drinking coffee 💯
  3. Sleeping (and power naps)
  4. Reading on my Bible phone app
  5. Reading books and blogs
  6. Scrolling through IG (I should be honest enough to admit this ❤)
  7. Kwentuhan with the husband, while drinking coffee 😉

Doing something FUN

I am a firm believer that whatever we do in life must always be fun for us, for there’s really no point in pursuing things that make us feel bad. What I mean with fun is that it makes us smile, it makes us laugh, and it makes us feel happier and more alive (and yeah, safe pa din dapat). Fun activities shouldn’t just be some distraction, rather, it must engage us and balance our routine.

These are fun activities for me that I do on a daily basis:

  1. Playing with Ella (or engaging her on an educational play if nasa mood sya haha)
  2. Playing Clash of Clans 🙈
  3. Watching Netflix
  4. Daydreaming/ planning on things we have to renovate in our house 😅
These photos are designed and made by me. 😀

Now more than ever, it is important for us to prioritize our Mental Health and well-being. It’s not an easy shot, because we have to be intentional on helping ourselves feel better. That’s why we have to do it every day, for even the trivial, little things we do for ourselves matter. These trivial, little things built to become a self-care habit can make a whole lot difference.

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Beginning

I started blogging when I was in 3rd year HS (2005), a time when social media sites encouraged people not just to socialize with filtered photos and pointless dance challenges, but to express themselves through actual words (anyone remember Multiply, Tumblr, and the Friendster testimonials? ❤ ahhh, good times). It was introduced to me by a classmate, and we had real fun making and customizing our own “websites”. I have built 6 blogs over the years (may ‘theme’ kasi ang mga blogs ko, haha, kaya pag hindi na yun ang theme ng buhay, bagong blog na naman uwu 🙈), chronicling my personal experiences and views about myself, my family, my job, the world and how I see it. Writing and reading blogs have always been my hobby, therapeutic for me, even. I have always been a wanna-be writer, and thru blogging, I’m getting a taste of what this crazy dream actually feels like.

Year 2013, I started Musings and Geniuses, hoping to share my musings (thoughts while on commute, hence the domain) and inspire others, while I also try to live and learn in my own young adulthood journey. It wasn’t really an active blog site (141 published posts for a period of 7 years), yet it tells the stories of the most important milestones in my life so far- every career shifts, a major heartbreak because of losing my Church friends, my engagement and marriage to Aljhon, and then becoming a Mom to Ella. It is a time capsule of my most important memories of both happy and sad times.

Presently, as I juggle my time working from home and taking care of our household and my daughter, I am inspired to build another blog- this time to center on who I really am and on things I am most passionate about. Much as I want to maintain the posts (and yes, the followers), Musings and Geniuses is not who I am anymore. I decided that this new blog will still continue to chronicle my personal journey, but more importantly, touch on three important subjects:

1. Motherhood

I love being a Mom, despite the super tiredness I feel on the daily basis. There is already a lot of content you can find about Mom life in the internet, but for my own space, you’ll find just my own journey with my own child. I’ll never claim to be an expert on the topic, but only to my own kid and to our own style of raising her. I’ll write about them all here, hoping that in one way or another, it may help other Moms who are experiencing the same dilemmas and situations I had. Motherhood is a long and winding journey, and every Mom definitely needs a tribe to help her keep going.

2. Married Life

Aljhon and I just recently celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. We are definitely young by the number, but we are constantly trying to learn and discover how to become better partners and parents. And that is what I want to write about in this blog. As a Christian wife, I am well aware that the family is the basic and most crucial part of the Church and society, and sadly, its value to the young people is diminishing due to worldly views and short-term idealism (wala daw forever!). On this blog, I will never preach. 🙏 But I’ll at least do my part on sharing our own stories of triumphs and sufferings, because that’s what marriage is all about- experiencing all the better and worse, together.

3. Mental Health

For the last 2 years, I have always been invited to various talks and seminars about Mental Health, and the presentations I prepared have been calling me to have a home. And as someone with a license in Psychology (RPm pa lang ha, not RPsy), pursuing Masteral studies in Counseling, and with 6 years of professional experience as a School Counselor, advocating for good Mental Health and Well-being has been an integral part of who I am now. On this little space in the internet, I would like to share my tribulations as I try to make a difference as a Counselor, one student at a time.

Starting this new blog actually gives me a familiar rush. And yeah, for the very first time, I made my name as the blog domain (para di na maiba, hahahaha). But really, I am just hoping that whatever I’ll write here may help another mommy, wife, student, or any other person. Because as uncertain as times may be right now, we all certainly need every help we can to get by.