Day 220 - A Year to Clear - The Self In Self-Care

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Lesson 220: The Self In Self-Care

When do you really take time for self-care? Do you feel that you only focus on yourself once everyone else in your life has been taken care of? Do you make sure all the chores are done and only look after yourself when you’re sick, as taking time for self-care?

The self in self-care is just that – focusing on self. This does not include others and also does not include doing things for other people. It’s about doing things that benefit and feeds our self. When was the last time you really took the time out for yourself and how did it feel? Can you think of the last time you really put your needs over someone else’s?

I feel like I’m on a journey of self-care and that every day should have moments of self-care. My current path has been connecting to my spiritual side which I haven’t really done before. I feel like feeding my spirit is part of my self-care. My meditation, my belly dancing, magick and medium classes are all part of my own self-care. Some days when I’m late for blogging is because I’ve focused on other things that seem way more important at the time. There are days when I just want to sprawl on the couch and binge watch tv shows. I think we just need some of those days where we don’t use our minds as much because giving our brain a rest is just what we need. I think self-care is all about what you and your body need at the time. Sometimes I will go for a walk because it’s refreshing. Sometimes I will want to read or study or sleep. I guess the remedies are endless when it comes to your overall wellbeing and it’s best to do what you need to. It’s also good to remember that no one can dictate what is good for your self-care.

Day 219 - A Year of Spiritual Awakening - Many of You Have Had to Rebuild...

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Lesson 219: Many of You Have Had to Rebuild...

There are points in our life where we have been left feeling completely hopeless, lost, confused.. without a sense of having a way our or way forward. You may have felt sadness, anger and pain, though you would have reached a point in which you decided to build from there. You stopped to rebuild your life even if you didn’t think of it as rebuilding at the time. Today we are to think about a time when we lost everything and you really felt like all was lost. When you rebuilt your life, can you see how you learned from it.

I remember this time when I really didn’t have enough money. I decided to buy a home and wanted to find a new job that paid much better. So, finding a new job proved difficult and because of the amount I was earning wasn’t enough for me to live a life of entertainment, I found I was living week to week and then accumulating debt. There came a point where someone must have hacked my computer and grabbed my credit card details and stole money. It just seemed like everything was spiralling and I couldn’t handle it. I had to face some truths that I might have to sell my apartment and move back home interstate and live with my mum. That was the last resort and I was so close to doing it! Luckily, I ended up finding a new job that basically was double my wage in the previous job and it all worked out.

I definitely felt lost because I lost hope in finding a new job and because funds were low, I was worried at times that I might not even have enough to eat. There was a feeling where I felt completely powerless. I was doing everything in my power to find another job and I just wasn’t nailing anything after multiple interviews. I felt like hope was diminished. When I did finally get a new job, I was so grateful. It was a cushion to the blow I was having. I think what it taught me at the time was to be wiser with money. I was going well for a while and then I went into old habits. I actually had a friend give me the book “Barefoot Investor” (good for Australians), that has helped me to set up some sort of plan when it comes to finances. I have been managing alright with that method but in recent events where I’ve been a bit reckless with money, I have been served a reminder to be in more control of how I spend. I need to rebuild again.

How did you cope with a hopeless situation and rebuilt your life?

Day 219 - A Year to Clear - Say Yes to No

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Lesson 219: Say Yes to No

“I live by the truth that ‘No’ is a complete sentence.”

— Anne Lamott, O Magazine

How many times in your life have you said yes out of some sense of obligation to someone? How many times have you felt bad for saying no to another and felt bad? Have you felt saying yes to someone acted against your best interest? Sometimes we hold onto this notion that we are going to disappoint someone else by saying no, though sometimes no is exactly what we need to say for our own self-care and well-being. It’s okay to want to do something just for our self and we shouldn’t feel bad for it. In life, we need to take time out for ourselves because we ourselves need that extra attention. Saying no is completely okay. Saying no can also be tough to say, though deep down you need to listen to that voice that is trying to advise you what’s best for you.

Saying no to others so that you focus on self when you need to, is a practise we need to adopt. Don’t say yes because of how someone else is going to feel. Put yourself first when you have to – there is nothing wrong with that.

Day 218 - A Year of Spiritual Awakening - When Things Are Destroyed...

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Lesson 218: When Things Are Destroyed...

When nature destroys, it’s a shock to the world when a disaster takes so much. It’s in these moments where people practise from their heart of compassion to help in the widespread devastation that it can cause. Nature essentially can force change for us and this can be widespread or start with you to help radiate out. Today we are to think about a time nature caused a shift in our lives, because sometimes nature just chooses the right time for an event to occur in your life.

I think my volunteer trip to Thailand was brought on by nature. After some traumatic times last year, I needed some time for myself to really do something that would enrich my life. Nature had sparked on a spiritual change for me through my tragedy and then I saw a Facebook ad to volunteer overseas. I had never intended to volunteer overseas before, but then with me wanting to find something that would really give some more meaning to my life, I thought how perfect it was to go see elephants and help in a Thai village Surin.

What I was really shocked by was the amount of rubbish especially plastic that lined the canals that we travelled in when we went to a temple. It was a wakeup call to what we were doing to our planet but also showed me to live in a better way. Not only was I confronted by that, but it also made me realise how disconnected we are in the world. I tend to find in the Western world that we are educated about the harmful things plastic does to our planet but those living in non-first world countries wouldn’t have the same awareness. There were children swimming in these dirty canals but it was normal for them to not have clean water. It just really reminded me that even though we share this one planet, we are from completely different worlds. I really wanted to live differently at that point because if I don’t care for nature and start being an example, then others wouldn’t think to do the same. I need to be the change.

So, even though I could see clear destruction of nature in another country, it made me think how I could be better towards the planet. I’m honestly still working on it but the difference is, I’m not ignorant to what’s happening anymore.

Day 218 - A Year to Clear - We Need to Feel Safe

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Lesson 218: We Need to Feel Safe

This week equals a new theme and we have “cultivating self-care”. I believe the theme is about clearing space but also making a safe environment for ourselves. When we clear our home, we want it to reflect us but also how we want to feel. In this lesson it describes us needing a container to feel safe to let go and that container being self-care. I think it’s about establishing good practises in your everyday life that will allow clearing to be effective. We need to feel good in ourselves and this creates that safe feeling. I’ll see what pops up for this week. I am in need of some self-care.