Creating a Self-Care Toolkit for Mental Wellness in 2025

As 2024 is wrapping up, many of us are looking ahead and making plans for 2025. 

What if one of those plans was to put together a self care toolkit for your mental health? Instead of starting the new year with pressure to meet goals that may not suit you for the whole year, why not start the year with something to fall back on when you need help getting through something tough?

Taking care of your mental health can feel overwhelming. Between work stress, relationship challenges,financial pressures, and the challenge of navigating an increasingly lonely world, it’s too much to expect that you can handle all of those feelings and challenges without support.That’s why we put together this toolkit–to be there to pick up the slack, and be the supportive friend you can turn to when 2025 starts to be just a little too much to manage on your own.  

This toolkit isn’t about meeting external expectations or achieving someone else’s version of wellness. It’s about creating the practice of returning to tools and relying on support that honor your unique needs, values, and experiences.

To Challenge Perfectionism

Perfectionism can be hard to challenge, especially in today’s world where hustle culture and constant productivity are celebrated. And while it is a slow process, you can begin to challenge perfectionism with a simple practice of self compassion. While perfectionism likes to whisper to us that we’re not good enough no matter what we do or how much we accomplish, self compassion reminds you you’re good enough because you’re simply here. While perfectionism  works to amplify our anxiety and keep us stuck in cycles of self-criticism, self compassion can help you escape that cycle. In 2025, try replacing the drive for self perfection  with self-compassion.

• Practice Imperfect Action: Allow yourself to do things well enough. Whether it’s sending that email without re-reading it five times or letting the laundry wait an extra day, try to take small actions that remind yourself that "good enough" is often good enough.

• Speak Kindly to Yourself: Notice when your inner critic pipes up. Instead of berating yourself, try asking, "What would I say to a close friend in this situation?" Practice responding with that same kindness.For help on this, read our blog on "How to Quiet Your Inner Critic".

To Build Emotional Awareness 

Learning to self-regulate our emotions is a lifelong practice, but one that can offer insight and compassion to how we show up in the world. When emotions feel overwhelming, it can be hard to know where to start. Journaling offers a safe space to process your thoughts and feelings without judgment. If you’re trying to work through big emotions, try these practices:

• Daily Check-Ins: Spend 5-10 minutes writing about what’s on your mind. Ask yourself questions like, "How am I feeling today? What do I need right now?"

• Body Connection Prompts: Tune into your physical self, too. Try questions like, "Where do I feel tension or ease in my body? What is my body trying to tell me?"

Remember, journaling isn’t about creating beautiful entries or solving all your problems—it’s about showing up for yourself. If you feel held back by self consciousness, practice ripping up or throwing away your entries after you write them–you’re not writing to preserve history, you’re writing to get curious about yourself.

To Reframe Your Relationship with Movement

Moving your body can be a powerful tool for connecting to yourself and managing anxiety and depression symptoms, but only when approached with care and respect. Exercise does not need to be about punishing yourself, changing your body, or meeting external goals–in fact, gentle movement is most beneficial for you when it’s motivated by a desire to meet your body’s needs, not to punish it for not being what you think you should be. Try to:

• Find Joy in Movement: Focus on activities that feel good for you–both physically and emotionally. This might mean dancing in your living room, taking a walk to clear your mind, or stretching in a way that releases tension. You don’t need to join a gym or follow a strict schedule or work with a trainer. You just need to notice what’s happening within you to get curious about how to meet your body’s needs.

• Listen to Your Body: Some days, rest is just as valuable as movement. Ask yourself, "What kind of movement feels supportive today?" Maybe the answer is a few deep breaths, and that’s okay.If you're exploring movement, let it be an act of care—not obligation.

Seek Support When You Need It

Despite how it sounds, self-care does not mean doing everything on your own. One of the most powerful acts of self-care is reaching out for support when you need it. Whatever you’re navigating, therapy can offer a space to process, heal, and grow.

Creating a Toolkit That Works for You

Your self-care toolkit doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s. Maybe yours includes journaling and quiet walks, while someone else’s includes movement, deep breathing, and or joining a hobby sports league. What matters is that your tools feel accessible, compassionate, and responsive to your needs.

Be gentle with yourself as you create a toolkit that nourishes your mental wellness.

If you’re ready to explore additional support, we’re here to help. Reach out to a therapist today to take the next step on your wellness journey.Contact Us to learn more about how we can support you.

End of the Year Toolkit: 9 Blogs to Help You Make It to January

We’re in the final stretch of 2023. But the end of the year rush can be some of the most stressful few weeks of the season. While it can be a time of togetherness and generosity, it’s also a time that requires more from us, socially, financially, and emotionally. 

This is our end of the year tool-kit; all of the blogs we’ve written that can help get you through the last few weeks. 

To help get ready for family gatherings:

Family parties and traditions can be some of our favorite moments of the holiday season, but that doesn’t mean they come without their own set of worries. Because holiday events are often big parties, you’re likely to be in close quarters with not just the family and loved ones you’re close to, but some you have some rocky relationships with as well. 

Taking a little time to prepare for those encounters can help reduce your anxiety about them overall, and allow you to focus on what you can control. You can find ways to both care for yourself and your needs, and make time to be with those you care about. 

Read: How to Gently Set Boundaries With Your Family or: 5 Strategies for Overcoming Social Anxiety at Holiday Gatherings

To help manage seasonal depression: 

Winter is a tough time for a lot of us. The days are shorter and colder, we don’t want to be outside as much, and with the darkness falling so early in the day, it’s normal for us all to slow down a bit during winter. 

