Self-care is important for managing stress during hard times. You might not realize that it’s also essential to managing your emotions well. It’s not always easy to make time for it and sometimes there are some mindset hurdles to overcome. In this episode, I’m sharing why self-care is vital to your emotional health, why it’s not selfish or unbiblical, plus 7 things that you can start doing today to take better care of yourself.
Related:
45| Breath Prayers: How to Calm Your Anxious Heart
83| Struggling to Hear God’s Voice? 7 Simple Ways to Practice Stillness in God’s Presence
102| 6 Practical Ideas to Renew Your Mind During Times of Stress
Resources Mentioned: Let's Make Art
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☕ Join the group coaching program: Feel like your faith isn't enough to navigate through the storm? It's tough when emotions feel like a tidal wave, and your faith feels distant amid chaos. The Peace-Filled Mind coaching program will help you find peace, deepen your faith, and embrace your emotions as a pathway to growth! https://latoyaedwards.net/group
🎁Free gift: 3 Steps to Finding Peace w/ an Emotion Map So You Can Calm Down https://latoyaedwards.net/guide
Self-care is important for managing stress during hard times. You might not realize that it’s also essential to managing your emotions well. It’s not always easy to make time for it and sometimes there are some mindset hurdles to overcome. In this episode, I’m sharing why self-care is vital to your emotional health, why it’s not selfish or unbiblical, plus 7 things that you can start doing today to take better care of yourself.
Related:
45| Breath Prayers: How to Calm Your Anxious Heart
83| Struggling to Hear God’s Voice? 7 Simple Ways to Practice Stillness in God’s Presence
102| 6 Practical Ideas to Renew Your Mind During Times of Stress
Resources Mentioned: Let's Make Art
______________________________________________________________________
☕ Join the group coaching program: Feel like your faith isn't enough to navigate through the storm? It's tough when emotions feel like a tidal wave, and your faith feels distant amid chaos. The Peace-Filled Mind coaching program will help you find peace, deepen your faith, and embrace your emotions as a pathway to growth! https://latoyaedwards.net/group
🎁Free gift: 3 Steps to Finding Peace w/ an Emotion Map So You Can Calm Down https://latoyaedwards.net/guide
Raise your hand if you struggle with self-care. Yep, me too. Today we are going to kind of switch gears. We've been talking about spiritual bypassing and emotions for the past six weeks and we are going to switch our focus away from that more towards highly sensitive people, being introverted and self-care and all those things, and so today I really want to look at how managing your emotions require self-care. So we're going to take a look at all of that today on the podcast. Are you looking to manage your emotions and calm your mind so that you don't feel overwhelmed by all the hard times going on right now? Would you like to find true rest and peace in God and a little joy in your weariness? What about understanding why you feel things so deeply, especially when you're stressed? If so, you're in the right place.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Peace-Filled Mind Podcast, your go-to resource for practical tips, real talk and encouragement. I'm your host, latoya Edwards, life and mindset coach and, most of all, a woman who's walked through pain and suffering just like you. No matter what you're currently facing in life or how you've dealt with things in the past, I'm here to help you find peace, joy and hope again. Pop in those earbuds and let's get to it, get to it. So I've been pretty honest and open with you guys about my struggles, especially last year, when I kind of hit rock bottom and looked up and realized that I needed help, and one of the things that I really have had to learn and work hard at this past year has been self-care, caring for myself. I am a single mom of four. I homeschool, right, I run this business, I serve for my church. I'm super, super busy and I've got a lot of things and people that I'm responsible for, and I found myself in this trap of I don't have time for myself because I have to do all of these other things. Right, I don't have time to take myself to the doctor because I'm doing all these things for everybody else.
Speaker 1:What I realized pretty quickly was that I was doing myself a disservice and the people that I'm trying to love and care for and serve a disservice as well by not caring for myself, and so I had to learn how to embrace self-care as a necessity and not as, instead of it being optional. Okay For me, right, all of us really self-care as a necessity and not as, instead of it being optional. Okay For me, right, all of us really self-care. It's not optional.
