Self Care Group Therapy
Self-care means to intentionally take the time to care for yourself. Giving time to yourself so you have the best chance to be healthy, to feel well, to do your job, to help and care for others, and to do all the things you require to accomplish in a day.
This means taking the necessary steps to tend to your physical, mental and emotional health needs. It’s all the steps a person can take to manage and reduce the stressors in their life and take care of your own health and well-being.
Self care group therapy is any activity you can do that promotes your health and wellbeing, for example, physical exercise, making time for regular GP check ups, or something that is intellectual, spiritual, relaxing and calming.
In our busy urban lifestyles, we are exposed to a stream of constant stimuli, which triggers our sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system controls our “fight or flight response”. The constant stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system can lead to stress, pathology and other disease conditions.
If our urban lifestyle contributes to stressful experiences and feelings, how do we balance this out with more calming and relaxing experiences? Spending time on self-care is so important as it offers a chance to reduce excessive stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system.
What kind of activities count when it comes to self care? Self care group therapy could be anything that consistently makes you feel good, basically doing the things you enjoy. Self care doesn’t always have a financial price, a lot of what we enjoy doesn’t cost money at all.
One of the consistent activities I do to de-stress and get enjoyment from is spending time mindfully in nature. I will sit in a favourite spot and just take the time to observe what is going on around me. I try to notice what my senses are telling me about my immediate environment, and this helps me to feel connected to the landscape around me.
Another form of self-care group therapy is to enjoy doing an activity in nature with a group of other people. It might be with a few friends meeting for a picnic lunch, or something more structured like a Forest Therapy or Forest Bathing walk. These experiences can make you more aware of the wonder of nature, by spending some relaxing time in a natural environment. An added pleasure of this experience can be sharing it with your friend group. There is also the benefit of being in a group with strangers, having a unique experience, and at the same time meeting new people.
One of the unseen hero’s in self care group therapy is the effect nature has on our wellbeing. Up until recently humans spent most of our time in the natural environment, it is only a recent change that our species have become urbanised.
A significant change from living in a natural environment to a man-made urban environment, has been the loss of connection to the natural world. In other word’s we have substantially reduced exposure to blue and green light, reduced direct contact with animals and plants, less time viewing natural landscapes, and less exposure to the normal changes in the environmental such a temperature rise or fall, rainfall on our skin, changes in the amount of sunlight during the day and throughout the year.
The loss of connection to nature has directly led to increases in stress and stress related diseases. Studies have now proven that exposing humans to the natural world causes a reduction in stress hormones in our blood, reduced blood pressure, and a natural elevation in mood.
To prioritise our self-care can mean a lot of different things to different people. It is a personal journey that may involve exploring different strategies and resources. But one of the simplest things we can do for our self care is taking the time to get back into nature.
Being exposed to nature not only feels good, but it has also been demonstrated to directly improve our health.
Our Services: Forest Therapy Sydney