Scarleteen

hi all, i hope wherever you are the weather is treating you nicely and that your day/afternoon/evening has some peace.
i wanted to open a thread and invite you to share ways that you support yourself or others. scarleteen talks a lot about the best partner you can have is actually yourself-- how are we practicing this? is there things you do in your free time that make you feel "a little more like yourself?" therapy helps for sure, but lately i'm exploring more non-institutional forms of taking and giving care, and i'm curious about other's outlets. art? talking to friends? please share! in checking in with myself, i've realized that my self-care list could be longer, so i wanted to ask all you young people what you do to "stay sane" (or ride out difficult feelings) lately.

-darkingbog

I love this topic, darkingbog! Thanks for posting it.

I agree, therapy is a biggie for me, too, and always has been. Making music, textile art and feathering my nest tend to be my best creative outlets, and getting outside is a huge one for me, always has been. Talking to friends: absolutely.

In terms of giving support, I feel like I have been hearing people say they want to be supportive of others a lot without actually doing it, and I think one of the biggest ways to do that is just by listening to who we want to support, and only offering feedback or advice when they ask for it. I also like to provide care and support for people in my life by cooking for them, offering to help with things that are challenging for them (like, I just helped clean my bestie's place a couple weeks ago), getting *them* outside if they need help, and introducing friends to each other who I think would be good mutual supports.

I am currently terrible at caring for myself and am disorganized and, as a result, overextended. I thought that I had literally nothing to contribute to this, because all of my self-improvement plans are, well, plans. But as I closed my laptop to get ready and thought about putting music on ("Bergtrollets hevn" if you care, I've fallen for early Gorgoroth), I realized that music has played a significant role in keeping me (mentally) afloat. I put the right album on and it enables me to "own" my frustration in the moment, turn it into something more productive and resilient. Unfortunately, this also has the downside of me inevitably turning my volume too high (85dB is NOT enough, I want to feel it in my skull) or pacing around in a circle around my house for the better part of an hour to release all my energy from the day, like a cat running around at night.