Speaker 1:We have to understand that if we're going to love, like our neighbor as ourselves, if we're going to show up and walk out our purpose and do the things that God has called us to do, that we first have to take care of ourselves. Okay, you can't love your neighbor well if you don't love yourself well, and self care is a really big part of that. And especially when it comes to your emotional health, when you're walking through hard times, when you're highly sensitive, when you're introverted right, all of these things mean make self care like even more important, and so I really wanted to talk with you today just about some things that you can do to begin to implement self-care into your life, because it's going to help in so many ways. But, specifically when it comes to managing your emotions, if you don't have self-care, you're missing a very important and vital piece of the puzzle. Okay, so we talked about before. Right, if you're high, sensitive and you're introverted, right, we, we are deep thinkers. Deep feelers, we're really great at connecting. We have heightened empathy. We really need quiet, we need solitude if we're going to rest and recharge, and you know what that all is. Self-care, okay, right, when you're feeling overwhelmed, when you have to be out in people a lot, right? What's the answer to that? You need downtime, you need rest. That's self-care, okay. And so we can, you know, still show up as ourselves with the challenges that might come with being super sensitive and deep thinking and deep feeling and all of that. But if we have good self care practices in place, right, we can take care of ourselves and do more of what we're good at, what we want to do. If you're walking through hard times, then you really really need to take care of yourself, because it's going to make it easier to cope and manage your emotions if you are also taking care of yourself.
Speaker 1:Okay, now, self-care. Let's talk about self-care what it is and what it isn't. So I am not talking about, like, just pampering yourself and ignoring responsibilities. And you know, calgon, take me away while all my responsibilities are waiting for me. I'm just going to go off and focus on myself at the expense of everybody else. That is not what I'm talking about. Okay, I am talking about just taking care of yourself physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, right, relationally. Just taking care of yourself so that you can then show up and do the things that are that you have to do so that you can walk well through whatever hard season you are experiencing right now.
Speaker 1:Okay, so is self-care biblical? Yes, it is Okay. One of the best examples that I have is Sabbath. Right, the point of Sabbath is to have a day where you are resting, where you're being rejuvenated, where you're being renewed, right, spiritually, mentally, physically, all those things. That is self-care. It is resting so that you can work. Right, we even see Jesus in the New Testament. How many times did he get away alone to rest and to pray? Okay, so keep that in mind that you're not doing something that God doesn't want you to do. God created you to rest, he created you for self-care, and because of that again, self-care it's vital, it's necessary, it is essential, it's not selfish, it's not optional, it's not something that you can put to the side and come back to it when things calm down. Okay, it's like on the airplane, right? You gotta put your oxygen mask on first before you put the other person on, because if you don't take care of yourself, you're not going to be able to help anybody else around you. All right.
Speaker 1:So now that we kind of have that established, I want to turn to just some ideas on how you can start to include self-care into your life, into your routine. So, number one, it's not going to be any surprise journaling. Okay, journaling is one of my favorite self-care techniques, strategies, because it has so many benefits. Okay, journaling can help you process your emotions. It's going to help you get clarity in your thinking, right, if you're introverted, you overthink. Journaling can help you with that. It can help you sort through all your thoughts and really begin to get clarity about what you actually want, what God is saying to you. Right, it's great to connect to God. It's a great way to express yourself and keep track of your growth, keep track of your goals, keep track of your dreams, like. There's like never ending benefits when it comes to journaling.
Speaker 1:And so here's what I want you to do, right, if you're like, oh, I like that, I want to get started. How can I get started? Great, here's what you're going to do. You're going to set aside five to 10 minutes every day to journal. That's it Five or 10 minutes, and you're not going to judge yourself, you're not going to critique yourself. You're just going to pick up your pen, right? And when your time is up, your time is up and move on, and you can use prompts.
Speaker 1:You can ask yourself gratitude journaling, what am I grateful for today? What am I thankful for today? One of my favorite things to ask myself, especially when I have 10 minutes or less, is how did I see God working in my life today or this week or this month? So, just set aside just a few minutes every day to start journaling. You can ask yourself what am I feeling? You know, what emotion have I noticed the most? You know today or this week? Okay, all things that are going to help you begin to process your emotions right, get clarity, you know, be able to recognize God's presence in your life, because I know that when you're in the thick of it, it can really be hard to see God at work and where he's showing up and what he's doing. But if you take five minutes a day to intentionally focus on that God, he's going to bring those things to mind. That's going to really encourage you and bring you some hope and some peace.
