If you’ve ever crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge that gives travelers to the Eastern Shore of Maryland easy passage you’ll know that it’s an experience. Every single time I cross I am amazed and think of how I am glad this bridge at its highest point of 1500 feet and 24 million cars later has really good maintenance. The bridge is about 4.3 miles long and to maintain its structural integrity crews start at the beginning, working their way over to the other side only to finish up and start again at the beginning. Fortunately for us travelers eager to get to the beautiful eastern shores we can trust in the fact that there is a constant cycle of taking good care in maintaining the bridge's structure.
The bridge is just one example of the value in the cycles of care in life. We can become weary at times of the constant required care of family, jobs, our homes, relationships leaving us feeling like, does it ever end? Giving ourselves permission to take a day off, or create priorities, or have fun in the doing, can help us see our work with gratitude for the integral support that it brings to our lives. For some of us, it’s not easy to give ourselves permission to take a necessary time out, and then we can become burned out. Life isn’t about all work and no play, we work, we play, and we work again, and so on.
Like the bridge, we too require self-care/maintenance to be the sturdiest, healthiest, structure first for ourselves and then for all the other things in life that require our constant energy. Our self-care is an ongoing cycle of maintaining the ease and flow of our well-being, mind, body, spirit.
Take inventory of what it is that clutters and drains your energy? Are you holding on to habits and patterns that no longer serve you? Are you prioritizing and taking good care of yourself? We humans have become really good at inventing excuses for why we can't or don't deserve or have the time for what it is we need. "I'm too stressed out." "It's too much work." “it’s too expensive” "I'm too busy already." Be careful not to mistake the excuses for the truth. Are there any areas of your life that you desire change? What can you do to better support your self-care maintenance? If there are areas of life where you would like to make some change write down exactly what that is, reflect on it and then write down how you could create change in this area of life. Next, make a list of all the choices you’ve made in the past year that have taken you out of the habit of caring for yourself. Finally, Identify how you can choose two ways that you can do the opposite of what you’ve chosen in the past, moving closer to your desired state.
There are always going to be cracks in the road that need mending, and structures that need rebuilding, and the traffic will continue to navigate around it moving toward its destination. We too will continue to live life with responsibility, but we can enjoy the ride and find ways to make our personal maintenance, self-love, and self-care an empowered choice toward living our very best.
Hi Ho Hi Ho,
Xo Donna