Tips for Taking Care of You

We reached out to the Black and Pink family to ask: what do you do to practice self care. These are some of the responses we recieved. We’d love for you to write to us and share some of yours, too!

Getting my hands in the Earth and soaking in some sunshine, writing love letters to myself and my friends to pull out on those bad days, and making sure me and all my ppl have our meds.

Box breathing! (Basically inhale and count to 4, hold breath and count to 4, exhale and count to 4, hold breath and count to 4)

Meditation (the kind where you have no thoughts) is very helpful for me. It helps me to remember not to worry too much or overwork myself because I can sit still with nothing in my head for however long and I’m still fine. Mildly entertaining too for when I’m bored.

Water, protein, veggies, sleep, orgasms (seriously), decompression with non protest folks, binge watching stuff, music, staying away from videos of protests as it can retraumatizing, grounding, more water, more sleep.

Hey! During my time in prison no matter how much went on no matter how bad it get I always looked myself in the mirror and said “just one more day” and before you knew it ten years was done! Self affirmations no matter how big or small go a long way

When my mind is racing and I’m having a hard time falling asleep, I do a body scan and I try and tell myself: “You’ve thought about enough today, the rest can wait for tomorrow”

Daily meditation.

Honor my feelings and ask for help. Slow, deep breaths.

COMMUNITY! This extrovert is healed and supported by many empathetic hands and hearts!

Frank Ocean, nature, stretching, and painting really helps me reconnect with myself when I feel the need to dissociate.

Stretching and breathing exercises to remind myself what it feels like to be present in my body—it can take care of me if I let it.

You’ve got to give yourself space and time to process. Be honest with your heart and hold space for whatever you are feeling.

Looking at your naked body in the mirror and affirming it, feeling it, positive self talk with eye contact.

talking with a friend, writing down my feelings, then going back and rereading things I’ve written later on.

Writing letters to friends, stretching, singing to myself, doing deep belly breaths and grounding into my body imagining roots extended from my root chakra down into the Earth’s core, and stimming via the butterfly hug (crossing your arms and go back and forth gently tapping your arms and getting into a rhythm with it)

If you find yourself being overly down, find gratitude in the things you can control vs the things you can’t control Make one column with a list of things you can control and a column with things you can’t control (ex. Things I can control: My response to other people, choosing the books I read, choosing who I talk to, choosing what bedtime I have Things I can’t control: Other people’s responses, the daily schedule/lockdown times, etc.)

Self care: allowing myself to halfass small or simple tasks; like only brushing my teeth for a minute instead of the full two, or setting the goal of only doing half the laundry instead of all of it. because getting shit half done is always better than not at all, no matter what anxiety tries to say!

Stretching out the body, dancing by oneself, dressing up w whatever makes you feel sexy to heal dysphoria. Inspiring others to do so too and/or creating space for it!

Journaling and getting feelings out thru creativity