Speaker 1:So the next tip that I want to share with you is prayer and meditating. Okay, so why is this great? It deepens your relationship and your connection to God. Okay, prayer, right, having that conversation, that back and forth with God, is a great way to unburden yourself right and to receive his guidance, his discernment, his direction, his wisdom. Okay, that's going to help you have some inner peace, even when things are going cuckoo around you. It's going to help quiet your mind right. And, ultimately, when you are spending time in prayer with God, when you are spending time meditating on his word, it's going to help you surrender all of your worries, all that stuff that's going on in your heart, to God. All right, and he's gonna trade, he's gonna take your worries, he's gonna trade you, you know, comfort and rest and peace, okay, so how can you get started with this?
Speaker 1:Here's your practical tip for this step um, find a dedicated prayer space, um, okay, and it can be anything. It can be your chair, it can be a corner in your room, it can be right your, your block. You're going to walk around your block and have that time with God, but dedicate some time to just be with God, to be in his presence, to talk to him, to hear from him, okay, and start with something really short. Okay, five or 10 minutes. Again, like we're trying to implement new things, we're not going to commit ourselves something that we can't stick with. So keep it short, keep it simple and, when it comes to meditating, find like some really short scripture, really short phrase, okay. So maybe you're going to go with Psalms 46, 10, be still and know that I am God, and you're going to sit there and say, okay, be still and know that he is God. I'm going to be still, I know that you are God. Right, do things like that.
Speaker 1:Breath prayer is another thing that's really helpful for here. If you need help with that, we have episode number 45. I walk you through all about breath prayers what they are, why they work and how to get started with that. All right. So your next tip and how to get started with that, all right. So your next tip is nature walks. Okay, go outside and have some green time. Okay, spending time in nature. It lowers your stress, it improves your mood. It's going to give you a break from whatever you're going on for your day.
Speaker 1:Right, it's just time to go out and, like find some quiet, find some peace. It's a great place to reflect on God and all that he's doing. You know, god's creation really speaks to me when I walk around and I see the birds, you know, I'm reminded oh, if he cares for the sparrows, how much more does he care for me? Those kind of things and just breathing a fresh air, getting the sun on your face right, feeling the grass right, put your feet in the grass, put your feet in the dirt All these things are very grounding, very calming, very soothing, very helpful. So what's your practical step here? Find a local park, a nature trail, somewhere that you can go and be outside, and even if all you can do is go, stand in your backyard or your front yard for five minutes and let the sun be on your face and you're inhaling that fresh air, that's great, okay. And also I want to encourage you if you can combine your walks with prayer right or listening to scripture or worship music, it's going to really kind of elevate the peace and the presence of God that you're experiencing when you're doing that.
Speaker 1:Next is something creative. Okay, I love, love, love. That part of being introverted is, generally speaking, right. This lean and this bent towards creativity. I love it and it's awesome because when you in whatever creative medium that you choose right, which then helps you to relax, it's also great, like as a form of worship and praise, like, some of the most beautiful pieces of art that I've seen are depictions of accounts in scripture. I love that, okay. And so when I say creative, I mean just anything creative.
Speaker 1:So painting, writing, knitting, music, dancing, right, sculpting, anything that you're just kind of creating something, you know. Do that, engage in that, because it's a great way to take care of yourself. I know, for me, I love to paint, I love, right, I love dancing, I love listening to music, and all of that allows me to just express myself and let go of a lot of stuff that I'm feeling. You know, sometimes when I can't journal because I'm too stressed or I'm too exhausted, I can pick up my paints and I can release all of that, you know, onto my page. Okay, so what's your tip here? Schedule some regular time to be creative, whatever. That is right. Maybe you want to like build stuff, woodworking or whatever I don't know, but just find some regular time for that.
