Be Well Moment: Building a Holiday Survival Kit

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Discover Your "Greatest Hits" for Holiday Well-being
Welcome to Brain Health Besties, a Human Ford podcast for those of us who want to feel better but don't know where to start.
I'm Bailey, a licensed professional counselor.
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Speaker 2
And I'm NIA, a qualified mental health professional.
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Speaker 3
And I'm Shelby, a human.
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Speaker 2
We are so glad you're here, and we believe that you deserve to know how your brain works and how to nurture it, even when self-care feels a little challenging.
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Speaker 3
We focus on kindness to ourselves and recognizing our own needs with as little guilt as possible.
Because your brain deserves the bestie stars.
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Speaker 4
In my eyes, I can't
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Speaker 1
Hey besties, the practices we talk about here are great for your brain, but this podcast isn't treatment.
If you're feeling overwhelmed, please call or text 988.
The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline help is always available.
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Hey besties, welcome to this Be Well moment.
This moment ties to Episode 29 where we talked about all things holiday and the realities that we tend to navigate this time of year.
And today we are focused on building that holiday survival toolkit, the things that kind of help us through and navigate the beautiful, messy, chaotic reality that is the holiday season.
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So today you all we are building, we're going to work towards building that holiday tool kit.
Now, I just want to preface, this is not the time to try a whole bunch of new things that you've never tried before this because we can be in places of high stress or or even maybe we're not even stressed, but there's so much going on this time of year.
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This is a time to lean into the greatest hits.
What are the things that work for me?
What are my go to strategies that I know at least provide a moment of ease?
Maybe it's not even joy or cheer, but it's just like a moment to pause and take a deep breath.
So that's kind of where we're going today.
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This practice is a little bit different than other things we've done in the past because we are going to kind of go through and create a list of go TOS that we can lean into.
And maybe we keep the the notes in our phone.
Maybe we write them down maybe and keep them in our, our pocket or a handbag or whatever it might be.
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Maybe we take internal inventory, but that we can lean into when we're in those intense moments that feel like too much or a lot.
And then we can go to those as those little moments of comfort.
Perfect.
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Curating Your Go-To Comforts and Grounding Practices
This is a timely practice.
Let's do it.
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Speaker 1
Oh yeah, I feel like I need this one.
OK, y'all.
So what we're going to do is I'm going to kind of prompt us through a few different items and your job is just to think of what creates either this feeling or this experience for you.
And these can kind of be your go to tool.
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So the first one we're going to start with is what are some items that bring you comfort?
We're thinking about like tangible, tangible, physical things.
Things like for me, I, I would be answering this cup of tea or coffee, a cozy spot in my home with a blanket and a book.
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Maybe it's a favorite TV show or movie or song.
What are those tangible comfort items for you?
All that you can lean into that are easily accessible.
I'll take a moment to get those down.
And for our besties, if you are driving or in the car or it's not safe to write these down, maybe pause the episode and come back and then during a time when we can write it down or take notes.
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OK, y'all good there.
OK, the next one is comforting or cozy rituals.
What are the practices, routines that we can lean into to kind of create the spaces of ease and comfort?
So this might be lighting your favorite candle or using your favorite scent and that is associated either with this time of year or not.
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It doesn't have to be a holiday themed scent.
Maybe it's reading before bed every night.
Maybe it's spending some time journaling, although we know that's not Shelby because she doesn't like journaling.
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Speaker 3
It's really not my thing.
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Speaker 1
But what are those routines or things that we can lean into that help us?
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Speaker 2
I think I like this one too because it's probably have probably, we already have some, you know, there's some things that we're we've been doing, you know, but kind of bringing it to the surface now, it's pretty cool to think about.
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Speaker 1
Yeah.
And that routine doesn't have to be complicated or large.
Like yes, it is your workout routine every morning, but it's also like, hey, I spend 5 minutes getting my cup of coffee ready in the morning and complete silence before anybody else is awake.
That is a routine too.
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So it doesn't have to be super complicated.
The next one is grounding.
What are the things that help you feel in the moment?
And I say that because this time of year can feel really floaty and like there's tons of stuff going on.
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What makes you feel settled physically in your body?
What helps you be in the moment?
If I were to answer this one, I would say like spending time with my pets actually sitting on the ground is something that kind of helps me feel literally grounded.
