It’s a tough time for libraries, and people in customer service. And while we don’t want to veer into any toxic positivity, it is good to spend a little time focused on building your happiness level. We are not going to solve people’s serious mental issues here. But bringing some happiness skills to your week can be helpful to everyone!
Mondays can be a little hard, even when things are going fine. Use this small injection of a happiness skill to your week. We are here to support you, and to help you to be a little happier in the library.
Spending money can be fun, if you don’t get too carried away with spending a lot of it. And it’s good to have some small nice things that are new to you and bring some happiness to your day. Of course, there are a lot of great things you can do, to give yourself a small happiness boost; and there is no downside to giving them a try.
The article Ten self-care activities that help reduce stress—and cost little to no money gives you some ideas:
“Practicing self-care in your everyday life doesn’t have to be tedious, or even expensive. In many cases, it can actually be free, or pretty close to it.
To build more time into your day for self-care, you “should focus on moving from the negative self-talk hamster wheel that we’ve got going on in our minds most of the time, to a more sensory experience,” says Christine Karper, program chair for the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at the University of Phoenix.”
10 acts of self-care that cost little to no money
- Light a candle that has a scent that you love
- Burn scented oils in a diffuser
- Warm up a dampened washcloth with a tea bag inside and place it around your hands, to mimic the Oshibori towel experience
- Rub a smooth stone or rose petals to appreciate their texture
- Listen to calming music
- Sit outside and look at the clouds or listen to birdsong
- Slowly eat your meals to savor the taste
- Make a gratitude visit: write about someone who has positively impacted your life and visit or call them to read it to them
- Recall a favorite memory and think about what you felt, saw, smelled and enjoyed during the moment
- Look at old photos that bring you back to good times
“It can be a two-minute vacation, two or three times throughout the day. [That] is enough to have a statistically significant impact on your overall well being.””
You can read the entire article here.
CMLE can be part of your support network; we are here for you, and support you in your library work. Take a nice deep breath in, and whoosh it out; it’s going to be okay today.