Speaker 1:Okay, you can join groups for that locally, online. You know, I do a lot of my painting online. I have a person that I follow and they release tutorials and I will follow their tutorials to paint. Person that I follow and they release tutorials and I will follow their tutorials to paint. I can leave links for that in the description for the show notes, if you want to check that out. It's let's Make Art. That's where I do a lot of my painting. I have done some local classes before. That has been great, but figure out what you can do and do it, and I'm going to encourage you here to do the same thing that we were doing for these other things.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you might not have an hour to spend creating. Oh, it would be lovely, right, every day. But find something you can do in five minutes, right, five minutes most days, and then maybe an hour on when you have more time, all right. Next is reading, right and reflecting. All right, I'm a book nerd. I make no secret about that, but this is why this is so helpful.
Speaker 1:Okay, the thing that I love about books I don't know if this is like specifically to like being introverted and highly sensitive, but for me, when I am reading, I can get lost highly sensitive, but for me, when I am reading, I can get lost in another world and somebody else's story and it takes my focus off of my own stuff. I love that being able to get to know new characters and I mean, like I get really invested in some of the books that I'm reading. My kids laugh at me but I'm like, so invested in it. But it's a good thing, right. It's a way to take your mind off something and experience something else. I've also found that reading can be a way for me to process emotions. There have been several times where I've been reading a story and I will connect one of the characters emotionally because they are experiencing an emotion that I'm struggling with, and being able to watch their journey of experiencing it and processing it and dealing with it and coping with it often helps me do the same. So that's nice.
Speaker 1:And you can read anything you want, like, if you're a nonfiction person, right. Go deep, right. Introverts, we like to go deep. We like to stimulate our brains. Do that you can read like books that are going to build your faith, right. Devotionals, anything that's going to help you relax mentally and emotionally. If it's going to nourish your soul, even better, okay.
Speaker 1:And reflective right. Time to reflect. As introverts, we are deep thinkers. We like to be introspective, we like to reflect. Sometimes, doing reflective study like that can be helpful. You can find a book that you can think deeply about and reflect on. I do this often. I'm doing this this year where I'm kind of going quarter by quarter. I am diving deep into a topic because I really want to kind of reflect on it and think on it. I'm looking for new ideas, right, new thoughts to have. So that's been really helpful and relaxing as well.
Speaker 1:So, practical tip here make a reading list. Or, if you're like me, go to your TBR list and choose something to read Okay, and just have time every single day to read, to sit and reflect, right. Five minutes, five or 10 minutes here Okay, read three pages, read a chapter. You can listen. Listening to books counts too, right, but make time for that every day.
Speaker 1:The next tip is just being in community and like fellowship. All right, so I know that I'm talking to introverts here, and if you're not an introvert, it's not that we don't like people, just that people are exhausting, okay. But being in community is going to be a great place to get emotional support, accountability, a sense of belonging, right, that connectiveness that we like, that we need, that we cherish, that we thrive in. Ok, it's necessary. You, it's really, really hard to cope with life, to do life, to manage emotions and do all the things that we need to do outside of community. God made us to be in community. God made us to be in community. He made us to be in fellowship, and so it's not optional y'all right.
Speaker 1:Part of taking care of yourself is finding your people that you can be with right, that you can be there for is necessary. And when you don't have it I speak from experience when I did not have community, I had a much harder time coping with life. Now I have community. I had a much harder time coping with life. Now I have community. And, yes, it's exhausting at times, but I'm getting so many blessings and so many benefits from it. I'm like I don't ever want to ever be without it again. So practical tip Find your people. Okay, small group, all right. Maybe it's a small group of church. Maybe it's about studying at your church. That's your thing. Maybe it's one or two friends that you can meet with regularly. But just find like your people and begin to spend time with them regularly, check in with each other. Right, be intentional about having you know that community in your life.
Speaker 1:And then the last tip here that I want to share with you is physical self-care. So what do I mean? Take care of your body, okay, move your body right. Exercise right, whatever it is. Pick up everythings run, hike, swim, bike, whatever it is that you like to do. That's, you know, getting some movement in your life. Do that.
Speaker 1:Nutrition. Feed your body nutritious foods Okay, yes, have your treats, have your snacks, but, right, feed your body healthy, nutritious things. All right, get sleep Make sure that you're getting enough sleep. Oh, my goodness, sleep is so important. I'm probably gonna have a podcast episode on that coming up soon. But sleep and rest, it's so important and we often are not getting enough of it or we're not getting enough quality sleep, okay. Reduce your stress, right. Improve your mood. All these things are necessary. Take caring of yourself physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally, relationally. It matters, okay.
