Intellectual Self-Care
Intellectual self-care includes nourishing and challenging your mind and intellect. As a society, we spend a tremendous amount of time in our intellect and thinking spaces, in our mind, so as you tend to this aspect of self-care, please be mindful that you are also balancing this with the other domains of self-care.
You might begin by checking in to see how much time you spend in your intellect already. If this is where you spend the majority of your time, you might consider intellectual self-care as giving your mind a rest. Some ways to allow your intellect and thinking parts to rest could include practicing mindfulness (specifically awareness of thoughts). To learn more about mindfulness, you might consider trying out this 40-day course by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield that is completely free. I have completed this course myself, and the bite-sized practices that you are guided through on a daily basis help to build a solid understanding of and practice of mindfulness that is sustainable in your daily life.
To navigate your intellectual self-care, you could also consider how much of your intellect is used on topics that are actually of interest to you. Or do you use up all your intellectual energy in work that drains your energy? Tending to your intellectual self-care may include (but is definitely not limited to!) the following ideas:
Reading a book for pleasure or a book of interest to you (whether it is fiction, nonfiction, self-help, etc.).
Learning a new language. A free and fun way to do this can be on the Duolingo app.
Watch a documentary on a topic you are interested in. Some of my favorites are Explained, Fantastic Fungi, and Down to Earth. Perhaps you’ve traveled recently and want to learn more about the place you visited (for example, I recently had the opportunity to travel to Northern Ireland and enjoyed watching No Stone Unturned about the Troubles in NI); or maybe you have a special interest in a certain topic - there’s sure to be a documentary out there!
Watch a TED talk. Again, some of my favorites are The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngoni Adichie and How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime by Nadine Burke Harris.
Learn something new - whether it’s through a webinar, an instagram post, your local knitting club, or from a older relative. Open your mind to becoming a beginner and explore your world with curiosity.
Again, here is a gentle reminder that if you are the type of person that has no trouble spending all day in your mind, please please please consider it an act of intellectual self-care to give yourself a break - that mind include mindfulness or moving your body intuitively, taking a walk or feeling the sun on your face, snuggling with a pet, or watching a funny show. Allowing yourself intellectual rest is just as important as exercising your intellectual muscle.
For more information, please see the article 6 Types of Self-Care & Ways to Practice Them, from which much of this information has been gathered.
