For Valentine’s Day, self-care ideas that are cheaper than therapy

Valentine’s Day is all about celebrating love. And nobody deserves love greater than you.

Positive, historically, the vacation is for showering your vital different with tokens of your affection. However — to paraphrase the immortal phrases of RuPaul — for those who can’t love your self, how are you going to like someone else?

Searches for “self-love” spike each February, in keeping with the Google Developments publication, and searches for “self-care” have reached an all-time excessive this month.

Self-care can appear like indulging or pampering. If you wish to rejoice your self with a bubble bathtub or a therapeutic massage, go for it.

However self-care can even appear like caring for your psychological well being.

Remedy is nice, but it surely’s often expensive. And it may be difficult to navigate the method of discovering a therapist who’s accepting new purchasers and takes your insurance coverage whenever you’re already coping with psychological well being challenges.

So listed below are some methods to enhance your psychological well being that price lower than an out-of-pocket physician go to.

Meditate, journal, learn

Sure, “have you ever tried meditation and journaling” is virtually a cliche at this level. However there’s a cause folks maintain suggesting it: It’s free, simple to start out doing and backed by proof that it really works.

Meditate. Even only a few minutes of closing your eyes and taking deep breaths will be helpful. The app Headspace is free for L.A. County residents (and has 14-day free trials for everybody else). Calm and the Peloton app supply guided meditations to paid subscribers after a free trial. The Perception Timer, Mindfulness Coach and Wholesome Minds Program apps are all extremely rated and free. You may also discover free guided meditations on Spotify and YouTube.

Journal. Writing down your ideas and emotions is a robust technique to floor your self and get in contact together with your feelings. Like meditating, there are tons of free methods to start out journaling proper this minute. Apps like Day One supply free journaling in your cellphone for those who’re not a pen-and-paper individual.

Learn. Bibliotherapy is its personal sub-discipline of remedy. However you don’t essentially want a licensed bibliotherapist to let you know the place to start out. Some well-liked titles: “Wherever You Go, There You Are” by Jon Kabat-Zinn, “The Feeling Good Handbook” by David Burns, “The Braveness to Heal” by Ellen Bass, “Overcoming Melancholy” by Lawrence Shapiro.

Get outdoors

The solar is an underrated psychological well being useful resource. Getting outdoors is nice on your mind in addition to your physique.

Hike, strive forest bathing or a sound bathtub, or take an in-person meditation class. Discover extra info on mindfulness and meditation actions right here.

Name a hotline or warmline

Hotlines and warmlines supply normal assist in addition to particular assist for LGBTQ+ folks, folks of shade, individuals who’ve skilled abuse or sexual violence, teenagers, veterans, and different teams. Hotlines are sometimes for folks experiencing a disaster. Warmlines allow you to chat or vent about something that’s in your thoughts.

The California Peer-Run Heat Line is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days every week to California residents. You possibly can speak with a peer counselor and get psychological and emotional assist for any non-emergency concern, together with relationship issues, anxiousness, despair, funds or substance abuse. Name or textual content (855) 845-7415 or click on “on-line chat” on the warmline’s web site.

In case you are presently experiencing a psychological well being disaster, there are free phone- and text-based methods to get assist. The 988 Suicide & Disaster Lifeline is accessible by dialing 988. It’s accessible for Spanish audio system at (888) 628-9454 and for deaf or exhausting of listening to folks on-line (or through TTY). When you can’t or don’t wish to speak with somebody on the cellphone, the Disaster Textual content Line has disaster counselors accessible through textual content (ship “HOME” to 741741) and through WhatsApp.

Discover extra info on disaster hotlines and nonemergency warmlines right here.

Strive in-person or digital assist teams

The Nationwide Alliance on Psychological Sickness of Better Los Angeles County and related chapters all through the area (together with the San Fernando Valley, Glendale, the San Gabriel Valley, the Pomona Valley, the South Bay) supply free peer assist teams over Zoom led by skilled facilitators for folks residing with psychological sickness or their members of the family.

SHARE! Self-Assist and Restoration Trade has a frequently up to date calendar of free volunteer-run assist teams, together with ones that meet on Zoom or in individual in Culver Metropolis and downtown Los Angeles. Group subjects embody substance abuse, codependency, dependancy, grief and loss, anger administration and a wide range of psychological well being circumstances.

There are a selection of identity-specific assist teams on the market, together with BEAM: Black Emotional and Psychological Well being Collective, the Los Angeles LGBT Heart, Our Home Grief Assist Heart, GriefHaven and Springs of Hope Grief-Care Heart.

Search out skilled peer assist

L.A. County gives 24/7 peer assist free of charge by the iPrevail platform. You should be in L.A. County to register for the free account. Different cities and counties additionally supply free or backed iPrevail assist; in case your space doesn’t, it’s $9.99 a month.

7 Cups gives free peer assist 24/7 with an choice to improve to a licensed therapist for $150 a month.

Discover cheaper options to conventional remedy

Via work, college or your house of worship. Test together with your employer to search out out whether or not your job gives an Worker Help Program. These applications typically cowl a number of free periods with a counselor. When you’re a scholar, inquire a couple of college counselor. Classes with an EAP or college counselor are topic to plain confidentiality constraints — in different phrases, the individual you speak with gained’t go to your boss or mother and father and inform them what you talked about. Many church buildings, temples and different locations of worship supply confidential assist and counseling free of charge, even for those who aren’t a daily member.

Via lower-cost assets. Sliding-scale clinics, graduate colleges and instructing hospitals all might supply speak remedy at a extra palatable value. Right here’s extra info on free and sliding-scale clinics in and round L.A. and Orange counties.

Via apps. Your insurance coverage might cowl remedy periods by apps like Talkspace, Cerebral and BetterHelp.

Via 211. Calling 211 from anyplace in America will join you to somebody educated about your native assets for all kinds of issues, together with psychological well being, lease and mortgage help, transportation, little one and elder care and job coaching. 211 is accessible 24/7 in California. Name 211 and ask what your native authorities gives for psychological well being wants.