I don’t know about you but lately I’ve had a minor obsession that looked a little like “I HAVE to take better care of myself.” Obsessing is never a promising thing, especially when it’s a voice screaming obligations at you.
I thought there might be something fishy. So here’s a fish: lately, I haven’t been feeling fabulous (not for lack of wanting to). Shoot!
I don’t feel fabulous, so, I don’t think twice, I do what I have to do: SELF-CARE!
I have quite a good idea of things that help when I don’t feel fab, I have a wonderful list that I just have to apply to feel better, easy.
I WISH!
Taking care of ourselves (be aware, unlikely comparison) is like sex, even if things worked a few times doesn’t mean they’ll always work. Trying to apply a list of things that helped before without asking ourselves what would really help in that moment isn’t the best self-care practice. Well done but you’re gonna have to try again.
Taking care of ourselves is listening FIRST. And it’s scary: when we listen we can’t anticipate what we’ll hear (except in music apparently).Often, it leads us to things we didn’t want to feel or think about, sometimes to ideas that were not on the list just because our body and mind tell us that would feel good in that moment. We just follow (or not, we always choose).
To summarize (can you believe it, summarizing in ONE sentence?!!): Self-care always means a moment of stillness and silence to be with what is here BEFORE doing anything.