What Self-Care May also Look Like

It feels like I’m just now coming out of the tale-spin of the holidays, more first of the year obligations, and the winter illnesses that somehow have besieged us at the same time. All the gorgeous clarity and connectedness of my writing and intention work has joined so many other forgotten goals and projects and they’re piled in a conceptual corner of my soul’s hallway. I see them but have forgotten how and why they even ended up there.

The purpose and brilliance of my forgotten goals and projects have been lost in the shuffle that is life.

Spells of over-obligation, stress, and fear create piles of unattended to stuff. And if you are an overachiever, or industrial overfocuser, you may have even more leftover undone stuff that is piled in that corner of the hall which now has a force-field around it. You assume the pile is untouchable since it’s been there so long. And at the very moment when you are weighing the importance of the contents of that pile, consider cleaning up that pile may be an act of self-care.

Sometimes self-care looks like long hot showers, smelly candles, an hour of uninterrupted reading, binge watching videos of choice, or getting a manicure. Sometimes, for me, it’s having hours to myself to think and write (thus creating this pile of thoughts and dreams I abandoned). And sometimes self-care is getting to the very thing that’s bugging you most and making a decision on it once and for all.

Being your own parent and putting yourself to the “hard tasks” can be the most relieving caring thing you can do for you. Telling another person how you truly feel as kindly as possible can be one. Cancelling the gym membership that was supposed to motivate you and make you feel better and now just makes you feel like a failure. Because it’s now Spring and self-care can actually look like a walk in the park. What can you do to make your soul lighter today?

Today, I’m catching up on writing blog posts, and that creativity feels like self-care. I called to make a doctor’s appointment for something that may or may not be something I need to be worried about. I made a hair appointment and a date for drinks. And I ate very healthily for lunch after a nice long walk in the sunshine. And in a little while, I’m going to begin to dig out that pile in the corner of my soul’s hallway. Self-care is serious business and I want to know I did right by myself at the end of the day. That I am not the pile of unattended stuff in the corner thank you.

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