Buddy box

When I went to put away the postcards from yesterday in my memory box I also came across the 'buddy box' or 'recovery box' I made myself a few years ago. The idea of a buddy/recovery box is to have items in there to encourage self care, ease stress, make you laugh etc. You can order pre-made boxes on the internet but I decided to put a personalised one together. I looked at the others available for ideas and decided which bits would be good for me. I have - over the years - taken some bits out that weren't working for me and added in some extras. My mum also knows about the box so she has contributed a few items - such as a lovely magnet with a rhyme about 'my beautiful daughter', a bookmark with special words on and a little book called '101 great things every woman needs to remember'. I no longer keep Horlicks or hot chocolate pouches in there (not vegan) or chocolates or sweets (I just ate them all within days of buying them - no impulse control!). There's a head massager, a foot pack, a face mask, some fart/parp putty, a stress ball, some metallic goo, inspirational quotes (taken from the Facebook page of Em not Emma), Buddhist postcards (one with coping strategies I wrote for dealing with anxiety in the back), a letter to myself, a note about why practicing mindfulness daily helps and a 'dammit doll'. The dammit doll has a rhyme on the card around its neck saying:

"The Dammit Doll
When you want to climb the wall
and stand right up and shout
Here's a little Dammit Doll
You cannot do without

Just grasp it firmly by the legs
and find a place to slam it
and as you whack it's stuffing out
Yell Dammit, Dammit, Dammit!

If Dammit's not a word you say
then twist it's little neck
and grumble repeatedly
Oh heck, oh heck, oh heck!

And once you've done abusing it
just sit it on a shelf
but hug it first, as I'd hug you
if I were there myself..."

I don't have the heart to bash it against anything, or twist it's neck! But the rhyme does make me smile, and the doll is cute.

I also made a box for my friend earlier this year as she had been struggling. I put in a few of the inspirational quotes I thought were relevant to her. Some vegetarian hot chocolate pouches and chocolates, a Lush bath bomb, a dammit doll, a journal to write in (with prompts of what it could help to write - silly things as well as serious). I can't remember everything that went in but I tried to make it personal to her and she loved it! :)

Mines currently in an old shoe box, I also used an old shoe box for my friend's box but covered it with decoupage. I think I may decorate mine at some point and have it on a shelf on display rather than hidden in a cupboard and then hopefully I'll remember it's there more often!