SELF CARE

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Well, it’s been a minute.

Was it the lack of wanting to write the cause of this extended break? Certainly not.

You know what it is like, when you feel that knot in the stomach every time you get a mental reminder of a task you imperiously need to do, but just don’t have the actual time or are not in the adequate mental space to proceed.

That’s been me battling with that urge to sit down and lay thoughts on paper. Why, because everything else somehow became the priority. Was I fair to myself? Certainly not.

2021 has been a lot. At all levels, for most of us.  I’ve however – finally – reached my lowest tolerance limit, and the urge to write is too strong, too loud to keep on ignoring it.

And goodness does it feel good to fall back in my safe place…

What is your safe place? Your happy place as a friend of mine likes to call it?

When there’s so much going on in the outside world, we paradoxically tend to neglect our safe place. Paradoxical, yes. Natural, unfortunately yes. We’re drawn towards the magnetising 24-hr sensationalized news, external loud alarm bells fighting to captivate our focus.

Covid. Covid casualties. Covid vaccines. Women abductions. Missing people. Economic recession. Global warming. Business closures. Online scamming. Just to name this month’s highlights in my part of the world… STOP.

There’s only so much toxicity I / we can take. When the bucket is full, water overflows. We must turn the tap off, and find refuge in our safe place. That place for me is more than one thing, and writing is certainly in the top 5 of my self-care regimen.

The fantastic thing is we have a phenomenal internal compass! Our body will communicate its need to sleep, fast, move or eat. Our soul will whisper or shouts to us that something is amiss. We sometimes will stumble, we will fall, we will get distracted, we will lose sight and hearing; we can nevertheless rest assured that we will always know when we need to switch things on or off.

Self-care is the fuel that takes us beyond surviving; self-care is simply living the moment, taking time to stop and enjoy the gifts of life to us…The cherry on the cake is that giving ourselves grace that way empowers us with the tools to enrich, support, and be an asset to others. Full circle.

Glad I’m back!