Hi Oyster Bay/Glen Cove Members!
My name is Sydney Matuszak, and I currently teach yoga over in the Glen Cove Studio! I was first introduced to the studio to help cover Amy’s maternity leave, and I can’t wait to meet more of the members of this wonderful community throughout this year.
April’s theme of the month is Self Care, and throughout this past year, and amid college, I felt the need to further develop how to take care of myself. Beyond the human necessities: receiving adequate nutrition daily, drinking more water than what seems like the above recommended amount and getting a good, uninterrupted night’s rest. I have found additional ways that help ground and balance myself in times of hardship and stress.
Less screen time… Being Intentional with my Time:
Over the winter months, I found myself scrolling on social media apps often and losing time on the internet searching random things. Perhaps it was boredom or maybe not knowing what to do with my time between work, family caregiver responsibilities and limited time with friends and family.
My way to combat this was to get intentional with how I’m spending my down time and finding more hobbies I enjoy. So far I’ve explored “painting by numbers” painting, reading more books, practicing editing videos, increasing my personal home yoga practice, enrolling into a cooking course and educating myself in unfamiliar topics.
As the springtime rolls in, I may even take up gardening, skating, biking, exploring arboretums, completing puzzles, and taking my dogs to the dog park. When I enrich my time with new experiences, I find that my mood lifts, my mind fog lessens, and I feel more and more like a well-rounded personal despite the shutdown’s pause on social gatherings.
5 minute mindfulness hydration exercise.
Let’s play this scene in our minds: it is a lovely spring day, 75 degrees, you had just gotten out of a morning yoga class, feeling ready to take on the day. You take off your mask, hop in your car, and grab your water bottle. You open and take a big gulp. Over the course of the next five minutes, I encourage you to acknowledge the sensations you feel when taking that first sip of water and how it changes over the course of 5 minutes. You feel the water travel down your throat and land in your stomach. Feeling the coolness sit in your mouth, acknowledging the temperature change. Feeling refreshed.
By putting our attention to our five senses it is really grounding. It can helps to ease any thoughts that may be building up too much in our minds and landing us in the present moment. I often struggle with being present and not too future-oriented in my daily life, but this exercise helps me to go with the flow and stay in the now rather than completing my to-do list later that day.
Spending some time outside in the fresh air: Vitamin D!
I have learned that when I’m vitamin D deficient, my energy feels zapped. The way I’ve found to combat that is to try and find time every day, or every other, to be outside for 30 minutes. Sometimes it’s taking care of outside chores, or walking around talking on the phone in my backyard, or sitting and talking to my family. No matter what, I try to feel the sun on my face and remember to take my supplements that will help me feel good.
Listening to a podcast about a topic I enjoy.
I’ve really enjoyed listening to podcasts this month on various topics. This is my alternative to audio books when I want to do something mentally stimulating by not watching tv or listening to music. Some topics that I have been enjoying range from nutrition, acting techniques, unsolved crime mysteries and yoga, mindfulness practices. Yes I know it’s a variety of different topics, but I find that it keeps me engaged and helps encourage me to learn something new learning daily. This is especially important as I’m in a non-structured learning environment post college and always want to keep learning to enrich my mind and perspectives in life.
Take a hike!
Getting some exercise in for the day is something I cherish to help take care of my physical health. During spring and summer time, I love to drive to a park or beach to walk and explore Long Island, or go around my neighborhood to get my body moving to increase my cardiovascular health. No matter how you move your body, whether it’s walking, doing yoga or pilates, running, on gym equipment, playing with your kids, dancing, or any other form of exercise, doing what’s best for your body through movement is the main game plan here.
If you’d like to add on a mental component to said nature walk, turn off all distractions and listen to the environment around you. Keying into what’s going on in our surroundings increases our mindfulness, and for me, helps to center my mind and allows me to enjoy our world even more. There is so much we can learn from nature, if we simply listen to it.
Constructive Rest:
Sometimes your body needs a rest, perhaps even a nap. Let’s honor our body cues to lay down when needed. Maybe your body is overtired, and when in that instance, I find myself needing to nap. Other times I allow my body to physically rest, yet occupy my mind in different ways. After an hour when I watch an episode of TV or read a chapter of a book, I find myself feeling refreshed and ready to take on what the rest of the day has for me.
Oh, especially when my dogs join me to relax while laying down. It warms my heart to see the puppies sigh with content and snooze while we can cuddle all together. My pack says hello! (Meet my dog family: Lily, Lola then Max; her parents)
Cleaning Trifecta:
Maybe this is a quirk, yet I find extreme satisfaction in what I love to call the “completing the cleaning trifecta” every Friday night or Sunday night. Let me explain. I know as someone who does laundry for four people, it can be tough for these chore tasks to align for myself. Yet I find such joy when I can climb into bed knowing my body and bed are fresh and clean with no dirty laundry left in the hamper. Such joy helps me end my week on a great note or start a new week on the right foot: either which way, it’s a small win that helps to boost morale and put a small smile on my face.
Perhaps try it out once? I hope it brings a small smile to your face too, yet if it doesn’t at least a few parts off the to-do list are done for the week and it’s one less thing to plan and think about.
Freshening up:
I know the term Spring Cleaning is being thrown around a lot right now. Yet, doesn’t it feel amazing when you have an organized household and clean living space? Every season I find doing this to my personal possessions, but I’ve never done it for the full house. This year I feel really motivated to help clean up our housing common areas and lessen the stuff around my home.
This month, my task with my grandmother is to go through our linen closet and donate the fraying towels or underutilized linens to an animal shelter or animal hospital. Slowly over the next few months, I know we’ll accomplish more decluttering tasks (like the laundry room, or our overcrowded catch-all storage in the basement). By doing just that, I hope it will allow our home to feel lighter, rather than holding onto something for a rainy day to be never used in over 20 years.
What do you think about doing a section by section declutter? Have you started to do so in your living space this year?
Book recommendation time!
Do you find yourself looking for more ways to expand your self care rituals and knowledge base? This book goes alphabetical through ways to take care of yourself, the whole self: mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. It has brought new ways to the forefront of my mind and allowed me to change my perspective that sometimes taking on the harder tasks can be a form of self care too.
“The *More or Less definitive Guide to Self Care” by Anna Borges
Thank you so much for reading! Please let me know which self care tips you resonate with the most and which are new to you. I’d love to start a conversation of what tips you have that help you de-stress and what more you can add into your routine to assist in your overall health.
Love and Light,
Sydney Matuszak
