September Self-Care: an Anxiety and Trauma Therapist's Top Personal Practices

For this blog post I wanted to share something simple, personal, and practical—the self-care practices I’ve been enjoying and focusing on most this month.

I told myself I’d limit the post to 3 self-care practices (I’ve been trying to keep things simple and not overwhelm myself) but I realized that there are just so many activities I’m feeling passionate about at the moment.

I hope you can draw some inspiration for your own self-care!

Finch Self Care Pet App

Finch is an app where, by completing self-care goals that you set for yourself, you raise a pet bird. The bird grows up and you can buy them clothes and decorate their apartment.

It’s like a Tamagotchi (*cue Millennial nostalgia*) except that if you forget to open the app for a while and neglect your Finch, it doesn’t die! Nothing bad happens, so you get all of the fun and none of the anxiety.

I’ve invited friends to the app and your birds can interact, and you can send each other encouragement.

It’s genuinely really fun and it has actually helped me be more consistent with my self-care practices. Sometimes I don’t want to practice the healthy habits for myself, but I’ll do it for my Finch!

Needless to say, this has also been a way for me to nurture and play with my inner child.

Outdoor Time

If I’ve spent too much time inside my apartment, I start to feel… bad. Stuck, stagnant, lifeless. Too much indoor time dims my inner light and makes me more prone to anxiety.

We often forget that we humans are a part of nature, and I believe that it’s not just a desire but a core need for us to interact with and be part of the natural world. Yet I live in a city.

Luckily, Sacramento has some wonderful parks. I feel like I have a personal relationship with the geese in my local park. Just watching them do their thing brings me so much joy.

Currently, I am delighting in the change in seasons. The weather feels just perfect to me, and I’ve been drinking it in as much as I can—sitting with my feet in the grass, reading a book or just taking in my surroundings.

This is what creates a sense of abundance—savoring all the wonderful things that we already have access to. Nature is therapy!

Going for a Walk

I hate to break it to you, but the most effective self-care practices aren’t some secret therapy insider knowledge. They’re the boring-seeming activities that you already know are good for you and just haven’t been consistent with: Walks. Journaling. Meditating.

Maybe it’s a sign that I’m getting older, but I’m really starting to enjoy my daily and sometimes twice-daily walks. Walking takes all the benefits of outdoor time and adds motion.

Something about the repetitive motion of a walk feels meditative to me. It reduces my anxiety. I know from experience that if I’m in a bad mood, two laps around the park is likely to cure it.

Embodiment

My biggest focus in September has been on embodiment. What do I mean by embodiment?

Trauma Research Institute defines embodiment as “the act of expanding one’s self awareness to include the felt experience of the body, such as sensory, sensational, emotional and physical experiences, and incorporating that information into one’s overall conception and conduct of themselves, their identity, beliefs, behaviors, and ways of being.”

In short, I’m trying to live more in my body and less in my head, because that head-awareness is overdeveloped in most of us, due to cultural conditioning and systems of oppression.

For anyone with a history of trauma who is seeking to heal, embodiment is key.

Dance Parties

I’m a lifelong athlete and I’ve participated in many different sports and movement practices over the years. But it’s only recently that I’ve really come to embrace freeform dance. It’s a means of expression, as well as a way to process my emotions and release trauma and grief that get stored in the body.

I dance when I have the house to myself and close the blinds so I can feel totally unselfconscious. (If you don’t have the home to yourself, ask your family or housemates to be in another room to give you some time undisturbed.)

Then I put on a playlist depending on my mood. (Creating playlists is also one of my creative outlets!)

Next I begin moving however my body wants to move, usually starting slowly and becoming more vigorous as I get comfortable. It may feel awkward at first, but ultimately it’s freeing. Focus on what feels good and not on what it looks like.

Some days I may only dance for a song or two and others I may dance for well over an hour. Rather than following a set routine, go with what you feel as a way to honor your needs and desires, which change day to day and moment to moment.

Energy Work

In the past I have hesitated to share about energy work, because to many it sounds “woo woo.” But I have a renewed commitment to sharing authentically, so please, take what resonates with you and leave the rest.

Energy is real. If you walk into a room where people have just been arguing, you can feel it. This is what people mean when they say “You could cut the tension with a knife.”

Our energy—mental and emotional energy, psychic energy—can become depleted by other people draining it or from us giving it away too freely and not replenishing it.

I recently read the book Energetic Boundaries: How to Stay Protected and Connected in Work, Love, and Life by Cyndi Dale and plan to include it in an upcoming installment of my book review series Sacramento Therapist Book Club.

If energy work sounds interesting to you, this book is also available from the Sacramento Public Library.

One more resource recommendation: If you’re a mystic at heart like I am, please check out Sarah Faith Gottesdiener’s recent podcast episode for a deep dive on energy work—available on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

It’s Your Turn!

As we enter October, setting monthly goals is a great way to be more intentional about your self-care. Once your intention is set, you can improve your self-care by taking small, practical actions each day.

Think of it as an experiment. What sounds fun? What is a self-care practice (or hobby, or leisure activity) that sounds interesting to try?

If it sounds overwhelming or you doubt your ability to do it, take a baby step and start with some research. Perhaps one of my practices can serve as inspiration for you.