Continuing our theme of self care this month, we want to talk more about methods the different methods of self care that we use or have been learning about.

Self care set

Meditation

We've previously spoken about the importance moments of silence can play in self care, but there are also huge benefits to gain from meditation.

It doesn't have to be hours of the day - even five minutes of meditation can help with relaxation and can ease symptoms of stress and anxiety.

Even if it feels impossible to take some time out for yourself every day, we want to encourage our readers to make themselves and their mental health a priority and make a promise to yourself to take at least five minutes of the day to do something just for yourself - you really do deserve it right now!

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is described in the Oxford dictionary as:

‘A mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.’

If there was ever a time to need a moment of mindfulness, it's now. The last year has had a huge impact on many people’s mental health; a lot of us felt like we had had the rug pulled out from under us and we’re only now starting to readjust and take care of ourselves. Mindfulness can be a very important part of mental health and your self care routine. It grounds us and forces us to take a minute, BREATHE, and sit with yourself in the moment - something which nowadays is much easier said than done!

We’re encouraging our followers to take a moment to practice mindfulness every day and see how it affects their stress levels. We’re trying it too!

Let us know how you get on in the comments, or if you have a specific way of doing your own mindfulness practice, please share with us!

‘Niksen’ - The sweetness of doing nothing

Niksen is the Dutch concept of literally doing nothing. it advocates a state of mental relaxation and encourages mind-wandering and ‘daydreaming’. ‘Niksen’ embraces a state of non-productivity. The idea being that with appropriate periods of non-productivity, one will be far more productive when they are working.

In a world where we’re praised for being rushed off our feet at all times, it can seem incredibly difficult to take a moment to be still. If you’re anything like us, you’ll feel guilty at even the thought of taking a moment to yourself - but this is counterproductive; you can’t ever be ‘on’ properly if you never allow yourself to switch ‘off’.

The Niksen concept is especially prevalent today, because in a time when most people are working from home, the lines between ‘work’ and ‘play’ are getting increasingly blurred. People are working later on in the day, working through their lunch breaks, and even once they have finished work they are feeling guilty for doing so! This is going to end with burnout and needs to be addressed if we want to remain at all productive!

Niksen could be absolutely anything, so long as your mindset is that of ‘I don’t need to think of, or do anything productive for the next [select time period]’. It sounds silly, especially if you are used to working yourself to the absolute bone, but if you need a way to think of it that makes you feel less guilty - try this: Niksen is an integral part of being productive, and if you don’t take the time to do nothing, your work will get progressively worse, so really it's actually very productive to be non-productive at times!

We’re all going to try to start incorporating Niksen more into our life at Lucocoa, and if you find ways to do this yourself please let us know!

Music

We’ve been talking about self care a lot throughout February and we want to make sure we don’t by-pass a big one - Music. Music can be an important part of a self care routine - and it doesn’t have to be classical! All music can help soothe us and it’s important we don’t ignore just how much of an important part music can play in our lives.

The Lucocoa team have been curating playlists over the past few weeks that are now available for you to listen to on Spotify! Not only will you be able to get a sense of what it sounds like in our chocolate factory, but you can also get to know us a bit better, or even use the playlists as part of your own Niksen time.

It's a very eclectic mix, but variety is the spice of life and we hope you like our music as much as we do! Please let us know if there are any artists/albums that you would particularly recommend as part of a great Niksen routine!

Rest

Rest and sleep are so often neglected in today’s world. Ideals of ‘never stopping’ and ‘ploughing through’ no matter how physically or mentally exhausted we are are constantly hailed as the most productive way to live. Well news flash - This is FAR from the ideal way to live! Countless amounts of research shows that rest and sleep are an integral part of productivity. Humans were not build to work 24/7, we weren’t even meant to work 12/5! Exhaustion and fatigue are far too commonplace in society these days, and these things directly correlate with over-exertion. Bodybuilders know full well that you can lift weights all day and night, but you will not get those gains if you are not sleeping enough. Growth happens while you REST. If you never allow yourself to rest, you will never grow, and this principle applies to mental exertion as well as physical. If you want your mind to function to its best ability, you need to give it time to rest and recuperate!

We’re told that 6 hours of sleep is good enough. Maybe that is good enough to just about function, but it is certainly not enough to thrive. To function to its best ability, your brain needs at least 7-8 hours sleep minimum for optimal cognitive function.

Be kind to yourself

We all need to be a bit kinder to ourselves, especially when we’re still dealing with a global lockdown, the likes of which none of us have experienced before. This starts by being a little gentler with ourselves; This means that maybe one day, rather than forcing yourself to go out in the rain to power through a gruelling sprint session, you wake up fifteen minutes later and do some strength building yoga - or maybe you don’t force yourself to do any exercise that day! Sometimes exercise can be a wonderful self care edition, but sometimes we can focus on it so much that it starts to veer on the side of overexertion and this can cause an overproduction of cortisol in the body - which none of us need any more of right now!

We need to be gentle with ourselves. We need to make allowances for our occasional shortcomings during the current situation; we’re all doing our best and just making it through the day is something to praise yourself for. If a serious workout is what you need and what you want, absolutely go for it, but be nice to yourself if you just can’t face it one day.

Its time to forget the narrative behind #TeamNoDaysOff - You are only human and you deserve some rest!

Self Care