A Beginner’s Guide to Building a “Self-Care Plan” | Bennett Jones | Skillshare

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A Beginner’s Guide to Building a “Self-Care Plan”

teacher avatar Bennett Jones, Skillshare teacher

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Self-Care Class Preview

      1:15

    • 2.

      Class Project

      4:33

    • 3.

      Self-Reflect

      5:53

    • 4.

      Social Wellness

      6:45

    • 5.

      Making Goals

      6:51

    • 6.

      Conclusion

      2:55

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About This Class

Ever feel stressed, as if steam is coming out of both ears?  Or, have you ever felt stuck, not knowing where to turn next?  This class is designed for anyone interested in building their toolbox, for managing stress and generally curious in learning more about yourself in the process.  In the class we will begin by reflecting on areas we may be feeling more fatigue/stress, and explore ways to reach an overall sense of wellbeing.  By the end of the class, you will have a foundational knowledge of a self-care plan, and have an understanding of ways that tuning in to feelings and plugging into relationships to zap stress..  With your participation in this course, you will be able to take better care of yourself, which research shows will allow you to be more present, engaged and energized to support those around you. 

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Bennett Jones

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Level: Beginner

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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.