“Of this be sure: you do not find a happy life, you make it.”

–Thomas S. Monson

Finding contentment as a control freak is a difficult task indeed. Life is pretty unpredictable & it’s easy to have mental breakdowns and hyperventilate. 

So instead of COMPLETELY shutting down & becoming a couch potato wrapped in fuzzy blankets and sadness for the rest of our lives, what can we do to overcome it?

—

Going back to my post last week, I wanted to get a little bit more specific about the things I use to help me chill & to practice self care.

If you’re anything like me, Type A, Red personality, absolute insane maniac obsessed with success, these will make you a feel a little salty about doing them but oh so much better after 

Finding your chill is ROUGH.

STEP ONE.

Breathe.

If you’re not dying… it’s fine. You’re fine. It’s fine.

Don’t just take a couple huffs in and out, really take a minute to monitor where your thoughts are.

Give yourself a minute to stop freaking the freak out and really breathe.

I like to go go go so taking a second to breathe is THE WORST. Like why would I do that when I can just throw myself into the issue and fix it?

But, I have definitely found taking time to breathe helps me to approach issues with less of an insane energy and more hope.

Breathing saves lives!

STEP TWO

Take a step back & dump your brains

Not gonna lie.. this is my favorite one. I whip out my notebook, grab my favorite pen and furiously write down everything on my mind. Which usually takes me about 15 minutes.

Doing a brain dump can be hard when you’re first starting so here are some ideas to get you started:

-What are you Grateful for?

-What is driving you crazy?

– What are the most pressing things on your to-do list?

-What decisions need to be made? (Pros-cons)

And here’s an awesome post about it if you need more help:

https://littlecoffeefox.com/brain-dump/

STEP THREE

Do something you LOVE

TREAT YO SELF.

Take a bath, journal, create some art, dance in your kitchen, buy some cake and eat it all by yourself.

Give yourself permission to have a little joy and do something you love.

Then proceed to feel awesome for being so good to yourself. (The best way to get a mental self congrats for eating a whole cake)

It’s important to give our brain a break every once and awhile, have a little distraction so we can come back to our issues with a different mindset and a little more happy.

I love this post about self care and why it’s important:
https://lifehacker.com/why-self-care-is-so-important-1770880812

STEP FOUR

Work out

Stop. Stop rolling your eyes. I get it. Working out is NOT the ideal way to do self care.

But when you’re a control freak and you have all the pent up energy of an insane person cause.. control. WORK THAT BODYYY.

It helps your hormones chill. It helps your body chill. It helps your brain chill.

Seriously working out may be the answer to everything… sad but true.

Get your blood flowing and watch magic happen. (Just do some yoga at least)

To help you really understand why working out is crazy important and definitely linked to mental health.. here’s a little post about it:

https://www.today.com/popculture/exercise-cure-truth-about-all-natural-miracle-drug-2D11723687

STEP FIVE

Make a realistic plan

I lied.. THIS is my favorite one. Time to let your creative planning brain shine through. Grab your brain dump notebook, some colorful pens and get to work! Create a list of what needs to happen, make some small goals to achieve and become clear on what you really need/want to accomplish. 

Its okay to change the plan up a little bit, its okay to release those things that don’t serve you. Be real with yourself about what you can and can’t handle.

I promise to write a little bit more on goal setting and how to achieve your goals late this week!

If you need a cute new planner for all of your plans & you’re a lil extra, this one is SO cute:

http://a.co/0I56VYz

I hope these tips help you get a little more centered on the important stuff and help you chill the heck out too! Sometimes our plans might not go our way BUT we just have to trust that it’s all for our own good.

You got this babes.

xxxx

I want to hear what you do for Self Care!

Share with me in the comments 🙂