A Framework of Support (encouraging self care)

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Spend time with your family and friends and anyone in your life that makes you feel good.  Be patient with yourself. Our relationships with others is key to a happy life and what matters the most.  

  Try to be in the moment and pay attention to your breathing. This means focusing on what's happening with and around you right now rather than always thinking about the past or future. This technique is a simple way of relaxing the mind and body.

Having a structure in place helps us to create a sense of familiarity. Structure helps us to feel steady when we are vulnerable and avoid indecisiveness. Once a structure has been created it becomes much easier to maintain activity in the future. 

Exercise can help improve sleep, concentration and your overall mood. It improves your brain function increase your energy and concentration enabling you to handle life's stressors. 

Exercise is a positive effect on well-being and mood, providing a sense of achievement or relaxation and release from daily stress (NICE 2021) 

Having a proper No or Yes builds our confidence. When we find ourselves doing something we don't want to do it knocks our already shaky confidence. Set the guidelines to how you want to be treated. Boundaries do not hinder relationships in fact by asserting clear boundaries we can strengthen our relationships. Setting boundaries ensures that relationships are mutually respectful and caring. Boundaries are not fixed they can be moved and assessed at any point. Its about having agency over our own decisions.

We need to show self compassion to listen to our own needs, to be kind and don't self attack as a form of constant self criticism. Every thought we have has a physiological component which is felt in our body and there are reciprocal bodily sensations that can trigger our thoughts. We need to recognise that feelings are not facts.