"You can’t pour from an empty cup."
How many times others have said this to me and the multiple times I have said it to myself.. But the reality of living this truth can be challenging.
Time has become a luxury that I am constantly trying to take back snippets of and since becoming a mother, I have had a deep introspection of what self care looks like and means to me...
When time is my own - how do I want to spend it, what am I prioritising and how do I remove the feeling of guilt that it is ok to prioritise myself?
In fact, it is a necessity to.
Selfcare is an ongoing practice of keeping ourselves physically and emotionally healthy. "Self-care is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation." Audre Lorde
Now a billion dollar industry that capitalises on the 'acts of' and the many items we need to achieve a sense of it - self-care is commonly associated with being materialistic or high maintenance. Most of us can't afford a massage (both financially or time-wise) so there is also an underlying mentality that we are unable to afford the luxury that is self-care.
We are living in a time where our societal programming has created so much demand for materialism and through how we consume media and the busyness of our every day routines, the narrative has been created that self care has become unaccessible.
But self care is accessible to everyone. It is not an act of indulgence, it is a necessary way of proactive restorativeness. How it looks for each of us is different and we may need to be creative with how we achieve it.
Self care is a creation of time that allows surrender and reflection, to pull the threads of your attention, your awareness in.
To be present.
To connect with nature.
To quiet the mind. To nourish the senses and to feel nurtured and empowered from within.
It is a time of giving back to ourselves and we do not need to rely on external services or products to achieve it.
Self care has the capacity to stimulate our awareness, instinct and intuition. It also engages our sense of self-responsibility, a desirable if not essential asset in the realm of birth and parenting.
There have been big realisations and a letting go of the expectations of what self-care feels like for me and it has become a personal relationship that I am developing an awareness of and working to strengthen.
It is up to each of us to take responsibility for ourselves, our health and our bodies healing.
What does self-care MEAN for you?
What does self-care LOOK like for you?
What does self-care FEEL like for you?