13 Emotional Self-Care Ideas to Nourish your Mind

When you think about self-care, you probably imagine exercise, nutritious eating, or even a nice spa day! Those things are great for physical self-care, and it’s also good to start using emotional self-care ideas to nourish your mind!

As a mental health therapist, I am constantly swapping ideas with people on what techniques work best for emotional health. This post is ALL ABOUT emotional self-care ideas.

Meditate

Meditation is more than just clearing your mind of thought. Meditation is a practice of connecting to your inner world. If you notice that most of your day is spent being busy, distracting yourself from thoughts, or caught up in the rat race, you probably haven’t had time to check in with yourself.

Meditation, even for just 5 minutes a day, can help you check in with your thoughts, your body, and your emotions. You may find some powerful information when you look within!

Click here for a video on How to Meditate.

Spend Time Outdoors

One of my favorite emotional self-care ideas is spending time outside. Not only do you get fresh air and connect with nature, but you will also get a healthy dose of sunlight. It is believed that sunlight can increase your serotonin (your happy chemicals), allowing you calmer and better sleep!

Try going outside at least once a day. Take a quick walk at lunch or stop by the park on the way home from somewhere to add outside time to your routine.

Be Playful

Play is a great tool to access your inner child and allow yourself to release the stressors of adulthood. Play can look like engaging in a sport, going to the beach and playing in the sand, climbing a tree, blowing bubbles, or even joining an Improv group!

Think about things you enjoyed doing as a child. How can you incorporate some of that into your daily living?

Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the art of being in the present moment. Many emotions exist in different time periods, for example being anxious about the future or feeling grief from the past. These emotions are healthy to exist, and it’s important to check in with yourself to see what emotions are happening in your body in the present.

To do this, pause and engage in your five senses. Notice what you hear, smell, taste, see, and feel on your skin. Then check inward. Notice what feelings are existing in your body. Identify which emotions exist from the past or the future and practice releasing those emotions to focus on the here and now.

Connect with Others

Connection to others is proven to improve our physical and emotional health. Even if you’re an introvert, who gets your energy from alone time, try and make time to connect to others on an emotional level.

This doesn’t have to look like crying and getting deep with someone unless you want it to! It could just be making lunch plans, going on a walk with someone, or just talking on the phone.

Get a Hug

Getting hugs should be a DAILY thing! Societally, people have tended to reduce physical contact, but increasing hugs from loved ones is beneficial to your health in more ways than one.

Hugs can boost your oxytocin, reducing depression, increasing calm, and helping you to feel safe. If you have trauma around touch, try practicing with people you trust or feel safe with.

Let yourself Cry

Similar to hugs, crying for a good period of time also releases oxytocin, helping to ease pain and increase calm. It’s not to say you should engage in crying spells every day, but releasing these sorts of emotions helps to process loss and other emotions.

If you are not someone who cries easily, try watching an emotional movie or journaling about unprocessed sad experiences to help your body release these trapped emotions.

Therapy Journaling

One of my most used emotional self-care ideas is journaling. There are so many ways to journal for mental health (click here for some ideas). Journaling can help with understanding yourself, processing emotions, and organizing your thoughts.

An easy way to start is to just set a timer for 5 minutes and free-write whatever comes to your mind until the timer goes off.

Do Something Powerful

Feeling powerful can be a great mental health boost, especially when trying to manage anger or anxiety in healthy ways. Look for things that make you feel proud of yourself and increase those experiences.

Some examples are facing a fear (like giving a presentation), physical power (martial arts or exercise), or changing relational patterns (like setting boundaries). There are plenty of ways to feel powerful that are healthy.

Expressive Arts

Expressive arts are a great way to nourish your mind and mental health. Expressive arts can be anything from painting to coloring books to dancing. Using expressive arts to express what’s in your mind, or your emotions, in a different way can be refreshing.

Remember, it’s about the process, not the product. Try to not focus on the outcomes or results, just focus on free expression.

Move Through Emotions

Emotions are very physical, meaning, if you pay attention, you will notice the sensations every emotion creates in your body.

Whenever you’re feeling strong emotions, try moving your body in a way that feels good, such as dancing, Trauma Releasing Exercises, or even jumping!

Take a Screen Break

Phones, TVs, and computers can be good forms of entertainment, but too much can become addictive and become distracting to the present moment.

If you struggle to be present, try putting your phone on silent when it’s on you, taking off notifications, or even leaving it in the other room when you are home. This will allow you to be more present and more aware of emotions as they are happening.

Words of Affirmation

This may seem like a basic thing, but you’d be surprised how few people practice giving themselves words of affirmation.

Think of what statements would help you feel good about yourself and say them every day. To make these statements even more powerful, try saying them in the first person. For example, “I am doing a good job.”

These are some of my favorite emotional self-care ideas to nourish your mind. Did I miss any? Leave a comment below!