October is a wrap! 🎃 I hosted October's IndieWeb Carnival on self-care. Thank you to everyone who participated in this month's IndieWeb Carnival topic. I appreciate all the responses I recieved. I recieved so many perspectives on the topic. I chose this theme as this is something I am working on improving for myself.

Responses

Sara Jakša - Using 4 E of Cognition to Conceptualise Self-Care

• I really enjoyed the way way you structured your reponse using the 4 E of cognition: embodied, embedded, extended, and enactivistic. I really appreciate the approaches using your educational background to explain. It has really helped me see things in a different perspective. I agree that self-care is "a process to adapt my life". One must adapt. You're right, I can't ignore self-care because whether or not I felt I was ignoring it. I was doing it whether I admit it or not. I now see it as having a low battery. It had some juice. I realize now I was also scared of myself, nervous of outcomes, and more. I realized many things. I ignored my ehealth. I really enjoy how you ended the response, "do the self-care for the reason of your better wellbeing." I am doing this for myself.Thank you for being so straight foward and not beating around the bush.

Grigor Malo - Should we care about self-care?

• I really enjoyed "[your] answer to the prompt" and the approach. I would agree with you some self-care/help guides do take the wrong approach. It often seems like how to appear to be fine on the outside but not actually on the inside. It's been hard in the pastto find self-care/help material related to my cultural background or for individuals who live in a multiculural life. There is no one size fits all. Hyper-individualism or individualism has been a conflicting thing for me. Why do we need to isolate ourself when things can also be experienced with other people as well. I also agree that action at the end of the day starts with the individual. "Caring about your self is a fundamentally selfish endeavour? Not really, or at least not if practiced properly." That is a beautifully written phrase. I share many of the same thoughts on wellness industry and the corporate wellness. You really put in the persepective how much we buy into capitalism to feel better about ourselves.

Frank Meeuwsen - Global PSC Awareness Day and selfcare

• First, I like the multilingual approach created for this post. Thank you for sharing about Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis and your experience living with this disease. I really enjoy the approach you take. With self-care you learn to see things in a positive light. I agree with "to rest more and consciously slow down." This has been something I've been learning as well. It became unhealth and bad for mental health. Strecthing yourself thin is not feasible anymore. I appreciate you aspect on learning to take control of a situation. "I know I can affect it. I know now that I can change it." This resonates with me so much!

Jeremy Cherfasi - Self-care Success

• I really your approach of enjoying the little and big things in life. I can agree that traveling has always been a way of self-care. A way to disconnect physically from the place one is based out of to a different environment. Self-care to you seems that you truly enjoy life and you genuinely enjoy the things you do such as biking, baking, etc. You wrote having "a sense of purpose and of mastery" is something I resonate with. I'm still trying to find my sense of purpose. I'm learning not to stretch myself thin an focus on the things I love. I love who you wish the drivers to take care of themselves

Tracy Durnell - Extending my understanding of self-care

• Right off the bat, your approach on the "bigger whole" is a like a piece of the puzzle or a train network. If any of it is missing, it simply doesn't work well. Community is so important. Unforntunately we live in a very individualistic society and we need community more than ever. "So much of self-care is treating the symptoms rather than the source, because the source is systemic." I didn't think about it this way. I recently started going to therapy and I thought the goal was to get to the get to the root of the problem while hitting the symptoms like a ping pong. Thank you for sharing the books you mentioned in your response. There are so many self-care books it's hard to find where to start. I'm trying to get to the right path. Oh man, this is hits hard: "Showing up for our friends better, sometimes that means showing up for ourselves, and sometimes it’s shared." This makes me reflect, when I wasn't for there for myself, I wasn't there for my community in this case, my friends. If I wasn't Self-care shows that you can care for yourself and for others. This has been a year of improvement but so much I still have to reach. Thank you for sharing this perspective on community and individuals. This opened my eyes in so many ways.

