•BLUF: Self Care is the Best Care. It’s no longer minority mental health month, but mental health should still be at the top of Your priority list! The SHINE app offers insightful, motivational, and relaxing meditations that give you the extra Shine you need to push through your day.
•I am no stranger to stress or anxiety. The way my life is set up these days if there’s no stress it’s abnormal, but the introduction of anxiety was a new thing for me. I’m a goal driven person, so i was zoned in on a certain goal, which I reached (🙌🏾), but as soon as I reached it, it was like all the stress i had been ducking just hit me right in the chest, in the form of ANXIETY!
At first i thought i could just deal with the anxiety by not dealing with it. The alternative would’ve been to seek help, but for some reason there is such a stigma about going to therapy that I just didn’t even consider it. So i didn’t address it, and guess what? My symptoms got worse, smh. I couldn’t ignore my mental health because it started to effect my physical health and i thought maybe i should just work on my spiritual health, but my mental wasn’t allowing me to focus on that either.
So I started looking for a therapist which ended up in frustration and almost halted my entire process. I felt like I needed someone immediately, but it takes time to find the right person to help you through whatever it is your going through. Then, when I thought I found the one that i liked, their hours didn’t match my schedule. THEN, on top of all of that, i realized seeing a therapist would have to be incorporated into my budget financially, because it is EXPENSIVE (it’s crazy how something so vital to life can cost so much).
As you can see, it was a struggle. I started to realize and understand why so many people get deterred from seeking help and decide to just neglect their mental wellness. Even though i was discouraged, i knew that neglect was not a solution nor was it an option, and that’s when i stumbled upon the Shine app.
I’ve been using the Shine app for about three months now. For me it’s like going to the gym, to workout my mind. The shine app is an award winning Self Care program developed to offer support and guidance in mental and emotional wellness. It is extensive with its options and avenues for self-care but simple to navigate. Keep reading to get a quick synopsis of some of its categories with links to some of my favorite topics!
•Daily Shine: I love these daily shines because they’re like self care snap shot news briefs. It’s always an intriguing relatable topic, but they also find ways to incorporate what’s going on around the world which makes it easier to connect with what they’re saying.
Fulfilled Like Lizzo was my very first shine!
It hooked me because I’m an emotional person and it talked about being kind to myself through tough emotions. It showed me that I should embrace my emotions and be honest about them at the exact time that i was in a period of emotional avoidance. Sometimes the daily shines come through with a message that seems like it’s perfectly tailored for you!
Articles
•Articles: There will definitely be times where you can’t actually put headphones on but you would like to spend some time on self-care. Shine offers articles that you can read, if listening isn’t your thing or isn’t an option.
A great article that they shared is the 5X5 rule. This article gave me a way to worry constructively.
• Daily Rituals: Being mindful doesn’t have to be limited to sitting on a meditation cushion in a quiet room. The Daily rituals offers guided meditations that can be incorporated with your daily routines.
My personal favorite is “Waiting”. I have the tendency to be on my cell phone more often than not, especially if I’m waiting for something or someone. The “Waiting” daily ritual helps me to put the phone down and focus on intention and purpose in static periods.
•These are just a few examples of the topics and ways that shine can help with Self Care. They also have guided meditations that incorporate breathing practices, self-care challenges to keep your wellness routine spicy, and they offer advice chat rooms where you can correspond with someone and log your feelings.
•EZ Takeaway: Taking care of your self is like using a three component balancing scale ⚖️. You’re the beam and each of the three pans is occupied by either the mind, the body, or the spirit. We all know that if one becomes heavier or lighter than the other, the scales will fall and the beam will no longer be balanced.
It’s very easy to solely focus on the body, and neglect your mental and spiritual health. Yet, each entity is just as important as the other. I think everyone has heard the phrase “Never skip leg day”, well let’s edit that phrase and say “Never skip a Mental Health day”.
The key to overall well-being is finding balance. I’ve found that @Shine app offers an easily accessible way to take time out for self care. It is something that can be done alone, but it can also be used for group meditation and initiating meaningful dialogue. It doesn’t require a bunch of money to be spent, it doesn’t even require face to face interaction. All you need is a little bit of time and a cellphone.
I can sincerely say that @Shine has helped me to be more proactive when it comes to my mental wellness. Don’t take my word for it, just give it a try. SHOW UP and SHOW OUT for yourself, because YOU deserve it!