The topic of self-care is one of my favorites. I fully believe that without filling ourselves up regularly, we end up with very little to give. This morning, I was reading The Life Organizer by Jennifer Louden, and she suggests creating a list of minimum requirements for self-care:
"Between surviving and leading a fully humming creative life lies the middle ground of determining your minimum requirements for self-care, a duded-up way of saying what you absolutely must have to stay in touch with your center. Basic needs, or minimum requirements, are different for each woman, although getting enough sleep, moving our bodies, eating fresh food, being touched, and connecting to something larger than ourselves show up pretty consistently on women's lists--but again, not on everybody's. It can be easy to discount the importance of these basics, because getting enough alone time or napping when you are tired just doesn't sound as sexy as realizing some fabulous dream. Yet without these basics, the dreams don't come true, or you can't sustain them when they do, or most tragically, it turns out that you are following not your dreams but rather a script about what you should do. But when you reach a certain stage of commitment to your self, you find that you are willing to give the amout of attention and energy needed to these basics, because without them, it isn't your life. You discover that you have less leeway to stray from what is essential."
To get you thinking about your minimum self-care requirements, Louden suggests filling in the blanks on the following statements:
"Without __________, I lose myself."
"When I feel most connected to my center, I am _________."
"When I feel most connected to something larger than myself and my agenda, I am __________."
"My body helps be me connected when it has __________."
"I could live without __________ but not for long."
So today, I will be using these ideas to create my own minimum self-care list including daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly categories. Spring will be arriving shortly and I think it's the perfect time to reflect and focus on renewing ourselves in order to blossom fully!
Namaste'
Yogadiva
4 comments:
What a great idea. I love these fill-in-the-blanks and am in need of a self-care makeover asap! :) Great post as always ;)
Thanks, Nina. I so appreciate you passing this little book along to me!
Thank you for this post, right now I am taking care of a 5 month old and a 5 year old and I tend leave myself behind. My yoga practice has helped me a lot with keeping track of my basic needs.. thanks for reminding me.
Hello, thank you so much for posting this. It is exactly what I needed to think about today... Namaste! Sandra
Post a Comment