Transcripts
1. Self-Care Class Preview: Hi, I'm Ben Jones. I'm a mental health
professional and social worker in the Minneapolis area. If you would like to take your coping resources toolbox to the next level in order to more confidently and boldly take on day-to-day stress
that gets thrown at you. This class might be for you. According to the American
Institute on stress, 73% of Americans report that their current stress has impacted their
mental health. The info covered in this class will allow you to
more confidently take on stress by putting together a self-care plan specifically
tailored for you. By the end of this class, you'll have a good game plan. And bonus is this material can also have the potential to positively impact relationships
with those around you. So that sounds good to you. I look forward to
having you in class. Let's get to it.
2. Class Project: Welcome back everybody. We are going to talk about
today's project. Why don't we? In this class, students
will have a chance to put together
information learned through the different
reflections and activities in order to
put together a game plan. For some better self-care. All you need is a
pen, pencil, paper. I do recommend downloading the resources in the
resources tab below. I think they'll help
you have a vessel that you can plug your
reflections and information into to kind of support kind of getting all the information
together for the project. I've actually put
together two projects. The first project.
The first project, you'll put together
the information and the different forms that
we're gonna go over. And based on the information, based on the
self-care reflections and the resources reflection. We're going to put together, We're gonna put together one
affirmation or message or reminder on a post-it
note or a little piece of paper and tape it on a
mere tape it by your desk. Tape it somewhere
that you'll see it. As a reminder of taking this
class and as a reminder of your commitment to this goal. And we will be going over some recommendations
for goals as well. So that's the first project. The second projects which I encourage people
to consider as well, is we're gonna put
together a one-page visual of one specific
thing or a couple of specific things that you are planning to work
on for self-care. Could be something like get outside for a walk once a day. It could be something
like take a snack, break more often or meet up with my friend Jimmy for coffee. I think just being specific
and having that will help hold things in and feel
free to have fun with it. Any medium is fine. The world's your oyster. As they say the cliche. Just feel free to
make it your own. If you really like collage, if you like watercolor,
if you like. Drawing with sharpies. If you like. If you want to make a mural. Whatever is going to
be meaningful for you, embrace it, write a song,
just have fun with it. So that is the second project. And whichever
project you choose, I encourage you to please
share your project. I always love to see them
and I'm going to try to really make sure that I'm seeing what
everyone's working on because I'm really excited to see what everyone comes up with. There will also be some
ideas and examples posted in the resources tab as well
in the description as well. To just give you some ideas and please share your projects on the projects submission page. I really look forward
to seeing it. And I look forward to you. Also, if you wanted to
share it on social media. My name is on Instagram, is B. Jones draws. So if you want to take me
on that or if you want to use the hashtag B. Jones draws Skillshare. I'll post that in
the comments too. That'll just help
us kinda collect together and see what
everyone's working on and kind of get that
community magic going on. So I look forward
to seeing that. And please don't forget to subscribe and follow
me as a teacher. And I'll have more and more information
coming out in terms of just getting
people's ideas for what other types of classes
they'd like to see. So thank you so much for yeah, thank you so much
for joining us. And let's jump into the lessons.
3. Self-Reflect: Welcome back everyone. Happy to have you aboard
and look forward to. Talking more about
self-care is not selfish. There's a cliche in the world that self-care is not selfish. In our cultures, we, especially in American
cultures we get very sometimes
people have feelings of shame or guilt associated with taking
time for themselves. And it can be very pervasive. So I just wanted to start
off with that point. And self-care is not selfish, although it is a cliche. I certainly like the
reminder frankly. So to kinda center is in this
discussion about self-care, the emotional aspects
of self-care. I'm going to welcome
you to think about all of the five
senses and engaging them. So if you think about things
you see, hear, smell, deal, eyes, and taste
that hadn't taste. If you think about the
five senses, we are. Biologically, those are
the senses we have, and those are the different
things that can trigger anxiety, can trigger nerves, can trigger stress response
and increased heart rate, things like that, breathing
tension on things like that. So those are the
different things that can contribute
to our stress, but they're also
things that can be very good buffers or
protective factors for stress. Think about things visually that you could use to help
with calming stress. Maybe it is. Maybe it's looking at pictures that bring back happy memories. Maybe it is watching
your favorite TV show. Maybe it's going to
a park and watching a waterfall or watching some
sort of soothing imagery, watching video of waves
crashing on a beach. I definitely don't
mind seeing that. Especially with this
cold weather we've had in the Midwest, hearing music because
they're certain music, certain soothing, um,
audio that helps you. Guided imagery. There's information I'll be
sharing on guided imagery. Essentially
recordings that kinda take you into a different, sort of a different scene. Maybe you're walking
along a beach. Maybe. Maybe you're
laying in the grass. You know, those types
of audio stimulation can help kind of
triggered the column mean the Colombian response in your brain and your
central nervous system and things like that. So taste. Staying hydrated, having a good tree during
the day, things like that. Smells, lighting candles, and just being
mindful of ascent, engaging in mindfulness,
surrounding sense, pain, very intentional. Moment by moment. Focus on the set. You know, maybe maybe you're in the woods
and you smell pine. Maybe they're not always,
not always good things. Maybe you are, you know, maybe you're walking through a building and it smells like, I don't know, cleaning supplies, there's something like that. Anything that I don't occur, It's a breathe in and
cleaning supplies. But the point is, you know, the more you can engage
all of your senses, sight, hearing, taste, getting some
treats, smelling, feeling. There are different kind of progressive muscle
relaxation things you can do where you
kinda like tense up your hands and then relax
them to tense up your hands, relaxed them, tense
up your shoulders, relax on those things can
be really helpful too with kinda Getting the body into some self-care
and things like that. So as we're going through this, a think about self-care. I really encourage you to
think about the five senses. So we've got eyes, we've got sight, hearing,
smelling, tasting, feeling. And yeah, I just really encourage you to think
about that as we're going through these forums
and these worksheets. And that will just to kinda connect you
with the material. But that is the part
that will connect with this section here,
the emotional side. So we've got the emotional side, how we respond to stress and
things that help us kinda calmer our central
nervous system and body. And then we'll be talking about this section. See you
in the next section.
