I was told about the benefits of daily Self Care 5 years ago. While I have tasted the sweet fruit of getting my day started off on the right foot with Self Care many times, I have yet to make it a discipline. What the crap?!
5 years is a long time to know that doing this leaves me feeling happier and peaceful (even when life isn’t playing fair) and still not do every day. I guess it’s no different than anything else we know is good for us that we choose not to do, like eating healthy, exercising, budgeting, and so on. What I’m told will happen and I hope to prove to myself, is that by making Self Care a discipline, not only will I have better days more often, BUT I will be able to be more disciplined in other areas of my life by learning to be disciplined in this one.
Here are the 4 thoughts I was taught to spend time thinking about each morning.
1. We live in a miracle.
2. Everything is interconnected.
3. The ONLY thing I can control is HOW I CHOOSE TO BE in the world today.
4. Be gracious with myself.
Four thoughts. That’s it! That’s REALLY easy, easier than eating healthy and definitely easier than exercising.
The other day I was at work, feeling a little low and I decided to turn to Self Care to lift me out of my funk. I started with the first thought WE LIVE IN A MIRACLE, which for me has turned into THIS DAY IS A GIFT. I tried to get in touch with that grateful/excited to be alive feeling but it just wasn’t happening. I didn’t feel like the day was a gift at all. I felt sorry for myself. Here I am standing in one spot for 12 hours, doing a really boring job, and missing my family. The whole day is over by the time I get home. Some gift.
I stayed in pursuit of the feeling. I kept exploring different thoughts and then I hit one.
I thought about Joey Feek, the world’s most famous dying person. She’s truly a beautiful soul. I’m sure she’d like more time with her family and wouldn’t mind working in a factory to get it. She’s not the only one. There are women all over the world and whether they are dying or in poor health, they would do ANYTHING to be able to come home and hug and kiss their families at the end of a long day.
That did it. The “feeling” was there! The THIS LIFE IS A LIMITED TIME OFFER/THIS DAY IS A SPECIAL ONE thought was locked in. I was grateful for my health, for a pleasant work environment and great co-workers. I felt grateful for the opportunity to keep creating my life, to exploring possibilities because I’M NOT STUCK. I have choices. WE ALL DO! Even if we get to a place in our lives where, like Joey, our choices are less and less, we still have one choice left, perhaps the most important choice of all.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—
to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
-Viktor E. Frankl
Writing this post has me raring to go. If taking a few minutes each morning to do Self Care can help me live each day more POWERFULLY, if it can help me be more present with my family, if it can help me face hard times with more peace, what the heck have I been waiting for?
I’ve been thinking about this for a week already, but it’s time to quit thinking and start doing. Tomorrow morning, I’m waking up 30 minutes early to do Self Care instead of getting thrown into the day.
Here’s one of the first posts I wrote about Self Care way back when, if you want to see more about how I do it.
Do you have a morning routine? I’d love to hear about it and be encouraged by your discipline as I start my own. Leave your thoughts here or on Facebook 🙂
If YOU are ready to experience more peace and less struggle, I’d LOVE to personally go through the What One Person Can Do program with YOU.
This conversation has been conducted in schools, corporations, prisons, and one on one with the program’s founder, Bill Cumming, and other program conveners for 30 years. Space is EXTREMELY limited for anyone wishing to go through this with me. I only have room to work with 10 women, so click HERE to contact me (or Bill) with questions and to grab your spot.
There’s also an online version of the program available HERE. It’s an incredibly affordable option. 12 weeks of support for what 1 hour of counseling would cost! But…and I know this firsthand, even reasonably priced is not an option sometimes, so don’t write this off. Partial and full scholarships are available for those that need them and are serious about going through the work for both the online and one on one programs.
