“Whenever you are sincerely pleased you are nourished.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Most of us think of caring for ourselves as an extra-curricular activity – something we squeeze into our lives at the end of the day, or when everyone else in the family is taken care of, or when we’re sick.
As I see it, self-care is not optional. It is not just something you do when you’re on vacation, your circuits are fried, or you need a special treat after working really hard. Self-care is something you cultivate and practice every day because it is as essential to the body and spirit as eating. Or breathing.
Plus, why the heck not. It feels really good! Self-care is something that you do because it supports your intentions and ongoing practice in letting go.
“It’s all well and good to feel our feelings to their full and natural completion, but if we don’t feel safe as we clear our clutter, we will not budge an inch. What we need is a container that allows us to feel safe enough to let go…In clutter clearing, that container is called self-care.” –Your Spacious Self.
When it comes to clearing our homes and lives, the keys to self-care are pretty simple, really. Their natural progression goes something like this:
- Self-care = Support
- Support = Release
- Release = Real Ease
- Real Ease = Ahhhh (…yes, life can be like this all the time!)
The mind – with its endless litany of well-crafted comebacks like: “It’s not that simple…” “If you knew what my life was like…” “I’ve tried slowing down, taking baths, lighting candles, but they don’t last; I’m back to being stressed again…” – is unhinged in the presence of pure ease.
The self-care model works because it moves beyond the mind’s capacity to rationalize and into the part of us that knows: the heart.
Here is a one-minute clearing practice you can do to bypass and quiet the wily mind, raise your energy level and awareness, and open the channels to your deeper self.
Close your eyes for a moment and take an easy breath in and a slow, emptying breath out. Repeat again until you feel quiet.
When you feel centered, ask yourself the questions below quietly to yourself, or out loud, and wait. Don’t search or force an answer. Just sit with them over a few moments. The questions will work their magic without your help. All you need to do is allow, observe, and feel the squirmy resistances that arise without doing anything to fix or manage them. It might help to write down your responses in your clearing journal to come back to later:
- Why am I worthy of self-care?
- How am I worthy of self-care?
- What are some ways that I can support myself for one minute every day?
- Who is someone I trust that would support me if I asked?
- What is one thing I can do right now that feels really good?
Repeat this one minute practice every day for a week and see if you notice the shifts, no matter how subtle.
Let us know how it goes in the comment box. Consider that by posting your comments you are clearing! Yes, just talking about self-care releases stuck energy. It also sets some powerful intentions in motion!
Have fun with this and happy clearing!
p.s. If you found this message helpful, please forward it to someone else (or share, like, tweet, pin… ) and let’s build the clearing energy together that will help to lighten all of our loads!
Art credit: “The reading light,” Georg Pauli, 1884
