Self-care is ever-evolving. For some of you, you may have certain activities that are your go to year after year. These are the often the activities that bring you joy, that calm your mind, and help you feel more capable to handle the ups and downs up life. For others, you may need a menu to pick from that is seasonal or always changing. For others still, you may find that activities that were helpful in the past are no longer helpful or you may less hopeful that any activity could help you feel better.

As a therapist, I often support people to connect to new or existing internal and external resources. I think of resources as the things we need, are stabilizing, are protective, and strengthen our ability to cope.  Resources can be internal or external. Internal resources are qualities, skills, values, beliefs, life purpose, spiritual or religious beliefs, and positive memories. External resources are outside of us, like connection to trusted friends or family, community groups, pets, calming or enjoyable places, activities, hobbies, or meaningful physical objects.

There’s a myth that we can’t experience joy and stress at the same time. In life, we often experience these at the same time. One route to joy is through savoring. I have an invitation for you over the next few days: find something enjoyable to savor. Savoring is commonly experienced as mindfully enjoying the last bite of delicious food. Think of the things you want to slow down and enjoy, maybe one of your resources. It could be a person, a place, an animal, a food, an activity, something in nature, something in community. Be curious about it. Fully focus on it. Let yourself smile or your face relax. Notice how you feel in your body. Let it come into focus more. Let your appreciation deepen and intensify. Notice what it’s like to care for yourself in this way. You can come back to this repeatedly or let yourself be a detective and look for more and more experiences to savor and bring you joy. This is a form self-care. To deepen this experience, share what you learn with others, provide others with the opportunity to enjoy it, and ask what others want to savor. This is a form of community care.