Creative Self Care with Crystal McLain

Ever feel like you’re stuck on meh mode?   via GIPHY In today’s blog we’re gonna go through some (fairly) fool-proof mood boosters so you can say sayonara to your shitty feelings. THE REALITY CHECK First off, let’s get real here. If you’re just trying to push past your emotions without confronting them, the rest of these tricks, tips and routines are just going to backfire on you. Sorry, friend.  Instead of sweeping those unsavory feelings under the proverbial carpet, the first thing you ought to do is face them head-on.  Now, I know what you might be thinking…facing my...

Here we are, collectively crawling, physically and emotionally exhausted to the finish line of 2020. And since this is typically the time of year folks start making New Year Resolutions, I thought I’d jump in with my two cents… First off, hats off to you for making it this far. I feel like we’ve been living in real-life Hunger Games between invisible deadly viruses, devastating fires, bouts of limited supplies, and a system that continues to build its infrastructure around exploiting marginalized communities. Folks have lost their jobs lost their homes, and lost their lives. Our education system is teetering...

Practicing mindfulness is a way to strengthen consciousness, which is the part of the brain that is able to make intentional decisions instead of knee-jerk reactions, and think critically, creatively, and focus like a mother-lovin' Jedi. 

Here's an ever-growing list of 60-second mindfulness practices. 

If you crack a tooth it’s clear that you should go to the dentist. This is what I like to call obvious self-care. Broken bones, the flu, and stinky arm pits; obvious, obvious, obvious.  But what about general malaise, low-grade anxiety, or chronic self-sabotage? Shit. What kind of self-care does that all need? I'm super excited about this week’s blog because this is when we start learning how to recognize our self-care needs! HUZZAH! We're going to gather what we’ve learned and start putting it into practice.  This is when the magic starts to happen. So, if you haven’t read the previous blogs, may I...

Now, just so you’re prepared, I should warn you, the self is a pretty complex thing. But, since I’m in the business of self-care, it only makes sense that we’d learn how to identify it. Right?  Duh, totally.  And for the sake of simplicity, today we're just gonna talk about the six ways to identify the self. In the next blog we'll learn ways to decipher your own personal, unique self cocktail so you can take better care of it. But first, what is the self? So, the self is an individual person as the object of its own reflective consciousness.  What the...