But when does it go from slowing down in a slower season to something to be concerned about? 

Read: 4 Signs That Your Funk Could Be the Result of Depression or: Self Care for Days You Can't Get Out of Bed

Give yourself the gift of self kindness this season:

Because we can be under so much stress in the final crunch of the year, and we’re often faced with awkward conversations with people we only see once a year at holiday parties, it can be easy to fall into self criticism during the holidays. 

Taking time to build in some body neutral practices and preparing yourself to slow down can help you offset that slide into criticism. 

Read: Keeping Peace with Your Body During the Holiday Season and: 4 Ways to Accept a Slower Pace in the Winter Season

To get ready for the new year: 

Whether you’re a new year, new start kind of person, or someone just looking to get to January so the holiday season will be wrapping up, we’ve got something for you! And, as the COVID rates are surging again, it never hurts to revisit old boundaries for managing your health. Use the new year as an excuse to reaffirm them. 

Read: 4 Ways to Deal with New Year Overwhelm or: 8 Ways to Upgrade Your Self-Care Routine in the New Year and Managing Covid Anxiety in the New Year

Remember, the holiday season doesn’t last forever, even though it seems endless when you’re dreading it. If you’re struggling with social anxiety this holiday season, working with a therapist can help. Contact our office today to make an appointment!

4 Ways to Deal with New Year Overwhelm

4 Ways to Deal with New Year Overwhelm

The new year is an overwhelming time, especially when you’re chronically online as most of us are. There’s always a huge frenzy of self-improvement at the new year, and it can be hard to escape on social media, at the office, and from friends and family. 

It makes sense that people are tempted to make big changes at the new year. Changing from one year to the next is a natural fresh start, and lots of people like to mark that new start with some new habits or goals. However, it’s important to remember that you can start something new or decide on a new goal anytime during the year, not just around January 1st.

This time of year is also typically pretty busy on its own, so adding major lifestyle changes to that can be completely overwhelming. Lots of folks are back in the office in the new year after a break, with mounting workloads from their time off or working seasonal jobs that take away free time, which leads to even more stress. 

Are you looking for ways to be less overwhelmed in the new year? Here are 4 ways to deal with New Year overwhelm: 

Don't expect your whole life to change with the change of the date

There’s a lot of pressure this time of year for a “new year, new you” where you erase all bad habits and pick up new ones almost effortlessly to improve your life. Remember, it’s not reasonable to change everything about yourself overnight. (And even if you did, then you wouldn't be you, which would be no good.)

If January 1st is looming over you and you feel like you have to do something major in the new year, remember that time is made up. Of course, time does pass, but the way we structure time is a man-made system. You can do anything you want to at any time, not just when the calendar changes to a new year. Some people prefer to use the start of the school year to kick off new habits or goals. Others use their birthdays, and some people just start on random days when they decide on a new goal. It’s up to you, not to anyone else.  

Connect with what you really want to do

Are there any habits or goals that would actually make a difference in your life? It’s okay to want to form new habits, and setting goals is a huge part of life. It’s just tricky to narrow down what you actually want in all the New Year’s Resolution noise from other people. If you genuinely want to see what your month would be like if you changed your relationship with alcohol, try a new year challenge like Dry January. If you’re feeling pressured into it from your social circle, give it some more thought or skip it. 

Ask yourself what would actually feel good to you and what would work with your current lifestyle. Small changes are more sustainable over long periods and can go a long way toward building your confidence, and when the changes you make are aligned with your goals and values, it’s a lot easier to maintain over the long term. 

Take things slowly

Building new habits, unfortunately, takes time. When you work on changing your habits slowly, you not only have more chances for success, but you also build confidence and allow your brain to master this new skill. Our brains do a lot of work, and so when it can find a shortcut to take to send messages, it will use them. Your current habits are wired into these shortcuts, or neural pathways, and so your new habits will have to build their own pathway. This takes time and repetition. Once your brain learns this new shortcut, the habit will feel like it’s second nature. 

The same is true for goals. It’s exciting to set a new goal and to have something to work toward, but it’s important to make a plan for your goal so you don’t get overwhelmed and abandon it. Break goals down into small pieces that you can take action on and build off of, instead of trying to do everything at once. 

Adjust your expectations for yourself and practice self-compassion

You might notice that many of our blog posts suggest practicing self-compassion. We repeat it all of the time because most of us are suffering from a serious lack of self-compassion and it doesn’t need to be that way. Learning how to be kind to yourself and have your own back, no matter what is going on is a life changing skill. 

Most of us are mean to ourselves automatically, without even realizing it. Negative self-talk can be really surprising when you learn how to notice it, because it might not even have occurred to you that you feel that way about yourself. When you notice what automatic thoughts come up about yourself, try to respond to them with compassion rather than with judgment.

It takes time, but you can get in the habit of interrupting those negative thoughts when they come up. When you know that no matter what happens, you have your own back and you will be kind to yourself, things feel a lot less scary. 

Are you feeling overwhelmed with 2023 only a few days away? This time of year is tricky for almost everyone, so remember that there’s nothing wrong with you for feeling this way.

If you want some extra support during this time, working with a therapist can help you get clear on your goals and values and how best to get started. Give our office a call today to get more information or to schedule an appointment.