Healing through Self-Care
This week, I’ve been taking a course in Mental Health First Aid under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (SAMHSA)
One of the takeaways from the course that is particularly relevant to anyone going through the process of divorce is SAMHSA’s suggestion for developing self-care as a means for mental fitness and wellbeing. Developing a regimen of self-care will help you heal, creating support and strength for you on an ongoing basis.
Maintaining a sense of well-being and stability is not always easy, particularly when you’re going through the dissolution of a marriage.
Using the 8 Wellness segments listed below as a guide, we can begin to develop our own personalized self-care routine. The diverse areas that make up our lives hold incredible amounts of healing potential. As we work to develop wellness in these areas, we begin to empower ourselves, using our personally created support system, that will provide greater stabilit and well-being.
Some of us will find some areas difficult to develop and that is natural, of course, simply due to personal preference. It’s beneficial to know that all of the areas hold great potential for our healing, growth, and wellbeing. Creating a healthy life using all 8 areas leads to a balanced and multilayered approach, allowing for greater stability in times of turmoil and deregulation.
It’s possible to work toward total healing and the attainment of mental wellness in your life.
Here are the areas of Wellness with short suggestions listed:
- Social Wellness: connecting, creating a system of support.
- Environmental Wellness: creating space for health, free from harmful substances, influences, places.
- Intellectual Wellness: Becoming a lifetime learner. Learning for growth.
- Physical Wellness: Developing healthy exercise, sleeping, eating regimens.
- Emotional Wellness: Becoming aware of feelings, gratitude, positive outlook.
- Spiritual Wellness: Leaning into faith & religious practices.
- Financial Wellness: Learning wants v. needs. Accepting current situation. Working to improve.
- Occupational Wellness: Gaining fulfillment through employment, volunteer work, community involvement.
As you work on your wellness routine, you become empowered with a sense of strength and an awareness that you have the capacity to work toward complete health and wellness in your life. Happy Healing…
Denise Palmer
