What would feed your soul today? Self care in these changing times.

The macrocosm of our world is changing, and the future is filled with so many unknowns.  If we’re being honest the future has and will always be filled with unknowns, we have no idea what our next steps hold, however we do get to choose how we move in those steps.

The times we are living in are confusing, overwhelming, and sometimes it can be hard to maintain a sense of hope.  Some days it may feel difficult to decipher your own truth amidst the chaos in our external world.

Our self care requires us to begin by checking in with how we’re actually doing and showing ourselves compassion by feeling the sadness and overwhelm, the joy and excitement, the anger and the grief.  It’s incredibly important to give ourselves space to feel the truth of what we're holding in our hearts and allowing these emotions to move through us in a way that will help us to process these feelings.

From there, the ways we care for ourselves matter immensely.  We start with the small things; offering ourselves rest when we're tired, hydrating our bodies, eating nourishing foods within what’s accessible for each of us, being gentle with the messages we send ourselves.  These are the essential and primary considerations in our self care and are the best ways we can show ourselves compassion.

I realize for so much of my career as a massage therapist and yoga teacher, I focused on how I could best care for others. Over the past few years, since my own cancer diagnosis,  I have come to realize that if I want to continue doing the work I do in the world that the answer is actually found in how I care for myself, in the small simple ways of ensuring I'm okay first, and only then offering care and support outside of myself.

I want to remind you; this is your life. The one life you’ve been given in this body that you’re inhabiting.  Sometimes our bodies and our minds struggle, this I understand, which to me is a reminder of why the ways we care for ourselves are incredibly important.  Self care also asks us to give ourselves permission to remember that we are part of a wider web of life, that we heal in community, especially when the struggles feel to big to carry alone.

A profound way of caring for ourselves is by asking for help and accepting hands that are reaching out as support.

Through our acts of self care, we also become connected with all the parts of ourselves that are necessary in honouring our wholeness.

We get to know the parts that sometimes we didn’t even realize we contained, the parts that may have been numb or were kept very small out of fear of judgement, offering compassion to all these aspects of ourselves.

Many things have become non-negotiable for me over the past few years; unrolling my mat for my body and my spirit – not just for when I’m teaching, picking up a paintbrush with no expectations or judgement of what comes through on the canvas – just engaging in this activity as soul care, dancing and singing, drawing a bath and getting in, resting when I need, giving my thoughts space to be expressed in my journal, receiving bodywork, playing my drum or spending time with my crystal bowls.  These are all forms of therapy for me, part of the tapestry of my own wholeness.