As we head into the holidays and new year (ie: “new year’s resolution” season, and everything that brings with it) I wanted to create a version of a “gift guide” that’s focused on supporting your own mental health and self-care!
In the interest of ensuring my list is actually supportive, I don’t want to make a guide focused entirely around products, both because those kinds of guides can end up excluding folks without a certain amount of financial privilege, and because I don’t want to imply that you need to buy things to improve your life!
Instead, I want to focus my list around practices and habits that can support your mental health and improve your ability to thrive, with just a few “personal favorite” suggestions thrown in for those of you who are curious.
So whether you’re already starting to think about goals for thriving in 2025, or you just want to make to through the holidays without letting stress get the best of you, here is my guide to feeling grounded, present, and open-hearted!!
Make sure your self-care is actually having a positive impact. I can’t tell you how many of my clients have tried to adopt a new “self care habit” that didn’t actually offer them any kind of tangible positive impact, or made their lives better or easier in any way… and then gotten down on themselves for either not being able to stick with it, or for simply not feeling better. To avoid wasting your own time and energy, make sure any new self-care tool or habit you implement either effectively solves an actual problem for you, makes you feel good, or has a noticeable and positive impact.For example, adopting a complex or time consuming skin care routine might offer you tangible benefits if, say, you struggle with rosacea or eczema, and spending a few extra minutes in the morning and before bed actually reduces your symptoms, or if you look forward to the ritual of your skin-care routine because doing it makes you feel calm and happy! But that same habit might not offer you any tangible benefits if doing it doesn’t doesn’t solve a specific problem, feels annoying, or you bought a bunch of Korean products in the hopes of achieving the magical “glass skin” effect you’ve been seeing on TikTok, and now you wake up every morning feeling frustrated that your skin basically looks the same as it did before you started.Sooo if your self-care goals or habits don’t solve an actual problem, feel good, or improve your life in some kind of tangible and noticeable way, it might be time to let it go and focus on habits that do, instead.A few things that have been consistently solving problems, feeling good, and/or improving my life lately:
My obnoxiously large water bottle, which is always filled with ice cold water, because I find the sensation of super cold water incredibly grounding. (This is a useful tool I learned through Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and turned into a whole-ass lifestyle choice!)
The Ultra Repair Cream by First Aid Beauty, because I’m suuuper picky about the texture of products, and I tend to avoid using things I know are good for me if they feel icky on my skin. This one not only keeps my hands from cracking in the dry air of winter, it also feels silky and light enough that using it is a genuine pleasure!
House plants. Admittedly, the vast majority of plants I bring into my home die within a year, but I refuse to let that stop me, because the addition of so much living greenery brings me pleasure every single day! Sure that’s kinda dark, but I love the way they look, I love the feeling of my fingers in the dirt as I snuggle them down into new handpainted pots, and I love moving plants around the house to see where they’re happiest. (Spoiler alert: nowhere.)
2. Make things with your hands.Working with our hands is an excellent tool for practicing mindfulness, regulating the nervous system, supporting a growth mindset, expressing ourselves creatively, and cultivating more pride, pleasure, and joy in our lives!I’m absolutely convinced that most people would benefit from making more things with their hands. So whether it’s knitting, cooking, painting, pottery, woodworking, gardening, or whatever else calls to you, I encourage everyone to commit to regularly working with their hands, and enjoy the benefits for their mood, mental health, and overall sense of wellbeing!Personally I try to make things with my hands a few times per week, often choosing to to paint or bake, and occasionally trying to make random things like a halloween costume for my cat Walden.
After Hurricane Helene hit my city however, massive trees were suddenly just laying on the ground everywhere you looked, so recently I’ve been playing with woodworking and carving! These are a few of my favorite tools and projects:
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An orbital sander, which made things go so much faster when I was working on this plant-stand for my office– it’s literally just a big chunk of the tree that fell down in our yard, which I stripped, sanded, stained, and finished with a high-gloss polyurethane, and I am beyond proud of it.
A chainsaw. Listen, I never expected to be someone who owned (let alone knew how to use) a chainsaw. But thanks to the hurricane, now I am and I do! Not only is it incredibly useful for turning trees into projects, but using it actually makes me feel like a total badass.
4. Move your body.If you read last week’s article on how beneficial movement is for Highly Sensitive People, this one won’t surprise you, but movement—not exercise, mind you, but the whole vast category of movement—is a phenomenal tool for regulating the nervous system, improving mood, and boosting resilience!I always encourage people to expand their view of movement to include tools for feeling energized (ie: short burst of intense shaking, dancing, or cardio), feeling calm (ie: gentle swaying, stretching, breathing, or hip circles), feeling empowered (ie: big powerful movements or strength training), and feeling connected (ie: mindful/embodied movement, or attuned movement with others), among many others!Some things that have been supporting my own relationship to movement lately:
Rogue bumper plates. My brother (Ben Kneeland of Mountain Movement) is my personal trainer, and for Christmas this year I gifted him a set of these rubber-coated weight plates for his facility… because I may have been out of the fitness industry for years but I’m still a gym bro at heart, and I love throwing some weight around on a barbell.
Athleisure to live and move in. I live in cozy sweatpants and hoodies, and I love soft and sweat-wicking clothes that can move with me whether I’m doing mobility drills at home, lifting weights in the gym, going on a walk with my partner, or dancing to the Wicked soundtrack between clients. Lately I’ve been obsessed with my adidas fleece joggers and crew sweatshirts, worn oversized for comfort, and layered to stay warm or cool, depending on the day and activity.
I hope this little guide is helpful, and that your self-care habits and goals help you feel more grounded, resilient, present, and joyful through the holidays and beyond!
Big hug,
Jessi
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