I was thinking this morning that in order to nurture myself, I need to know what that means specifically for me. What nurtures me might not be nurturing to someone else. I started thinking about the pressure to come up with something every day for another 28 days, knowing that not every day in September has been a good clear thinking day in the past. So, I decided that I needed to make a list for myself to have and use as needed.
I'll share mine. What things nurture you?
Are you joining me yet? Even if you missed the first day, consider joining me for this challenge for the next 28!
What nurtures me (in no particular order):
Going for a walk outside (which I did this morning)
Painting my toe nails bright colors (painted them bright purple again yesterday)
Taking a bath
Buying flowers for myself
Getting together with friends
Knitting
Going to the beach
Sitting on the front porch swing with my husband and talking about our dreams
Meditating
Writing Down My Soul (from the book Writing Down Your Soul by Janet Conner)
Reading a good book
Looking at pictures or old photo albums
Reading books to my children when we're all excited about a particular book
Those are just a few of the ideas I've come up with. What ideas come to your mind? I'd love to hear! And please let me know what you're doing to join in.
2 comments:
in my mothers of sons group that meets monthly we recently discussed a concept from the book "Scream-free Parenting" of 'escape' vs 'retreat'... that if you don't consciously retreat (self-care) you will unconsciously escape (check-out). we all agreed that we escape more than we retreat and that we'd like to figure out how to shift that without adding one more thing to our lists of things to feel bad about. So i like your 30 day challenge and your list of manageable things. One of the retreats i have been taking is more frequent contact with people who are beloved to me. people who I, in my first 18 months of parenting, lost touch with because I couldn't settle into our familiar style of lengthy conversation. My goal is 4 minutes a week of exchanging what we're grateful for, or feeling proud of, or simply something beautiful we saw recently - to keep that heart connection going!
That's a really great way to look at what really happens when we don't take care of ourselves. Many parents feel like they need to be there and "on" with their kids 24/7 and it just isn't possible. Much better to retreat and take care of yourself proactively, finding people who can support you and your child (or children), than to just "check-out" unconsciously. I love your goal of just 4 minutes a week. It doesn't have to be a huge commitment! :-)
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