Self Care is something we are seeing more and more of every day which is great and something I genuinely believe helps enormously.
However, yesterday I did a bit of a test on Pinterest and searched specifically for self-care for Men who are fighting Mental Illness. And guess what? I was greeted by pin after Pin of completely irrelevant information. I would never name and shame, but one of the more popular Pins and also the majority of the others I also read, were written by females. I have no problem with this because females are much more adept at taking care of themselves and others as well as coming up with a multitude of self-care ideas.
So it got me thinking, do any of these ideas actually work for me? There was a handful here and there that I thought was good, but it seemed heavily feminine and so I checked out because none of it spoke to me as a Male going through a Mental Illness journey. I wanted to see something written by someone I could relate too and out of all the Pins I have seen and read there was little that resonated with me.
I thought about it on and off all night, why is there no Men giving their ideas on self-care that doesn't involve going to the gym or treating yourself to a new suit? Instead of complaining about it (to myself) I decided to write about it and start working on a proper self-care package for Men who are going through Depression, Stress and Anxiety.
We all know Men are the worst at talking and sharing their feelings, but that doesn't mean we stop trying to encourage it and seeing more content from Men speaking out would be a refreshing change.
I am not going to whip up a 5-minute list and think I have hit the mark, I am going to research what is out there and also what has worked for me in the past. In my post about self-care during a depressive episode, I kept the list small and straight to the point. With this, I would love to delve further and get to the core of what we can do to help males not feel ashamed about something like self-care.
My absolute recommendation already would be the Calm App, available on Itunes. It is private, you can use it and nobody knows, and most importantly, it works.
** Best of 2018 Award Winner ** — Apple ** 2017 App of the Year ** — Apple ** Happiest App in the World ** — Center for Humane Technology Calm is the #1 app for Sleep, Meditation and Relaxation - All of this can't be wrong!
You can get it here on the App Store for free-
I use this App every day so I can personally vouch for its effectiveness and ease of use.
So in the coming days I will be working in what I think it's a more appropriate self-care plan and ideas for males. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear them, the more input from the community the better. I am going to be asking the question today on The Mighty website, so I will see what fruit that bears.
Let's work together to find the best and relatable content for males who have probably never even heard the term self-care. And to all the females who are smashing it with their tips, power to you my friends, you inherently know what works and what doesn't and I am grateful for the content I have read every day from inspiring women.
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