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Spent time outside and in nature is 1.
Breathing exercises are one for me that helps me feel a little more settled in my brain and body.
So what are those things that help you sink into yourself a bit?
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OK, we ready for the next one.
I don't want to rush you, Shell.
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Speaker 3
No, you're.
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Speaker 1
Good.
OK, so who are the safe people that we can reach out to if we're struggling?
This is a really important one.
And we talked in the last episode about having like that wing person or the person that you can go to at the family event or the social engagement or the work party.
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Who are those people that we can go to if we're, if we need a break, if we need to step out and maybe if we are not even realizing that we need it?
Those people that know us well enough to say like, hey, you want to step outside with me for a few minutes that we can lean into in those hard moments.
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So see if you can name or it can be a pet as well.
Name those people or pets that kind of create that for us.
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Embrace Laughter and Evolve Your Personal Toolkit
The next one is a big one because it's maybe one that gets left out some laughter and play.
Where are those spots where we can find a little bit of of laughter and ease and play throughout our day?
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Maybe it's a particular video we like watching.
Maybe it is a person.
I have a whole Pinterest board, that thing that is things that make me laugh, and the only rule is that I have to laugh out loud in order for it to go on that board.
A.
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Speaker 3
Literal lol yes.
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Speaker 1
A an actual lol and I go to that very frequently or I have a bunch of saved videos in my social media that are like those go to's that I just can't help but laugh at.
So finding those spaces of laughter and play can be really vital.
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So we'll take a minute to wrap that up, put your things in, and then I'd love to hear your all's experience with this practice.
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Speaker 3
Yeah, hey, thank you for leading us through that.
I did put it directly into my phone so I have easy access to it.
I really enjoyed this exercise because I think this time of the year it is so easy to get caught up in the the commercialized aspect of it.
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Oh, I have to buy a massage or I have to buy this or I have to go to this place in order to care for myself.
And that's just not true.
We know self-care happens in those little moments that are often free, and so we don't have to feel the financial pressure.
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And so I really enjoy just reflecting on the things that already work for me, the things that I don't have to go out and shop for.
Yeah.
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Speaker 1
Yeah, thank you for sharing that shell.
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Speaker 2
Yeah I agree, I am.
I wrote mine on paper cuz I'm a pen and paper kind of person, but I think I'll probably take a picture of it.
And so that, so that therefore I have it on my phone.
But I think I liked that I was able to come up with things.
You know, I didn't, I didn't have to, I didn't have to think a lot.
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Just like she'll be saying I didn't have to think a lot about it.
Like it's things that I, I do or that I want to do more, you know, the stuff that stuff that I've started or, or have been in my routine before.
But I'm like, write that down because that's one that I actually would lean into if I remember, if I have that, you know, permission for myself to kind of lean into these things.
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So I, I love having a list.
Yeah, this is really great.
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Speaker 1
Well, and the cool thing about this is this is a living list too.
This can change.
You can add to as you're noticing things.
Maybe when we're put on the spot and we're asked like, what brings you comfort?
We can sometimes be like, oh, I don't even know, but start to notice in your everyday, what are those things like?
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I think for me, I am the highly sensory oriented person and a routine that I love during the Christmas season is I'll sit in the evening with all the lights off, but the the lights on the Christmas tree on and we have a live tree.
So that smell of pine and just sitting in the soft glow is like my moment of groundedness.
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And I didn't think about that until this moment.
I would be adding that to my list.
So allowing that to continue to change.
It may be different from one season to the next, but just leaning into these things and adding to or taking things off and maybe one thing works really well another time of year.
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And this time of year it's just not landing.
And that's OK Try something else.
Yeah.
So we hope that this was a helpful survival toolkit for you all.
Continue adding to that that toolkit so that you can find those moments of ease, those deep breaths and maybe a little bit of joy the season.
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Check out the next two episodes as we continue to talk about holidays and navigating and how to care for us during the season.
Take care and be well, Festis.
If you enjoyed this episode, like and subscribe to Brain Health Besties so you can find us in the future.
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Speaker 2
And since sharing is kind, share us with your besties.
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Speaker 3
If you have mental health or Wellness topics you'd like us to chat about, please reach out to Be Well at livebrightly.org.
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Speaker 2
Until next time, be well besties.