Sarah Mahl As I write this, protesters are marching across the country to fight for the justice George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others have been denied. Our country is in extremely dire times, and it can be hard to turn off the news or put our phones down. As a white person, I have the privilege of being able to turn off the news and to take care of my mental health while Black, brown, and Indigenous people across the country do not have that same luxury. Self-care, however, is still a crucial for everyone, and taking a break may not necessarily mean ignoring current events. I am introducing this post in this way to offer this as something to consider when we are dealing with such important events. Self-care may not be available to everyone right now, but because our future as a country seems extremely uncertain, feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, anxiety, and more may be coming up. To be informed citizens, it’s important that we stay up to date with current events, but we also have a responsibility to ourselves to take care of our physical and mental wellbeing. Making space for those feelings and setting aside time for ourselves—whether that’s time alone or another method of self-care—are crucial to taking care of ourselves. Before the lockdown started, I was trying to make more of an effort to set aside alone time that would just be for relaxing. I would put all of my class materials away--including deliberately setting them aside in my mind so that I could take a mental break--and spend my time doing something I enjoy. This is even more difficult now that my bedroom has turned into my classroom, my workspace, and my homework space while I am also trying to stay up to date with the protests, but this makes it even more crucial. Not only does it help to create a physical space for relaxing, but it also helps to create a mental space that I can turn to in a time of need. It helps to give myself the permission to turn my brain off from school or work and to take time for myself. Of course, this is easier said than done, but in a society where self-care is not prioritized very highly, it’s extremely important to my mental wellbeing. It may seem a bit obvious that we need to spend time by ourselves and that we need to spend time taking care of ourselves, but sometimes it can help to be deliberate about those efforts and to make it more purposeful. In my own experience, I’ve always called myself an introvert, so I really value the time I can spend alone. It’s when I feel the most creative and in touch with myself, and it’s also when I feel the most at peace. At school, it was difficult to make time to spend alone, but I didn’t really mind it because I had friends I could see when I wasn’t in class or at work. Now that I’m home with my family, though, I’ve realized just how important it is to spend time by myself. Plus, even though we are required to stay home and avoid contact with people outside of those we are living with, spending time alone has turned into a reprieve from any stress I may be feeling, whether that’s from school or my family. It’s also turned into time to process current events, and it can be time to grieve as well.
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January 2024
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