Bite Sized Self-Care

Caregiving has often been described as a 36-hour day (Arora & Wolf, 2014), meaning more responsibilities than can fit into a regular day with no break! One of my roles as an art therapist, is a group facilitator for parents, grandparents, and people who are taking care of a loved one. Recognizing that personal time is precious and limited, I prioritize what I called bite-sized self-care (Altschwager, 2022). These are self-care activities that don’t take a lot of time.

A quick and effective way to return our attention to the present moment is to engage one or more of our senses. It is not unusual to get so busy during the day that we don’t pay attention to what or even how much we are eating, let alone all of the rich sensory experiences within each bite. A mindful warmup we recently used in the caretaker's group was to savor a piece of chocolate (Nash, 2022). You can do this yourself with chocolate, or another candy. Observe how the chocolate looks and smells, the weight and texture in your hand, and the sound the wrapper makes. When you are ready, close your eyes and place the chocolate in your mouth, but don’t chew it. Instead, notice the taste of the chocolate, the texture, and how it slowly melts in your mouth. Sound good? Give it a try!

Some other bite-sized self-care activities include (Altschwager, 2022):

• Fiber arts- knitting, weaving, crochet are long-term projects but can be broken down into smaller, bite-sized breaks. Completing a single row will only take a few minutes.

• #Stichaday-(Thomas et al, 2019)- this hashtag describes a phenomenon online where people work on a single embroidery hoop for a set length of time (usually a year), and make one small addition every day.

• Digital art- many apps including This is Sand, Zen Brush, and Scribblify, to name a few, allow you to engage your visual sense and creativity in a matter of moments.

• Miniature- Scale down your drawings to the size of an index card or business card. Fill them with patterns, doodles, colors, or scribbles. You might draw your breath, your feelings in the moment, a mandala, or whatever comes to mind.

References:

Altschwager, B (2022, June 9–12). Bite-Sized Self-Care: Moments of Creativity & Calm [Conference presentation]. Water and Stone CAT Conference, virtual, Brooklyn, NY, United States.

Arora, K., & Wolf, D. A. (2014). Is there a trade-off between parent care and self-care?. Demography, 51(4), 1251-1270.

Nash, S. L. (2022, May 9). Mindfulness and the Art of Eating Chocolate. Psych Central. https://psychcentral.com/blog/practicing-mindfulness-with-chocolate

Thomas, S., Welton, K., & Marlow, D. (2019, October 30-November 3). #Stitchaday: Threading the art therapist identity through visual and written shared journaling [paper presentation]. American Art Therapy Association Annual Conference, Kansas City, Missouri.

Five Ways to Protect Your Mental Health on Valentine's Day

Weekly App Review: How We Feel

Screenshot from How We Feel app.

There are so many apps for digital art making and mental health support. How do you make sense of them all? How do you keep track of them all? Look no further! Check out my blog each week to find a review of an app that you may want to use as a client, a parent, or a provider. I’ll break down the intended use, target audience, usability, cost, technical requirements, pro’s, con’s, and whether, in my opinion, the app is worth your time and money.

This week I’m reviewing How We Feel. How We Feel is a free app that helps users to identify and track emotions as well as other important metrics such as sleep and hours of exercise. The app also provides mini lessons about coping strategies including meditation and positive affirmations. The app was developed by The How We Feel Project in partnership with Dr. Marc Brackett, Dr. Robin Stern, and Dr. Zorana Pringle of the Yale University Center for Emotional Intelligence. Users of the app can choose to keep all of their data confidential or share de-identified data to help advance research in emotional wellbeing and mental health.

Intended Use:

• To expand vocabulary to accurately identify and describe the user’s feelings.

• To track emotions over time with the goal of finding and understanding patterns.

• To increase the user’s range of healthy coping strategies.

Target Audience: The app is listed as being appropriate for ages 4 and up. Younger children may require the support of an adult to understand all of the vocabulary used in the app. Users 12 and up should be able to use the app independently.

Usability: The interface is easy to navigate and the primary tool (an emotional check in) is the first option on the home screen. Users can set up push notifications to remind them to check in a specified number of times throughout the day. After several days, users can look at their data represented visually to help them quickly discover patterns that contribute to positive or negative mood.

Cost: The app is free and there are no advertisements.

Technical Requirements: Available on iOS or Android smart devices.

Pro’s: The app is easy to use, offers research-based coping strategies, helps users identify nuances of emotions, and is free of charge.

Con’s: The app may be difficult to use for younger children (under age 10-12) or people with intellectual disabilities. The app is currently available in English language only.

Is it worth it? This app is worth your time and attention. It can be used as a self-help tool or in combination with mental health treatment.

Creative Check In

Over the past few weeks I have been reviewing the data from my study. I have conducted focus groups with art therapists across the US and Canada about the properties of fiber arts. Their responses suggest that fiber arts may be therapeutic due to the following eight qualities: grounding, meditative, tactile, rhythmic, structured, repetitive, social, and practical. Based on their feedback I am developing a training manual for art therapists about fiber arts and shared trauma. Below are two preview pages from the manual.

The first page is a self-care check-list. This is organized based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs which suggests that human needs are prioritized into hierarchical categories. In other words, some needs are fundamental and must be addressed before we are capable of and motivated to strive for loftier goals. First we address our physiological needs, such as sleep, food, and hydration. Next we address our need for safety and security in the form of housing and finances (to obtain material needs like food or maintain items we need like our housing, car, etc.). Next we address our social needs which includes love, affiliation, and belonging which we obtain from friends, family, co-workers, and our communities. Next we address our needs for esteem which comes from acknowledgement by and respect from peers and colleagues, as well as professional or avocational accomplishments. Finally, if all of our other needs are met we are free to pursue our higher purpose and loftier goals. This is important from a self-care perspective because if we don’t address our basic needs by doing things like taking a lunch break, getting enough sleep, or spending time with people whom we care about, not only will we start to feel stressed, anxious, or burned out but it will be harder to do our jobs well. It is difficult to be compassionate and empathic when you’re hangry (hungry + angry)!

The second page is a flow chart which makes suggestions about different art interventions you might go to based on your emotional state and current needs. This is based directly on the contributions of the research participants in the focus groups. As an art therapist it is sometimes easier to guide a client or supervisee towards the right material than it is to choose a material for yourself if you’re feeling upset. While certainly not a comprehensive listing it is meant as a jumping off point. Feel free to try it out and leave feedback in the comments below.