Hello Friend,
The last piece of “work” I did before Texas was thrust into the cold and darkness was to lead a workshop on self-care for nearly 20 women. Since then, my focus has been on taking care of my family, checking in on my tribe, and surviving this crisis within a crisis.
Many people I love went without power or water FOR DAYS, and as I write this, there are still people without water. Really: no water. Still.
At this moment, I don’t have the words to describe all of what we felt, but the combination of stress, fatigue, fear, uncertainty, gratitude, relief, rage…made for the hardest stretches of the pandemic. And that’s saying something.
One thing that I am hearing again and again from you is that you feel like you are living in a continual state of readiness: when will the next life-altering event happen? What is going to happen next? And, I can’t take this. It’s too much.
I get it.
When we are in a consistent state of stress and preoccupied with threats (real or imagined) the impact on us is substantial and we can feel it in our bodies. It impacts our sleep, our mood, our appetite, our tolerance for frustration, our willingness to engage in what we love…and so much more.
This is one of the main reasons why self-care is at the heart of my coaching: we cannot just move past challenges, trauma and struggle. Sometimes you can’t just “get over it.” We must nurture our hearts, bodies and minds THROUGH our struggles.
Self-care is asking yourself: what do I need now? And doing your best to get that need met. And when your basic needs cannot be met, self-care is asking: what would make this easier? And bringing some loving compassion to your life.
So here is some loving advice from your coach: take some time to recover. You navigated (another!) stressful situation. You did the best you could with the resources you had. You might feel tired, even though you have supposedly gotten enough sleep. You might feel weepy, even though you tell yourself that you have nothing to be upset about. You might want to hunker down and be alone. Or you might want to be held. Or…
ALL OF THIS IS NORMAL.
Tomorrow I will share more about how to get support on your self-care from me in my self-care circle. (Sneak peek here!)
But for today, I’d love for you to hit reply and let me know how you are doing. Sometimes it helps to share how you are feeling knowing that you will be heard. Truly: I want to know how you are.
Be well,
Jenny
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