A gift guide to encourage self-care

November 18, 2016

This is my second year setting up gift guides more or less publicly, and my original plan was to do the first one this year as a guide for makers. Given the last week (and how freaking awful I and everyone around me have felt), I’m making this first one a guide to encourage self-care.

These are the little things I’ve had or used to take care of myself (and not just this past week either!). Taking care of yourself is a hard, hard thing to do…so here are five things that can make that easier!

A cuddly stuffed toy

I firmly believe that ANYONE can benefit from a snuggle with a nice, soft toy. A snuggle with a real animal can be great too, but if your cat’s anything like mine it’s not exactly an on-demand service.

My partner gave me the adorable bear in the photo, and not a day goes by that I don’t appreciate the gift. He’s available at Target. I’m also a big fan of all Gund toys, but this bear in particular is my lifelong favorite.

An excellent pillow

Along the lines of cuddling a stuffed toy, sometimes a great pillow makes for a good cuddle too. Also, a good pillow will make for great sleep, which is the foundation of all other good things.

When we moved to Baltimore this year we bought a new bed and new pillows, and I am in love with these pillows from Casper. They’re more expensive than what you might find at Target, but they are delicious to sleep on. Gavin and I have verrrrry different sleeping positions, and these work for both of us.

While we’re on the subject of sleep…

Melatonin chews

A colleague turned me on to these. We travel a lot in our day jobs and staying in weird hotels after crossing time zones makes for the world’s worst sleep. You can get them from a variety of health-food vitamin-type companies, on Amazon, or at the drug store. Mine are from CVS, and they do the job of helping me get to sleep without leaving me hungover the next day. Plus, they’re not habit forming.

A lip scrub & balm

Look, it’s winter. Our skin is freaking out and drying out and that maybe especially true of our lips. Or at least my lips. So my new favorite lip thing in the world is Clinique’s Sweet Pots, which have a sugar scrub on one side and a balm on the other. I have my mom to thank for this one — I might have snagged it out of her epic lipstick collection.

A good book

I have a run-and-hide coping mechanism, so I’ve been reading a lot of books by funny or interesting people lately. Here are three I’ve loved, and one I’m in the middle of and currently loving:

Sally Ride: America’s First Woman in Space, by Lynn Sherr

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, by Amy Schumer

Spaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe, by Mike Massimino

Scrappy Little Nobody, by Anna Kendrick

Take care of yourselves, y’all.