A Valentine’s Day Treat For Ourselves

As the love month draws to a close, let us reminisce about all the heartfelt gestures and meaningful memories we made this month–whether it might be giving gifts and flowers to our significant others, or just by greeting our friends and family a Happy Valentine’s–these simple thoughts and actions are definitely worth cherishing. However, it’s so easy to get lost and sidetracked in this pressure of having to extend love and care towards our neighbors that we fail to love someone who absolutely deserves it–ourselves.

We often find ourselves drowning in org work, academic requirements, household chores, and other tasks that only make self-love seem absurd and ridiculous. We often think that there is simply no room for self-love in this busy life that we have. However, despite our heavy workloads, we must stop antagonizing the value of rest because we need and deserve it! That being said, we invited three individuals to share their insights on self-love. We asked them questions about how they take care of themselves despite busy schedules to get you hooked on the matter as well!

We’ve got Trisha Pelingon: A 3rd year student from BS CTM who engages in different organizational activities and work opportunities. She is currently a talent manager for Dance Pool in ACTM and the HR head officer for Department of Student Welfare and Services - Ateneo. She also involves herself in ministry work by being a part of the technical and programs team in her church.

Martina Marquez: A 3rd year student from BS CTM student who highly involves herself in extracurricular activities. She is currently the Vice President for Corporate Marketing in Ateneo ACTM, and a Project Head in the Ateneo BCG. She also was a former intern in Shopee Philippines.

Chax Manglallan: A 3rd year student from BS CTM who undertakes multiple physical activities. He is currently a Project Head for the Year Ender, and a Talent Manager for the Sports Pool in ACTM. Before taking up leadership roles, he was very active in joining the core teams of different ACTM events.

1. What are your current priorities?

Trisha: As of the moment, I’m prioritizing my academics and org work. I’m also starting to apply for internships. Currently, I’m part of the program and social media ministry in my church where I’m in charge of ensuring the smooth flow of the livestreaming of our church services and creating publication materials for various church events.

Martina: My priorities are acads and orgs. I greatly prioritize my involvement in ACTM since I’m heading a department. I also became active in Blue Consulting Group (BCG) where I’m currently a project head. Aside from these, I make time for my friends and family. Lastly, I try to make time for myself as much as possible.

Charles: Currently, my priorities include being the project head of Year Ender in ACTM, academics, family time, and of course, me time.

2. How do you manage to deal with all of your responsibilities and commitments?

Trisha: I try to prioritize things and start working on my tasks with the nearest deadlines because it’s hard to work when your tasks and requirements are all over the place. It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you don’t organize and plan your tasks. I must say that I can balance my work because I find joy and meaning in the things that I do.

Martina: To be honest, I haven’t mastered managing my commitments. In a technical sense, I arrange all of my plans on my Google Calendar and block off all of my synchronous commitments, such as meetings and classes, since these are dates and times that have already been agreed upon with other people then I try to work my schedule around this. I also have a habit of color-coding my plans on my calendar based on their priority. In a theoretical sense, I manage to deal with all of my responsibilities and commitments by developing a healthy and positive mindset that I personally call ARM which stands for accept, reject, and move on. Firstly, we must accept new opportunities that come our way. The next one is that we must know when to reject and only commit to things that align with our values. Lastly, we must learn how to move on because there are things that we can’t control–while we must seek to understand what led to the outcome of the situation, we shouldn’t wallow on the matter too much.

Charles: It’s all about enjoying the process and taking things one step at a time.

3. What are your sentiments on the idea of self-care? Do you place value in incorporating rest in your daily routine in relation to goals of productivity and well-being?

Trisha: As cliche as it might sound, rest and leisure time are very important to refresh your mind after some tiresome and grueling work. Even if you have a lot of work piled up, you will become less efficient if you keep on working without taking breaks.

Martina: I realized that work shouldn’t be done for its own sake–we shouldn’t just accomplish something out of mere responsibility. We must see to it that the work that we do is an extension of ourselves–it is in line with our values and contributes to our growth. We must also acknowledge that productivity looks different each day and for every individual. Sometimes, productivity can take the form of finishing our long list of tasks for the day, and sometimes, it just looks as simple as getting by our day while doing our best. I also learned that no matter what your personality is like, you need time for yourself.

Charles: Self-care is something that everyone needs to learn about because I know a lot of people who are prioritizing their reputations in orgs over their mental health which leads to them being unhappy and unsatisfied. We must ensure that we are in a healthy mental state in order to be productive.

4. How do you cope with stress and practice self-care?

Trisha: I practice self-care by ensuring that I have “me time” every day and by making sure that I’m in great shape before I work. Some of the things I do are binging series, playing games, and eating. I also don’t overwork myself–I set a time for when I should stop working. I believe that we shouldn’t be hard on ourselves and push ourselves beyond our limits.

Martina: Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I pause and take a break. If I keep on going without breaks, I might not be able to make the right decisions. After I feel more settled, I try to read the situation I’m facing more and decide how I can contribute to it. In terms of practicing self-care, I try to make time for myself more and do less work during weekends. Usually, I listen to music, talk to my friends, watch series, or take a walk outside for some fresh air. My mindset is that I should know when I’ve had enough already–if I’m tired, I’ll rest.

Charles: If I feel stressed, I take a short nap and I will postpone the things I can postpone. In order to destress, I try to workout, walk my dogs around our village, and play basketball or computer games with my brothers. I also eat ice cream because they say this releases our happy hormones. I think one way to prevent burnout is to limit yourself. Personally, I limit myself by not joining a lot of orgs as I know I won’t be able to give my all if I have a lot of commitments. I believe that we must enjoy the things that we join, otherwise, they won’t be worth it.

Truly, we must try to incorporate self-care in our daily schedules no matter how busy we get. Our society’s hustle or productivity culture has the potential to encroach on our mental, physical, and emotional well-being; thus, let us be reminded to rest and not push ourselves beyond our limits. In order to better understand the indisputable significance of rest and the telltale signs of burnout, try this short interactive game out tinyurl.com/Breathe-to-Succeed!

Interactive game by: Geanine Balolong, Sandy Chen, Louise Garcia, and Maybelle Tan

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Article Contributors:

Maybelle Tan Content Creator

Sandy Chen Creative Director