4. Social Wellness: Welcome back to class. This section we're gonna be talking about
social wellness. So when you think
about wellness, anything about the emotional
and social domains or dimensions of wellness. You've got the emotional
piece that we just covered in terms of kind of
how you cope with stress, things you do to kinda
bring your body back down. And also there's
the social part. So I'm really excited to talk about this section
because for me, this area has been
really powerful in terms of in terms
of social wellness. And when you look at this
little Venn diagram, we're going to write down
some of the things that we thought about in
terms of how we cope and how we all in
the emotional side. And then on the other
side we're gonna be talking a little
bit about social. So when you think
about, when you think about good friend or a
close family member, or people that people that you spend time with
that really bring you joy, that really fill your cup. Who are those people? Don't have to get complicated. You don't have to
over-complicate things. Just think about the people
you spend time with, the group she spent time with. And particularly think about
who your cheerleaders are. Who are people that historically
have said you can do it. You can do this. You know, people that
have really instilled positive impact on your life. For me, it's my partner. She's been a
tremendous encourage and support in that area. I think about family
and friends as well. Another area I'd like to just recommend you think
about in social, in the social wellness area
is communities and groups. So with regard to
wellness and with regard to exercising that
muscle of self-care, what are some things you've
been wanting to try? Is there a community
education clubs that you've been thinking
you wanted to try? Is there did you want
to take salsa lessons? Did you want to take
swing dancing lessons? Have you always wanted
to learn watercolor? I think we all end up becoming our worst enemies and our
fiercest critics in this area. So I encourage you to, for this project, just get wild. Do you want to try art, but you, maybe you're not
confident in your art skills. Give it a shot. You know, I I kinda got into
doing a little bit more art, particularly through a lot
of Skillshare classes. And it's been, It's
been really powerful. And I also recently tried attending urban sketching
meet up over in our area. And it's scary. It's scary. Go into a new group,
a new setting. There can be kind
of anxieties and you don't know quite
what to expect. And so I'm not going to I'm not trying to discount
feelings related to that, but I think, you know, the more risk, the more reward. So I think as much as he
could try something new, especially if your
self-care plan has been a little bit hurting. I really recommend trying
something new and it doesn't necessarily need to
be something wild. Maybe it's getting a
group of your friends together for coffee date
or something like that. I think the thing about the social wellness piece
is it can be really strong. It can be a really strong remedy for warding off things
like depression, anxiety, feelings of isolation. And essentially those
are things that really have been shown to really promote good
mental health. There's a sense of, there's a sense of
collective power. There's a sense of
we're not alone. There's a sense of I'm not the only one going
through something, you know, things like that. So in this, in this section, I also want to say that
depression and anxiety are real. And if, if therapy is something you want to try out, strongly
recommend that. If you do know anyone or if you happen to have any concerns
about your own safety, Any thoughts about suicide, hurting yourself,
things like that. I strongly recommend
calling 988. It's a national confidential
compassionate phone line where you can talk to
someone about those things. I also recommend I also
recommend connecting with NAMI, National Alliance
on Mental Illness. There's chapters in all
sorts of different states. And that can be
another good resource to for getting connected
with support groups, getting connected with people experiencing similar things. So here we are. I hope you've had hoped the gears are going
and I hope you've got some ideas going
for the class and project and what you might
want to do for that. To quote one of my
favorite teachers on Skillshare, Aaron traveling. He always talks about clicked, pause whenever, get out, get some fresh air, go get coffee, go to a park, breed the mountain air, woods air or whatever it is, and stretch your legs, move around and
when you're ready, we'll see you in the next
lesson. Thanks for being bored.
