[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]My name is Aksia Funmaker, I’m a college student, currently an intern at UAII, and a proud member of the Ho-Chunk tribe.
With the world changing so rapidly around us, I’m always looking for ways to stay grounded and to keep myself and my loved ones safe and happy through the day-to-day isolation we are all going through. Please join me as I share my methods for self-care in an article series that will be produced every two weeks. In each article, I will share my own journey of discovery, learning, and growth, and I will provide helpful guidance so that we all can live as stress-free and happily as possible.
How often do you check-in on your own well-being?
Our mental health is often overlooked, brushed off, or is seen as unimportant when compared to our immediate issues like waiting in L.A traffic, paying our bills, and deciding whether we need to make dinner or if we’ll have to visit the Burger King drive-thru again.
As quarantine drags on and our business is done at home, we’re spending an unusual amount of time with ourselves, which naturally encourages introspection. This series was created to help guide myself and to offer those in our Native community through that introspection, and offer suggestions on a long-term healthy and happy state of mind.
I am very close with my mother, and as I watch her go about her day, working almost non-stop, I am usually the one who has to tell her to sit down and relax, reminding her to take time for herself – even if it’s just for a minute. My hypothesis is that because she was raised in a different era, by a generation that didn’t understand the importance of mental health, she just doesn’t know how to unwind.
My dad is the same way, always working. Both of them are open to my ideas of self-care, but I know that it is an everyday issue that requires constant reminders. Thus, I have been giving a lot more thought to how I can help make the routine of self-care more accessible and easy for people of all generations and backgrounds.
In these articles, I hope to help guide people within the Native community, like my parents, who might not know where to start.. It’s also not always easy to identify what is right in your life, as the small things can often go unnoticed as we focus so heavily on the things that aren’t going right or that we constantly think needs improving.
This series will provide little tools and suggestions to help you put together a self-care routine that works for you. Every other week, I’ll be producing an article with a different topic along with different mediums of art to help guide and encourage you to take time to yourself.
Attached to this article is a Self-Care Plan designed to help us all keep track of how we would like to practice self care for our mind, body and spirit. Practicing self-care for your mind could be powering off your phone, reading, or a crossword puzzle. To care for your body, you could stretch, make healthy eating choices, or burn your favorite smelling candle. As for your spirit, do things to help you feel a greater connection such as praying, hugging someone for 10 seconds, practicing meditation, or attending a ceremony. Readers can fill out the Self-Care Plan throughout the series to keep track of methods you would like to practice and refer back to when needed. I suggest you keep your self-care plan in a place where you won’t move it and that you can see it clear on a bedside table or on the fridge, somewhere that you’ll see it during your day and you’ll be able to access it easily. I keep mine right next to my bed, so that right when I wake up my first thought is of my own happiness, things that make me smile, and how to sustain it.
Download UAII’s Self-Care Plan:
Remember doing little things in your day such as choosing healthy food options, drinking water, deep breathing, and being present in the moment are all forms of self-care that will sustain you and help us get through this pandemic, together.
Hopefully you will find this guide useful, and we will all be able to live in serenity (like when we’re sitting in traffic!).
Disclaimer if in need more of more mental or physical assistance, please don’t hesitate to call our office UAII at (213) 202-3970
For emergency, dial 911.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
