If you’ve been following my series on self care over the past few months, you know I have written about a variety of self care related topics from reflection questions to self care strategies.  This month, I wanted to share some helpful resources that could be utilized as you figure out how to incorporate self care into your life.  I invited some of my colleagues to share some of their favorite resources and blog posts on this topic, too.

Books:

• Trauma Stewardship by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky is one of my favorite books related to self care. This book is written for helping professionals, but I believe there are many pieces of this book that are relevant to those who may not work in a helping profession.   In the first portion of the book, van Dernoot Lipsky describes the signs of a trauma exposure response.   These signs are what alert someone to the fact that they need to be making self care more of a priority.  The second half of the book is devoted to what van Dernoot Lipsky calls the Five Directions.   This section has a lot of good reflection questions and activities that I believe help the reader figure out how to incorporate self care into their lives.
• Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh. I have read many books by Thich Nhat Hanh and have found many of them to be very powerful, but Peace Is Every Step is my favorite.    This is an easy read that helps the reader think about how to slow down and incorporate mindfulness.

Apps:

• Have you considered using an App in your self care practice? This is not an area that I am very familiar with, but in a recent blog post social worker Laura Reagan invited therapists from across the country to share their favorite self care related apps.

Blog Posts Written By Other Therapists:

• Laura Reagan, a social worker from Maryland, invited therapists from across the country to share their favorite self care tips and compiled them in her recent post.   The suggestions range from writing to spending time in the sunshine.

• Additionally, Laura shared her personal experiences with learning about and discovering the need for self care in this post.

• Michael J. Formica, a counselor and coach from Pennsylvania, shared his post on 5 Steps for Being Present which was featured in Psychology Today. In this post, Michael reminds us that truly we cannot multitask and shared simple tips to help the reader stay in the present moment. It may be helpful to consider whether implementing these steps into your personal approach to self care may be helpful.

• New York therapist Maya Benattar, MA, MT-BC, LCAT shared two of her recent posts. The first post is about giving ourselves permission to be less than perfect .   As I work on this post, I have been kicking myself for being behind schedule in my writing schedule just as Maya was at the time she wrote her post.  Thanks for the reminder to be compassionate with myself when I needed it, Maya!

• Maya’s second post is about mindfulness. Maya’s post defines mindfulness and provides concrete examples of  the little ways in which we can use mindfulness in our daily lives.

• New York therapist Elizabeth Singer shared her blog post on Happiness. Elizabeth provides an outline of the building blocks of a happy life as described by Dr. Nancy McWilliam’s.  Elizabeth’s post includes a link to a video where you can hear Dr. Nancy McWilliams speak in depth on this topic.

I am curious to hear about what resources help support you in implementing self care practices.     Please feel free to add a comment below sharing one of your favorite resources.