What Keeps You Feeling Well? Put It In Your Wellness Toolkit. – The Blissful Mind

Last Updated on August 4, 2022

What’s helping you to function lately?

You know, the things that are keeping you together when you’re perhaps one thread away from unraveling?

Maybe it’s journaling, reading, tarot cards, or watching your favorite movie.

We all need supportive tools in our lives, especially when the world seems to be on the brink of collapse week in and week out. 

That’s where the wellness toolkit comes in.

On the Twelfth House Podcast, The Holisticism team discussed the idea of having a ‘wellness house of cards’ that helps you feel supported and grounded. 

“Your wellness house of cards are the things, ideas, actions, and products that are keeping your wellbeing together.”

– Michelle Pellizzon

You can think of it as the threads that are holding everything together.

Creating this kind of wellness toolkit is helpful because it means you have a list of tools to turn to when you want to feel more balanced.

Today, I’m sharing what’s in my personal wellness toolkit and how you can create your own resource library to rely on when you need a little extra support.

What is a wellness toolkit?

A wellness toolkit is a group of habits, tools, and products that make you feel good.

Think of a welder bringing tools along to a work site. Everything they need is in the toolkit. 

They won’t need everything for every job. But when something needs mending or putting back together, they can find the right tool for the situation.

It’s not necessarily a physical toolkit, but rather a collection of things that help you to feel better.

Your toolkit is there to help you get grounded when you need to. You can think of it like anchors for the mind, body, and soul.

What’s in my wellness toolkit

Here’s what’s in my current wellness toolkit:

1. Breathwork. I’ve been enjoying doing a few minutes of breathwork for a quick pause in my day (Breathwrk and o-p-e-n are great tools). If you’ve ever struggled with meditation, breathwork is a good alternative because it helps you be mindful without the pressure of trying to quiet your mind.

2. A journal and pen. I find a lot of my problems get solved if I simply write them down.

3. Music. It heals everything, right?

4. Nature. I spend too much time looking at screens, so a simple glimpse at the world outside helps my wellbeing.

5. A yoga mat. I can quickly roll it out and create space between me and my desk. Stretch, meditate, read, whatever.

6. Walking. I walk for thirty minutes every single day, and my walks are perhaps the main thread holding my life together.

7. Cube timer. This timer cube helps me get started on the things I need to do (because telling myself I only need to do something for 15 minutes means I’m much more likely to start).

8. Sunday social media detoxes. I’m going strong into my second year of staying off social media on Sundays. I actually look forward to this ritual now.

9. Notion. The workspace tool that helps me organize everything from my daily habits to my weekly meal planning.

How to create your wellness toolkit

1. Brainstorm the habits, activities, tools, and products that keep you feeling well.

Do a quick braindump of everything you can think of that feels supportive right now.

It’s best to use things you already know work for you, rather than things you ‘wish’ you would do. Leave out the 30-minute meditation session if you’ve never done it before.

Try thinking of:

1. baseline activities (brushing your teeth, eating a meal) 
2. nice-to-do activities (reading, exercising, calling a friend, putting on a face mask)

You might also want to think of the things that nourish your mind, body, and soul.

For more ideas of things you might include, this post has you covered.

2. Keep a visual reminder somewhere in your space. 

I found it super helpful to make a physical list of the things that feel supportive to me. 

When you find yourself in a state of frustration or overwhelm, it’s hard to think of anything that might get you grounded. If you have this list readily available, you can take a quick look and respond to whichever habit or action sounds supportive. It’s one less thing your brain has to think about.

I keep mine as a handwritten list, but you could create a menu of options in the notes app of your phone or something like Notion. You can pin it to your wall, make it your phone wallpaper, etc.

You could even create physical cards and pull them like a tarot deck to help you find what you need (check out Mindy’s Inner Alchemy Collage as an example).

3. Use your wellness toolkit.

When the going gets tough, turn to your wellness toolkit and see what sounds good to you in the moment.

Your wellness toolkit will inevitably change over time, so be sure to update your list with new discoveries and remove the ones that aren’t working for you anymore. 

What’s in your wellness toolkit?

What wellness practices, habits, and products are supporting you right now? I’d love to hear what’s in your toolkit.