#amhw

Self-Care Activity Experiences

In our Becoming an Accountable Professional course this semester, we were assigned the task of completing a different self-care activity every week for the course of the semester. Out of the six distinctive self-care activities that tried, the one that I found to be the most positive and impactful on my day to day life and wellbeing was saying a positive affirmation to myself each day.

In order to help myself complete this task; I chose to use two different positive affirmations that I felt resonated the most with my current maladaptive thoughts. I then took those two affirmations, I typed them up, drew up an aesthetically pleasing background, I then printed the two affirmations and pinned them to my wall beside my mirror in my bedroom. Each morning when I woke up and each night before I went to bed, I stood in front of the body length mirror in my bedroom, looked myself in the eye, and said my affirmation of choosing out loud.

My morning affirmation:

I thank the food I eat for giving my body nourishment

I am a masterpiece and a work in progress simultaneously

My body will carry me wherever I want to go

I am allowed to take up space

My body radiated beauty and strength

I deserve to feel comfortable and confident

My bedtime affirmation:

Every breath I inhale calms me and every breath I exhale takes away tension

Anxiety is a visitor passing through

Whatever I did today was enough and so am I

I can take things one step at a time

I accept myself and the anxiety

I have everything I need to overcome this challenge; I believe in myself and my abilities

I won’t lie, I regularly struggle with maladaptive thinking and often negative, self-sabotaging thoughts and views of myself. This being said, I found that looking myself in the eye every day and saying something positive and uplifting, out loud in my own voice for myself to hear definitely had an impact on my life. When I began experimenting with this self-care activity, talking to myself out loud felt a little unnatural and uncomfortable, however, after about a week of this I began to feel more at ease with the sound of my own voice.

I found that this self-care activity made helped me to begin feeling more confident in myself and have more of a positive outlook on the future. This self-care method is most definitely something that I am going to be putting in my back pocket to use with future clients as I really feel that it can help with all aspects of the biopsychosocial+ model depends on what a person chooses to say in their daily affirmations.

A few more self-care activities that I have found to be personally effective are:

 Drawing/painting  Breathing exercises (i.e. diaphragmatic breathing, Lion’s Breath breathing, alternate nostril breathing, humming breathing, etc.)

 Reading

 Yoga/stretching

Feb. 19th, 2017:

Hello there!!!

As you can see, I have not stuck with my goal of posting something every week. I don’t want to give up on the idea of making this blog, so here goes. Lets give this another shot!!

This is the Fangyi Wine Vessel, found in the @cincinnatiartmuseum. You may recall this work of art from your memory as there are others like it housed in museums all around, but each with its own variations. This work of art was created in the 12th century BCE in China.

What do you think the purpose of it was? What do you think it is? Zoom in, or even better, go to the art museum and see it in person, and take a guess at what is depicted.

This work of art is called Fangyi, and that translates to ‘Wine Vessel’. This was no ordinary wine vessel that you would use at your suburban soccer-mom parties in 12th century China. No, this was a special type of wine vessel. In China, ancestor worship was common, and this work of art would be used as a container to hold offerings of wine for ancestors. Along with other vessels for food and drinks, these foods and drinks would be used for ritualistic purposes to honor the passed family members. This practice was done by the wealthy aristocrats of the Shang dynasty of China. This wealth is evident simply in the commissioning of such an object, and the valuable bronze material used.

During the time this work of art was made, a process was being used in which multiple clay molds could be used to create great detail within the metal, and create an extremely detailed surface when casting the bronze beauty. This technique, and technical skill can be seen in the swirls, and deeply detailed spiral levels of this work of art. When you look closely, dragons can be observed, along with taotie. A taotie is a mask modeled after a dragon with large, bulbous eyes, horns, and typical facial features stylized to match that of a dragon. Taotie translates to “glutton”, and this is most likely in reference to the monster usually being depicted as an “ever-devouring beast”. It is unsure what the meaning of this symbol is.

By spending large sums commisioning this vessel, and others like it, the nobles of China during the Anyang period of the Shang dynasty hoped to continue their power through ancestor worship.

What would you put into this vessel if could? What would you want other people to leave you if they were honoring you?

sources: https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/u/0/asset/wine-vessel-fangyi/dgEcrN6coTc0_A

https://www.britannica.com/art/taotie

Probably the most infuriating thing I hear during my relationship to my oppa is that I have “yellow fever” or an “Asian fetish.” It’s usually said by immature little snots. I just so happen to come across kpop when I first met oppa. Since oppa didn’t really speak a lot of English I tried to learn things about Korean culture to be able to talk to him and make him comfortable. However, learning about Korean culture made me realize that it has some similarities to Mexican culture, though minute, but enough for me to really really like it. After I made the similarities ( a lot of people will argue that there is none, but that’s not my problem ^^*), I started to really want to learn more about the culture and language.  Eventually this led to oppa and me helping each other out (he helped me with math and I helped him with English), learning about each other, and eventually dating.

I say semi because come on he's not going to take control of everything. But we do somethings that is Korean-esque. 

1)We do not wear shoes inside the house. He never wears anything on his feet except his socks but I need my slippers since I grew up with the superstition that you'll get sick if you walk around barefoot. 

2) We eat rice with all our meals regardless of what they may consist of. That is not to say that we don't eat Mexican tortillas/food from time to time. He loves Mexican food as does our friend.

3)We sleep on a heated pad thingy~ I'm not really sure of the name it's slipping my mind but in this cold winter he thinks it's ideal. This is not to assume that all Koreans don't have beds but he just prefers it. For me it kills me since I can feel all the wires. But he can sleep comfortably on a rock so.......yeah hahahaha

4)We have more Korean food/ingredients than we do of anything else. Kimchi is abundant. Unfortunately since I'm such a picky eater I cannot get into. I know it makes him a little upset but he knows I'm the same way with Mexican food so he's not too hurt. We also have more chopsticks than anything else in the house.

5)Although we have a "normal" sized table we use the low table is Aunt gave him when we have guest. This way everybody is sitting on the floor when we eat.