Activities of Daily Living (ADL) - a framework I find useful
I came across the concept of Activities of Daily Living when looking up how to assess if an elderly relative should go into care or not yet. Then it struck me how relevant they are to people with mental health struggles (as well as people with disabilities).
The UK's NHS defines it as "Activities of Daily Living (ADL), are all the essential, basic self-care tasks that people need to do every day to keep themselves safe, healthy, clean and feeling good: from getting up in the morning, showering, grooming, preparing and cooking meals, shopping and travelling to maintaining the house, garden and taking care of pets". There are several (non-exhaustive) lists online, such as here: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/activities-of-daily-living-adls and here: https://www.nhslanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk/services/occupational-therapy/learning-disability/activities-of-daily-living/ as they pertain to different contexts.
I personally find it quite grounding and calming at this stage of my C-PTSD recover, a useful framework to draw on for basic functionality when I mentally need a bit of support, e.g. when I've reverted to freeze (my default!) due to overwhelm. It can be like a mental "checklist" on low energy days or when I feel like I have stretched myself a bit too much (usually in positive ways!) - I mentally check in, and think "okay let's get up and shower, have breakfast and fold the laundry. Let's book that appointment. Let's go for a walk. Let's clean the cat's feeding station".
It's a bit like inner child work (which I found tremendously helpful when going through healing, years ago!) but coming at it from the other side, almost like future-proofing for my older self. As I have a family history of dementia and Alzeimhers, I'm particularly keen to make sure I can be as independent for as long as possible.
Hope someone else finds it useful, or at least interesting.