5. Making Goals: Welcome back everyone. I'm happy to have you aboard. Now we're gonna be talking
about making goals. So there are a lot of different ways you can
go about developing goals. And I am going to kind of cover some different
things to think about. If you turn to the
self-reflection form. You'll notice there
is the section on the first part talks about different types
of situations that come up and what types of
things stress you out. And then what types
of things help. My recommendation is
don't reinvent the wheel. If you have a certain
song or a certain go-to, maybe it's taken a short walk. I'm not here to take away coping resources
you've already got. So really just looking
to build on it. So if you have things
that you're already doing that work by all
means, stick with it. For that section, we're gonna
be looking at what was it, what was it that helped? And what do you
think aloud it out? Perhaps you, perhaps he listened to jazz or lo-fi
hip hop music when, you know, when you're
anxious or when you're mad, or things like that. How does it help? What does it, what do you notice at
doing cultivating that mindfulness throughout
this activity, I think will be helpful. Mindfulness being
very intentional. I'm non-judgmental,
moment by moment awareness and
particular attention without judgment to
what's happening. And I'd recommend you, if you're not familiar
with mindfulness practice, I really would recommend you check out some
different teachers on Skillshare that have
those types of classes. So for the goals, Let's talk a little
bit about goals. If you go to the second part
of the self-reflection, we have short-term goals
and long-term goals. So when you think about goals, short-term would be what is something I could do today
or in the next week or two? Maybe I want to call
a family member, maybe I want to call a friend. Maybe I want to put
together a new playlist on Spotify or on iTunes. Or maybe I want to pick up
some new records to spend. Whatever it is. Maybe it's picking
up some candles, maybe it's gone and walk. Keep it simple. Keep it realistic. And be specific. If you make goals like
do something for myself, not as likely to
follow through on it. The more specific you are, the easier you'll
be able to hold yourself accountable
for the goal. So if you want some
tips on goals, on the brainstorm resource, I've got them highlighted there. Like I said, be specific picket
timeframe for the goals. Start small. So if, if someone's going
to run a half marathon, there, they're going to work on little by little
by little pieces. They call that chunking. So you take a
bigger goal and you kinda chunk it into
smaller pieces. So if you're building
with Legos, you know, you're not going to build
a cathedral in one step. You know, it's going to take block-by-block, kind of
building it together. So starting small and
kind of building on that. Maybe it's maybe it's
just going for a walk, you know, once a day. There's some beautiful birds here that just
just came by here. So yeah, maybe it's a
burden for hatch hit. You know, who knows, But yeah. So keep it small. The fourth tip I have is embraced the process
over the results. It's really easy to
get wrapped up in. What did I do? You know, what type of reward did I get? What sort of achievement
that I reach? Which is nothing
wrong with that, can be really powerful for self-esteem and
things like that. But the more you can
shift your focus from the product where the
results to the process. I think you'll find
it pretty powerful. So with regard to goals, I really encourage you
to take some time to develop short-term goals
and long-term goals. Long-term goals are gonna
be, you know, maybe, maybe you want to
take a vacation and you have to save up
for it a little bit. Or maybe maybe it's maybe
it's seeing a friend that is more difficult
to get in touch with or things like that.
Keep things simple. Chunking it, build, build,
build, build, build. That's gonna be powerful
and that's going to help you get those things
drive your every day. So with self-care,
it's a muscle, right? So you wouldn't
expect to do one wrap of some particular exercise at the gym and expect the
muscle to just explode. As great as it would
be. It's something that takes a lot of reps, wrapped by, wrapped by Rep. And you build on it. And it gets better each time. And that's how you
develop a routine. Routines can be very
powerful tool for self-care. So if you're looking through that brainstorm resource and maybe that's what
caught your attention. By all means that's, that's a golden wanted to Jews. So look forward to seeing your projects and look forward to
seeing how things go. And I will see you in
the wrap-up lesson. We'll see you soon.
6. Conclusion: Well, you made it. Congratulations, welcome
to our wrap-up lesson. In today's class, you
learned the importance of emotional loneliness
and social wellness. And you did some
exercises that can really put you on the right path towards having a great game
plan for self-care. Of course, self-care
is a muscle. It takes development rep
by Rep, inch by inch. Everything is essentially
another cliche that can also be really powerful
with regards to self-care. So I, I just wanted to thank you all
for taking this class. There's a lot of
things you could be spending your time on right now. There's a lot of areas
you could be putting your energy and
resources and time. So I really appreciate
you taking this class. I'm honored. They took this class. I'm really looking forward to seeing what projects
you come up with. Self-care can be powerful
and it's individualized. It's really unique
person by person. And I'm just really excited to see the power of community and see what
other people come up with. And I'm really excited
to see your work. Please refer to the
resources page for tips, prompts and different things as you get stuck along the way. And like I said, I really encourage you to post
your work so I can see it. And I also want to
just share that. If you do share your work, if you could use the hashtag B. Jones
draws Skillshare, and that'll allow me to see your work and OK,
I catch my attention, I can come take a
look and also really encourage you to subscribe
and follow me as a teacher. And I look forward to staying in touch and
seeing you in the next class. Thanks for, thanks
for joining me and congratulations on coming along for this ride.
Take good care.