Self-care arrives in
the form of a cappuccino and
spacious journaling time.
***
I’m redefining self-care.
Self-care is an actualization of self-love.
Self-love is new terrain.
The terrain of the heart is a forgotten landscape – which
I now intend to explore.
Exploring the depth of the wounds requires a deepening of
love and courage.
A courage to become reacquainted with my feelings by
feeling all the feelings and releasing the narratives.
The narratives dictate “good” and “bad” emotions, and
there are emotions I shouldn’t be feeling, so judges the critic.
The critic adheres to a strict timeline governing healing.
Healing, I am learning, is organic and needs to be freed
from the mental constructs of time.
Time to grieve frees me to process and heal.
Healing occurs in the heart of the moment when I radically
accept the current experience and the me who I am here and now.
The me I am here is grieving loss, the lighthearted way I
use to navigate my city, and for the part of myself who tolerated unkind behavior
from others because that former me didn’t know her worth.
My worthiness to be unconditionally loved by others and by
myself is a truth I am claiming.
I claim my worthiness by evolving into my own fierce
advocate.
I advocate for relationships formed on respect and trust,
and beam unconditional love and golden support – these, I now declare, are non-negotiable
essentials in my relationships.
My relationships reflect my relationship with myself.
My relationship with myself heals and transforms through
permission to be quiet so I can listen and trust my intuitive voice.
The voice answering my plea for guidance tells me to rest
and take sweet care.
Taking sweet care asks me to pause, check in and honor my
current needs, which shift from moment-to-moment, day-to-day:
Go to Zumba. Throw a
punch. Kick into the air. Sweat.
Soften into enjoying
conversations that flow with warmth, humor and beautiful grace with my tribe
members and life loves.
Practice yoga.
Stretch out the breath in forward folds. Return to the light within through a
series of sun salutations.
Rest on the back
porch in late afternoon sunshine and read. If sleep begins to beckon, then lean
back into the cushions and sleep in the play of shadows and light.
Self-care can only nurture and nourish if fully received.
Receiving wholeheartedly gifts from self requires a
rewrite in old narratives.
Narratives demanding that I need to prove my enoughness
through going and doing.
Doing, I am reminded, is fueled by replenishing times of
non-doing.
In times of non-doing, I return and reconnect to my own
innate peace and wholeness.
A wholeness accessed in blooms of busyness by slowing the
breath, settling into the current experience and choosing to cultivate ease by
letting the moment be exactly as it, and letting myself be exactly as I am.
I am redefining self-care as I transition into living from
a place of overflow.
The overflow stems from an inner foundation strengthened
in nourishment and restoration, granting a secured steadiness that allows for
graceful ease to give to others and to expand my own ability to wholeheartedly
receive.
***
Self-care
takes shape in crafting playlists that encourage, energize and empower through
rhythm and rhyme:
*Wolves –
Ben Howard
*White
Flag – Joseph
*My
Silver Lining – First Aid Kit
*Dust to
Dust – Civil Wars
*Boardwalks
– Little May & Sonny Alven Remix
*Wolf –
First Aid Kit
*Son of A
Gun – Lord Huron
*Loba –
Shakira
*Plans –
Dustin Debutt
*Without
You – Oh Wonder
*Slow
Down – Scott Orr