Anthony Ciccarello - Creating space to feel my emotions

• I can relate so much with Anthony's response. Right away, the second sentence, "My natural inclination is to bury my own emotions to protect my relationships" is very similar to what I've felt over the years. All at my expense. Bottling it all up just wears a peson down. I've been very hesitant about sharing that I've been seeing a therapist and how I've started to open up a lot more to people on what's happening in life. I really appreciate your emphasis and approach on the word, space. A space can have so many purposes. I've been learning how to use spaces inside and outside as more than being inside and outside. The space one uses can truly affect the outcomes of self-care. Spaces to think, spaces, to move, spaces to unwind, and a space to grow demonstrate healthy, safe, self-reflection and so much more.

Jo - Things to do offline

• Jo does a great job at "kill[ing] two birds with one stone" by addressing the self-care prompt and a post I wrote on books. The response is amazing. I really like perspective on reading books. I don't discourage reading not matter the format. We live in a world where we have so many different mediums of reading. Reading away from anything that has a microchip of any kind is for me a form of reset. Just like you mentioned, sometimes the only way to get access to specific content is via digital means. Reading physical really helps reground and reconnect with the digital world. Having solo time and hanging out with people is great but a balance is necessary. You defintely don't want to go to far on the solo end or not having solo time and spending too much time with others. It's a preference in many aspects. I enjoyed your self-care activity list! I get lost with looking at vinyls at the record shop.

CJ - Self-Care and Routine

• CJ has some great points on find things at are less "productive-feeling." For the longest time, doing things like watching Netflix or go to the movies, I felt that I was wasting time and I pushed these activities away. It's been hard just to disconnect from my obligations and I've come to the realizations that I need to sit my ass down and just relax. It's not necessary to be always engaged in things that are "productive." It's productive to let your mind engage in other things!

Alex Sirac - Improving our relationship to news

• Alex has a written a great post on self-care by focusing on news consumption. Right away you wrote, "Not only do I spend too much time on the Internet – I spend way too much time consuming content and news." You took the words right out of my mouth. News isn't limited to listening to reading it online, or watching it on the television (or historically radio). Now the news in the 21st comes in so many different mediums such as podcasts. I've seen an increase of this negative news. It discourages me to use any form of social media, even decentralized social media. I want to ignore but it seems hard not to even if you don't click links. "Curating a me-friendly news experience" by "find[ing] the things that bring you joy and give your brain a break from the hate." It's important to step away from even if it's for a little while. We can't let it consume us to the core. It will make use dark and bitter. I catch myself becoming angry. You make a great point on finding the right sources and filtering things out by using an RSS reader. Even I as an avid New York Times and leftist news person, have to turn off my computer and throw my phone across the room to reattach myself to the world around me. It's got to the point where I have to go into my terminal and turn off the Docker container and turn of my RSS reader. There has to be a better way for everything. Support local journalism because we need to know what's happening in our hometowns and the places we live. We need to now what's happening in our communities to make a difference and become aware what's around us.

James G - Self Care

• James wrote beautiful response regarding self-care. It is complicated! This has been something I've had to learn the hardway, "I know, deep down, that feeling is unsustainable: one can't be creative every day." We want to create more every damn day. It's not always feasible. I agree with the following, "I don't need to create new things all the time." The way I see it, is work on the things you are working on and give it your full attention in a reasonable manner. It's great to find comfort in things we are familiar with. It allows us to be vulnerable.

Late or Missing Reponses

If you still would like to write a response for October, I'd be happy to recieve more. If you sent me a response and I missed it, please email me directly at pablo@lifeofpablo.com. I'll update this post.

November IndieWeb Carnival

Now, I will pass torche to Alex Sirac. Alex is writing on community and belonging for the month of November. C'est parti !

Interested in participating and/or hosting an IndieWeb Carnival, please click here! Remember, anyone and everyone can participate.

This post has been syndicated to IndieWeb News.