Let’s talk about nourishment! I started talking about it last week, and this is the second part of that conversation.
It’s so important to really make time to nourish ourselves – on a REGULAR basis! For me, nourishment is the deeper version of self-care. Where we tend to our deeper needs. For example, self-care might mean making time just for yourself to take a break, relax and watch your favorite show. Relaxing, yes. Nourishing? Eehhh...not so much. Nourishment might be taking that same time and starting that motivational book you’ve been meaning to read or making time to journal. Whatever feels good AND replenishes you.
Let’s keep diving into how we navigate our self-care and nourishment. Oftentimes, we manage it from a reactive perspective. Our life is already stressful, and can often feel overwhelming (I mean jeez, we are STILL living in crazy times!). On good days, we create some space to take care of ourselves, often as a reaction to what’s already happening. For example we know that if we’ve been pushing too hard at work and/or home we need to carve out a personal break. Now, that’s a good first step, because there’s a lot of times where we don’t even do that in reaction to all the stuff that’s happening and all the challenges we have. We just keep pushing, pushing, pushing until we hit our max. But what I want to invite you to do now is look at the next level of care and nourishment, and that’s being proactive and looking at before life is out of disarray.
Before life is fully cray-cray, ask yourself, “What do I need to do to take care of myself? What are the things that are important for me that I want to create in my life that will be nourishing, fulfilling, energizing, and healing?”
One of the nourishing things that I invite you to do is to think about how you want the rest of your year to happen. So often there’s a daily ritual and routine that we’re all programmed into - the busyness of the hum, the drum, the buzz. Whether it’s shopping or cooking or doing everything else, there’s still the set of things that we have that are expected of us, whether from others or a self-inflicted expectation. I want you just to give yourself permission to pause and think: “What do I want? What would feel good for me for the rest of this year? How do I want to engage with others? How do I want to show up for myself? How do I want to show up for my family, my community, my friends? Do I want some time to be solo and introspective? Do I want to make time to be in connection because I’ve been feeling lonely? And what does that connection look like?”
You get to give yourself permission to get clear on what you really want and need and set that as an intention for the rest of the year. When we shift from “reacting to what’s happening or what do I need,” versus “what do I want to project into the future as an intention,” then we can start to be proactive in creating that for your life, and even to give life permission to start happening for you, not to you.
I want you to think about what would feel really good to do (or not do) or to have (or not have) for yourself. Whether it’s slowing down, picking up on something, starting something that maybe you haven’t given yourself permission to do and pushing it off...you get to do that, and you get to do that now.
So comment below and let me know what’s one thing you’re going to do for yourself. What’s an intention you want to set for yourself for how you want to go through the year? Is it something you want to start doing, something you want to stop doing, or something you want to do differently? Because, guess what...you get to do all of that, because you’re worth it. And when you do, it feels so good to know you’re taking an active stance for yourself, you are actively claiming your worth, and you are honoring your power. The ripple effects of that simple, clear, fulfilling action are just amazing.
Sending you big love, and I look forward to hearing from you.