Self Care- a guest post

Just a quick shout out that I'm speaking on the topic of Self Care as guest blogger over at Soul Fire Retreats if your called to pop over and see how that goes- I found writing on self care almost as hard as practicing it. And I'll be popping back in later in the week for another quick, but exciting announcement. The article is no longer available so I am pasting it below.

I have found that writing an article on self care is almost as hard to do as it is to practice self care. And why is that? It seems simple enough on the surface but actually defining what self care is seems to be half of the challenge- it is allusive, multifaceted and richly layered which means different things to each of us on any given day.

The first layer, the most obvious layer, is to "simply" do all those things that we know take care of us, that we know help us- rest, healthful eating, movement and so on. We mostly know what these are yet we don't always do them and they can be  hard to find time for and to "live up to".

And there it is, one of the issues- self care as another thing on the already very long list of things to do, to take care of and to feel guilty about if you're not doing it. Well my rebel nature resists these "should" dos, even when they are so clearly in my best  interest.

When I dig deeper and really think about it, self care means looking after myself. Not in a selfish way of putting one's self first but in the sense that I have to look to myself.
What it does mean is that firstly I have to know who this self is, so the first step in self care is to foster a relationship with self, including self awareness, and as all good relationships should contain, kindness.

From here I can nurture self care because I am becoming aware of what I need, who I am, living in away which is connected to my deepest intentions. The way I try to do this is to take a pause to connect with myself, to check in with myself and see what's really going on and what is really needed. These pauses of mindful connection with myself also connect me with moments of being fully present to my life. In a single moment I can experience the whole beauty of my life, in a single moment I can pause and drink it all in.

I can fit a life time into an intentional mindful moment and so I try to pause through my days to pay attention to the simple pleasures of my life which remind me that I can be filled up in a single moment and I breathe this simple pleasures in deeply:
    fresh clean sheets
    the smell of fresh coffee in the morning light
    winter sun
    snowflakes on my eyelashes
    watching leafy shadows fall and move through my house
    quiet moments with my children
    the sound of silence
    noticing an act of kindness
    jumping into bed and pulling up a fluffy doona

So  that's how I do self care- I pause, I reflect, and I choose how to live in integrity, I check in with myself, and I check in with my deepest intentions and through this simple act I can try to stay connected with my truest self and that is Self Care.



        A whole life in a single moment
        Drink it all in gently but ever so greedily
        Let the moment fill you deeply
        with the joy of being truly present
            to yourself    
                and your life."