"I was thinking about all the various hats that I wear. Daughter. Writer. Business Owner. Friend. Scrabble Queen. And I started to wonder….what if I look at my self-care like a hat that I’m wearing. Who do I become when I put on this hat? What are the things that feel important when I’m in self-care mode? Can I distill it down to just a few things so it’s easier to remember? I love creating mental shortcuts for myself. Questions I can quickly ask to help me get back on track but creating a self-care persona sounded way more fun."

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• If you could have a self-care hat that allowed you to approach self-care in the exact ways you really wanted, what would this magical hat let you do?

Liked this episode? You'd also love:

• 007 - Switch It Up
• 023 - Choose Your Own Adventure With A Quest
• 031 - How A Floor Chair Changed My Life Forever

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Download a digital magazine filled with unconventional self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all of the various resources that we have available to us. Time. Money. Relationships. Knowledge. Health. No one is any more important than the other. We need them all to build our lives but we often get fixated on one. Whatever is the most out of balance in our lives at the time is where we focus our attention. If our schedules are full, we pay more attention to time. If money is tight, we put our efforts into getting more. If we don’t feel connected, we reach out to others. If there’s something we don’t know, we do our best to learn it. If we’re not feeling well, our goal is to get better. 

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• What resource do you have the least right now? Ultimately, what is more important to you in the long-term? How can knowing that help you make a decision?

Liked this episode? You'd also love:

• 019 - Brain Dump To Clarity
• 027 - Feeling Stuck? Decide What's Actually True.
• 036 - Growth vs Fixed Mindset

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Download a digital magazine filled with unconventional self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"I feel like SuperWoman this week. Seriously. I’ve been knocking things off my to-do list with such precision it’s like I’m a contract killer. Get out of the way John Wick. There’s something tedious to do and this girl is on it! I was NOT feeling this way last week. In fact, I felt so completely exhausted and mentally drained that it was a miracle I could do the bare minimum. I wanted to share this with you because no two weeks are the same. Our energy levels. Our emotions. Our capacity is going to vary and that has to be okay too."

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• How are you feeling this week? How does it compare to last week? If you haven’t been paying attention, this might be a good week to start. What kind of activities have felt easy this week? What has felt hard? If you were going to describe this week, what words would you use? Find somewhere to write it down and check back.

Liked this episode? You'd also love:

• 025 - You Only Have So Much Bandwidth
• 037 - Decision-Fatigue & Self-Care When You’re Single
• 041 - Why Taking Breaks Are So Hard

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Download a digital magazine filled with unconventional self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"I had a friendship errand date and it was exactly what I needed. I think we all have a tendency to make spending time with people a thing. It’s the planning involved. It’s the coordinating the day and time. It’s deciding on the location. It’s determining just how long it’s going to last. I decided this week that I was over all that. I was going to reach out to people and ask them to think of me whenever they were going on any errands. It’s something that they will be doing anyway so it’s easier to just tag along. Sometimes you’re available. Sometimes you’re not but it’s opening up what it means to be in relationship with others."

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• The next time you're going on an errand, invite a friend to join you! Or ask them to invite you. 

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Download a digital magazine filled with unconventional self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"I'm still figuring out my germ comfort level with this new normal. What am I willing to risk? It could be a year before we're no longer wearing masks. So I find myself asking, how are we going to co-exist Covid? Let's Define The Relationship because I don't care what 99.9% of the world is doing. What am I comfortable with? The question isn’t whether or not it’s actually a safer practice or not. That’s actually irrelevant. The self-care practice you will actually do is better than the one you won’t."

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• What are you willing to risk? What is going to allow you to enjoy your time outside of your home in the upcoming months?

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Download a digital magazine filled with unconventional self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"I'm in the mood for adventure and I'm planning it the night before. New week! New me! I've realized that the meaningful things don't tend to happen unless I'm intentional about them. I want to wake up tomorrow with a map basically. One that I can just follow that will lead me to things I treasure. I want the list to be easy to fit in among everything else. If you've never created an adventure list before let's go through the process together. It’s basically two steps."

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• Create an adventure list! Step One: Decide the KIND of experiences you want to have. Step Two: Choose an activity that you are looking forward to!

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Download a digital magazine filled with unconventional self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"The reason that taking breaks can be so hard is because on some level we’ve attached our value to our execution. There really is no way of getting around that. People aren’t privy to our innermost thoughts unless we share them. They only have to go on what we do. What we say. And if there’s a disconnect in some way it can be hard to explain sometimes. You don’t always want to go into all the reasons why you aren’t able to do something today that you could easily do yesterday. So where does that leave us?"

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• Before we judge ourselves for any break in routine or output, let’s ask ourselves, “What is my capacity right now?” and act accordingly. 

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Download a digital magazine filled with unconventional self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"There’s a quote that I love by a Greek Philosopher and it’s this: "We don't rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training." When it comes to our self-care, that’s exactly what happens. Whatever practices or mindsets we have developed at any given point is where we really are. Grand ideas don’t really mean much if you have a habit of never executing them. It’s not what we say. It’s really what we do. I guess I’m thinking about all of this because today is my birthday and I’m thinking about who I’m going to be becoming in this next year. I want to amplify who I really am and decrease the things I’ve been holding on to that aren’t really serving me any longer. "

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• What have you been realizing is true for you these days? Are you gonna go all in or pivot?

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Download a digital magazine filled with unconventional self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"I’m calling it. Binging on a television show totally counts as self-care. I know. I know. I just talked about going on a Content Diet in episode 34 where I gave up all media consumption minus books and music but the three-day experiment has passed. In fact, I lasted for 4 days because I was enjoying the change of pace and Brian McKnight so much. But after a long mental day I wanted to escape. This is how I found the show “Normal People” on Hulu and as one hour turned to six, my relationship to time changed." 

Today's Self-Care Prompts:

• What do I need? The answer is your self-care.
• When I’m 80 years old, am I going to regret X?

Liked this episode? You'd also like:

• 014 - Relaxing Without TV
• 023 - Choose Your Own Adventure With A Quest
• 034 - Going On A Content Diet

Never miss an episode! Want this delivered in your inbox every morning? Sign up for the audio and transcript daily at https://selfcarediarypodcast.substack.com/

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Download a digital magazine filled with unconventional self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!

"This has become my new favorite question. “How was your last hour?” It came to mind today because I wanted to check-in with a friend. I knew her morning had been off to a rough start so I wanted to see what was important to her in the moment. By knowing how she felt about her last hour, it was a better gauge about her current state because emotions and circumstances have a tendency to change. Plus, it allowed her to stay in the present and not have to go back deeper unless she wanted to."

Today's Self-Care Prompt:

• Ask a friend, "How was your last hour?"

Liked this episode? You'd also like:

• 012 - Who Are Your People?
• 022 - The Least Amount Of Effort
• 026 - Your Entryway Into Self-Care

Never miss an episode! Want this delivered in your inbox every morning? Sign up for the audio and transcript daily at https://selfcarediarypodcast.substack.com/

Let’s be pen pals at [email protected]

Download a digital magazine filled with unconventional self-care tips at www.dionneandselfcare.com

P.S. You're doing great!