In order to raise your voice for others, you have to take care of yourself first. That’s where self care comes in. If you like this tip, be sure to sign up for the Raise Your Voice newsletter to receive your copy of The Revolution Starts with Me! self care zine for more tips and self care resources.

This is a great self care exercise I spotted on the University of Texas Elementary School’s Social Work Practices blog. It’s known by several names, such as “Break Box”, “Breathe Box” and “Calm Down Kit”, and while this exercise is designed to help young people navigate their feelings with the aid of school social workers and parents, this can also be helpful for adults as well. A “calm down kit” is an example of self soothing, where taking care of yourself while in a high-stress or triggering situation is important.

Here’s how to create your Calm Down Kit:

1- Take a pencil box (You can buy these at any craft store or major store chain like Staples) or any box that can safely hold all of your items.

2- Add items to the box that aid you in becoming more aware of your surrounding, calm you down, or help you to express your feelings. You can include pens and crayons, and pieces of paper to write out what’s going through your mind, as well as items that make you feel better.

It’s that simple. If you’re stumped on what to add to your Calm Down Kit, utilize your five senses (part of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) to decide what to soothing and comforting things to place in your kit:

Smell- Candles, lotions, a small vial of fragrances or essential oils

Taste- Pieces of your favorite candy, gum, or mint

Touch- Charm, stress ball, prayer beads, Playdoh, stones or a favorite rock, a piece of jewelry, playing cards

Sight- Small journal, pictures of supportive people in your life, words of inspiration in your hand writing, images of calming scenery, bubbles

Hear- Baoding chime balls, uplifting songs that you can listen to, sounds in nature (running water, leaves blowing in the wind)

The possibilities are endless. Decorate your calm down kit however you want. If you put more effort into creating it, you’ll be more likely to use it. Do this exercise with your family, friends, peers or students. Keep it in a place where it’s easily accessible to you. Also, make sure to create your calm down kit before you actually need it.

The next self care tip with go more into using the five sense for self soothing, for when your calm down kit is not accessible to you.

In order to raise your voice for others, you have to take care of yourself first. That’s where self care comes in. If you like this tip, be sure to sign up for the Raise Your Voice newsletter to receive your copy of The Revolution Starts with Me! self care zine for more tips and self care resources.

It’s easy to become discouraged when you realize that the year is almost over, and you may not be further along in reaching your goals than you’d like. But when you take some time to really think about it, you have done many things to bring you closer to the goals you set for yourself this year.

A few months ago, I started to write down what I thought were some successes I’ve made towards my goals for the month. I took a sheet of paper and wrote the name of the previous month. Then I listed anything that I felt I did that month that’s brought me closer to my goals. (I also looked through my personal journal as well as in my gratitude journal iPhone app to jog my memory). It was an instant mood booster.

This weekend, take some time to write down anything that moved you closer to your goals last month. This can involve any goals you set throughout the year for school, career, health, relationships, finances, and other areas that you’ve set out to improve. For extra credit, take your successes and write down the next step for each one, and focus on that next step for the duration of this month.  Not only will you see that achieving your goals are possible, it also reduces any overwhelm you may be feeling in achieving your goals.

In order to raise your voice for others, you have to take care of yourself first. That’s where self care comes in. If you like this tip, be sure to sign up for the Raise Your Voice newsletter to receive your copy of The Revolution Starts with Me! self care zine for more tips and self care resources.

Being comfortable with saying NO is a great to practice self care, but it’s often easier said than done. When we say NO  to someone or to an opportunity, we can feel guilty, and it can also make us feel as though we’re be missing out on something if we say NO.

Singer-songwriter and entrepreneur Christine Kane says, “One of the reasons saying NO can be so challenging to us is that we force ourselves to make decisions in the moment. We wait until we’re put on the spot…we often end up making a Reactive Decision, rather than a Proactive Decision. Reactive Decisions often involve listening to our emotional self, or our guilt, or our old patterns of wanting approval.”

To fix this, Christine developed a great exercise called the Proactive NO.

What is a Proactive NO? Think of it this way: Most businesses have what’s called a policies & procedures manual, listing how the business runs and what employees should do in the event that something happens and a swift decision needs to be made.

Here’s your task: Create your own self care policies & procedures manual. Your manual should be clear and concise, and let’s you know exactly want to do if faced with making a decision. You can write them out on sheets of paper, or type them up. Remember, we want to decrease as many Reactive Decisions as possible. Here are some of my own self care policies:

*I require a least one week’s notice if a friend or relative wants to stay with me while they are in town. (It may sound harsh, but in this way, I can decide if I want to open my space to anyone, as well as to prepare for their arrival).

*I will only consider consulting projects and speaking engagements that are in alignment with the mission of my business. (This one can be a challenge. When the urge to get recognition or to make some quick cash rears its head, I ask myself if what I’m about to sign on to actually matches the values of my consulting business. I also consider the time it would take to prepare and execute the project, especially if my work schedule is already swamped).

Take some time during the upcoming days to develop your own self care policies & procedures manual. You can come up with as many policies as you want, and when you’re faced with making a decision, “run” the request through your polices & procedures manual and come up with a solution that works for you.