"So today I’m asking myself, how can I activate hope whenever I want? How can I get excited about my life on demand? Because here’s the thing. It’s the kind of thing you can’t fake. You can’t make yourself believe whatever you want. If I held out dog poop in my hand and told you it was chocolate, you wouldn’t believe me. Our brains. Our bodies. They take in the evidence of our lives and create truths. So today I’m doing a little experiment. I’ve decided the truth that I want to reinforce and now I just need to find every piece of evidence to support it. Even if I have just ONE piece of evidence, no matter how small, it’s enough to bring it to remembrance and generate some hope and possibility on demand. Why? If it happened once, it can happen again."

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• What area of your life is your hope the least right now?
• What’s your truth? What’s the one thought you need to reinforce so you can generate some hope and possibility right now?

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Get this month's collection of favorite self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"Listen to this when you feel unsteady. Like the rug has been pulled from under your feet. When what you thought you knew was one thing and it was revealed to be another. When you can’t stop worrying about the future or what it all means and it’s robbing you from today. Listen to this when you need to change your body chemistry and you need a reminder that this too shall pass. It’s one thing to know that you shouldn’t get worked up until something is an actual reality but it’s another to actually live that out in practice without your body racing with adrenaline. So today we breathe."

Today's Self-Care Prompt:

• Take 5 deep breaths

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Get this month's collection of favorite self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"He walked away with something of value whereas I don’t feel like I did. He has a tent to show for our relationship and I feel like I actually lost something. It feels uneven. Unbalanced. Unfair. If I had lost my tent because of a hurricane I wouldn’t even care. But because the only reason I don’t have it is because of human relating I don’t feel like I have closure. What actually are my options? Call him up after a year of no talking and ask for it back? Remain upset over it for the rest of my days? Or decide that today is the last day I’m going to be upset over it and do whatever I have to do to change how I feel about it?"

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• List out all the ways you're better for having been in that relationship or experience
• List out all the things you've learned from that relationship or experience
• Perform a letting go ceremony where you thank it, wish it well, and relinquish ownership

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Get this month's collection of favorite self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"All I want to do is relax! If you’re like me, your options for relaxation have gotten pretty limited as of late. We’ve been having to WORK for our relaxation since we’re having to do it ourselves. We’re having to get creative. Today I’ve been thinking a lot about what can be relaxing alternatives to TV. When I feel the urge to numb out, what can I do instead? It’s been very challenging to come up with my list! But I came up with one and all of the activities had to pass my relaxation guidelines. This is another way to practice self-care. Figuring out what you like to do that requires no one else. It’s enjoying your own company and being able to tap into it whenever you need to. I want these activities to feel as easy as scrolling through Netflix."

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• Create your own set of relaxation guidelines.
• Create a list of possible relaxation activities. 

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Get this month's collection of favorite self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"As its nearing 7:00pm I’m still left with the feeling that I haven’t done enough today. I’ve been going non-stop since 9:00am but somehow it doesn’t count. Because I didn’t move the needle in a thousand other areas. I didn’t make a dent in my never-ending to-do list and of course, to-do lists rule the world and I must obey or fear annihilation. As I’m reflecting on all of this I can’t help but think about how ridiculous this all sounds! I’ve had a lovely day. Filled with lovely moments. And it still feels unfinished. Unsettled. And I know why. I didn’t set an end point for the day. I didn’t give my body an off switch so it’s been on all day with no end in sight. I decided that for today my end point was going to be recording this podcast. It’s still early in the evening but when it’s completed, I’m officially off the clock. I don’t have to be productive. I don’t have to do housework. I don’t HAVE to do anything. I can CHOOSE to do whatever I want. I can just sit and stare at the wall if I want to but the day is officially over and marked as a success in my book. You did it Dionne! If you do nothing else, you still get all the stars."

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• When is the day going to be officially over? 
• Is it a certain time?
• Is it after a certain activity? 
• What is going to be my signal for myself so that I know that I’m shifting into another gear?

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Get this month's collection of favorite self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"I say it all the time but each of us has a finite bandwidth. There is only so much time and energy that we can divvy up in a day. If we’re starting at 100 when we wake up, our level is decreasing minute by minute. We put our energy into the things that are most important to us and I’ve come to realize that I only have the energy for two high touch relationships on a daily basis. Just two. That means daily checking in and communicating for a collective time of two hours or more. And those relationships are highly collaborative. It’s not passive interaction or merely conversation. We are sharing ideas, co-creating and having an experience together. So if I’ve spent that kind of time with two people in one day already, I don’t really have much left in the tank."

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• Ask yourself, “Who Are My People?" and how can I show up for them within the bandwidth that I have? 
• What does meaningful connection look like with THIS particular person?
• Who do I want to build more experiences with and when can I set up a time?

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Get this month's collection of favorite self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"I knew I needed to muster some motivation somehow and just like that a thought popped into my head. “I don’t wanna be like…” A name instantly came to mind and without another thought I did what I had to do. In less than 5 minutes everything was put away. It struck me though. How motivating it was to draw a line in the sand. At the root of it, I was taking a stand on my identity. I’m the kind of person who [fill in the blank]."

Today's Self-Care Prompt:

• What kind of person do I want to be?

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Get this month's collection of favorite self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"I reached out to someone today for help and out of nowhere I was overwhelmed with gratitude. I thought about all the tiny decisions taken in the last ten years that got me to this exact point and I was so proud of my past self. Seriously. I was like, Dionne, you did so good! I’m so proud of the way you took risks and trusted your instincts and went after your goals - even if it was imperfect. Even if it all didn’t work out like you thought. You prepared the way so that I’m benefiting from it right now and you didn’t even know it."

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• What do you have to thank your past self for?

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Get this month's collection of favorite self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"Today was a good day but I’m being stretched doing something that I really didn’t feel up to doing right now. And now that I’m here, I’m glad that I’m doing it. I’m glad that I am retraining my brain so that it knows that this is a way I’m showing up for myself no matter what. It’s what I’ve actively chosen. I want to have that inner push to continue even when it doesn’t feel polished. Or perfect. Or like I have the energy. I want to know that I can. I want showing up to matter more than the result right now. "

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• What is the most important thing here? 
• Why am I actually doing this?

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Get this month's collection of favorite self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"Don’t feel rushed to make a decision. Sit with it. Think it through because you’re going to have to live with whatever you decide. Make sure it’s something you’ll actually enjoy for the long haul. Not just right now. Good enough isn’t what we’re aiming for. We keep our standards high around here. Why? How you do one thing is how you do everything. I want to be mindful and thoughtful about what I’m adding to my life these days. When it arrives, I want it to know that it’s been lovingly chosen out of everything else. It wasn’t chosen just because it happened to be there."

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• How am I really going to use this?
• How will this really integrate into my life?
• Is it something I would actually use every day?
• What would have to be true in order for me to use it?
• How is my life going to be improved with this?

Dionne's New Projector (Amazon)

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Get this month's collection of favorite self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!