My philosophy about self-care and self-love is that I can’t show up fully to the present moment and to the people that I love when I don’t feel whole. On the surface, self-care can include practices like getting adequate sleep, meditating, spending time in nature, practicing yoga, getting my tax return in on time, taking a long bike ride, or engaging in supportive eating habits.
These kinds of activities nourish me and help to restore my life force, strengthen my resilience. AND I can practice all of these things and still find myself feeling anxious and out of balance.
Beyond all of the self-care perhaps there is a greater, more gentle, and necessary way of being with myself.
You see I started with the self-care practices. I go to yoga almost every day and spent a lot of time outside with my feet in the ocean. I meditate and journal and I practice gratitude – a lot. I say ‘no’ to things when I’m to capacity and give myself plenty of permission to rest.
This has given me a firm foundation and I know these self-care practices are crucial. YET I notice the real work and internal shifts come by getting to know myself deeply enough to identify underlying core beliefs about my worth and how achievements and accomplishments fuel the reaching for feelings of ‘enough.’
The self-love comes when I allow myself to be imperfect after making a mistake, or when I shower myself in kindness after making the wrong choice.
The deep self-love comes when I interrupt a habitual thought patterning of shame and negative self-talk and stop myself from continually replaying out situations in my mind, or of living in the past or future.
The deep self-love comes when I am my own best friend. Weaving through all of this I notice is compassion for myself – the golden threat of self-compassion.
Can you relate?
With great warmth
Heather