Speaker 1:So what is your practical tip here? Like, I hate to tell you to exercise more, but I'm gonna tell you exercise more. Okay, just move your body. Like, literally, just move your body, whatever it is. Find a way to move your body every single day. Okay, I love going for walks, especially in the evening as things are cooling off because it's a million degrees here in Florida, but just taking 10 minutes to just go for a walk to move my body. I feel better, right, it's relaxing, it's calming. I sleep better, okay, right, make. Make eating a priority. Okay, I know when I'm super stressed I tend to not eat. Make eating a priority. Bonus points If you can, you know, plan some like nutritious meals, meals and snacks, okay, and like just get better rest, just take better care of yourself.
Speaker 1:All right, so you're probably thinking well, this way. These are all great ideas, but, yeah, I don't have time for that in my life. Don't worry, I'm not going to leave you hanging. I've got just a couple of tips I want to leave you with on how you can integrate self-care into your everyday life, all right. So, number one routine and consistency. Okay, self-care is important and needs to be part of your everyday life, and consistency is going to really help you see the most benefits out of managing your stress and your emotion. So, find a routine.
Speaker 1:I taught I gave you, I think, eight or so examples of things you can do that are part of your self-care, and what did I tell you for most of them? Like five or 10 minutes a day, okay. So find five or 10 minutes a day that you can do one or two of these things and then build on that as you have time. Okay, build on that when you have more time in your schedule, when you're able to. The second tip that I want to give you is to make self care a priority, like, just make it a priority, put boundaries in place so that you are protecting your time that you want to devote to taking care of yourself. Okay, that's why I talk about starting small. I pick one thing to do for five minutes and then maybe it goes to 10 minutes and then maybe it goes to 20 minutes. You know, maybe you have one day a week or one day a month where you have one or two hours to focus on self-care. But make it a priority. Okay, put it in your schedule first, right Along with sleeping and work, right and church and appointments. Like, put it on there first, and then you can begin to grow your routines from that. And finally, I just want to leave you with just a word of encouragement Okay, be patient with yourself, be gentle with yourself as you began to incorporate self-care. Okay, it's new.
Speaker 1:It can be difficult, especially if your mindset has been that it's selfish or that you don't have time for it. Give yourself the time and the space and the grace to integrate this into your lives. Okay, this is a journey, right? I'm not saying you have to do it like it has to be perfect right now, because it's not possible we don't want to be perfect but it's a journey. Right Ends with anything. It's going to take time and you're going to have times in your life where you're on it, where you're like yeah, I've got self-care every day, I've got this going on, and then something's going to happen. Right, life is going to happen and all of that's going to be gone for a little bit. But always be trying to get back to some kind of regular self-care, some kind of regular routine in your life, so that you can be caring for yourself. Well, you are worth it, right, you need it. It's gonna help you with every area of your life. So go out and figure out how to make time for yourself.
Speaker 1:Are you feeling overwhelmed by emotions that seem to be too big to handle? Are you struggling to find joy and peace amidst the chaos of your life? It is frustrating and exhausting when you can't understand why you feel a certain way, or when you know how you feel, but you don't know how to manage those emotions because they're too intense. This constant cycle of emotional turmoil can leave you feeling helpless and just stuck in a cycle of despair. Well, guess what? I have a tool for you. It is my emotion mapping guide. It's going to help you learn how to calm down, rewire your brain and cope better in just three simple steps. Okay, this guide is going to help you identify your emotions so you can understand your true feelings, process your emotions so you can find out the reasons behind them and manage your emotions so that you can gain control over them and stop feeling overwhelmed. So, if you are ready to climb out of the pit of despair and start experiencing peace and joy again, download your free guide today at latoyeadwardsnet slash guide.
Speaker 1:I hope you were blessed and encouraged by today's episode. I would love to hear from you. The best way to do that is to leave a five-star rating and review on your podcast player, sharing what you loved or found helpful about today's episode. This helps other women find the show and it's a huge blessing to me. Thank you so much for joining me today.