Day 14 - Self-Care Awareness Challenge - UNPLUG - GET A LIFE!

The invitation for Day 14 of the Self-Care Awareness Month Challenge was to UNPLUG... I suppose to unplug from anything that we are too over consumed with, but in our society today, unplug from electronics. For me, I even unplug from the news and daily morning news talk shows.

I'm not sure when it became the 'norm' to be available to everyone 24/7. I know the excuses; My work... I have children... I'm in a relationship, etc. Not to even mention how we've become addicted to social media, sharing every last thought, what we ate, what we're doing, and we give our opinions and viewpoints on everything under the sun, even things we know nothing about.

In my world, unplugging is easier than plugging in! My phone is always on silent, not vibrate and my texts only come when I turn my phone on, which allows me to be present in each moment with whomever I'm with or with whatever I'm doing. I know, it seems a bit antiquated, but it works for me. I'm not always jumping every time a text, email comes in. And I don't get regular updates on social media, I only know what's happening... when I physically choose to go to their pages and take a look.

What can I say... it gives me peace and I feel calm. I get to keep up on whatever... but on my terms. (Now that's true Self-Care!) No one is so indispensable that they have to be available whenever someone else decides. By unplugging, I put myself in control of my life.

But... you say, "What if someone needs me?" I would argue, that not being available to them 24/7, gives them time to figure out things for themselves. We're giving others an opportunity to grow. The hardest part of unplugging is that we can feel the void of not being needed or having a purpose in life. There's the real invitation... GET A LIFE for yourself and you won't be so plugged into everyone else.

Week 13 - Self Care Awareness Month Challenge - Start a Compliments File

I'm a little behind on posting my experiences of the 30-Day Self-Care Awareness Month Challenge.
I read through them everyday, but as I believe in Divine Timing, I am trusting that the perfect time for this challenge for me was today. We were invited to begin a Compliment File for ourselves.

My daughter and grand baby had just left from a week long visit and the void left space for unhealed feelings to emerge, as always happens for me when I transition from one project to the next. This time was even more intense for me as I had just watched the video of my last television appearance promoting Self-Care Awareness Month on a morning talk show.

I found myself quickly going down a rabbit hole that I wasn't sure I could find my way back. Start a compliments file... you've got to flipping be kidding me! No Way! I couldn't find one thing nice to say about me!

I've been struggling with getting older. Getting older in itself doesn't really bother me, but how my looks change in relation to how I feel makes me very sad. I still feel 19... until I look in the mirror, and I don't even recognize who I am. So watching me... or a version of me... on television was just more than I could take.

I won't bore you with the details... but I needed to go to bed to get out of my pain. I felt bad that for all my body and  has given/provided for me, that I had nothing nice to say. So, I went to bed and through the tears tried to say one thing nice to this old gal. A compliments file? Let me see if I can just find one.

Self-Love - Day 8 - Self-Care Awareness Month 30-Day Challenge

Here we are at Day 8 on the 30 Day Self-Care Awareness Challenge... with the palm of your hand on a mirror, look yourself in the eyes and say, I LOVE YOU, 10 times! I wanted to write about this because it's hard as well as powerful.

Whew! I've been doing this work for many years and have done this very exercise many times and yet it never looses its potency for accepting myself just as I am.... over and over... again!

When I first began my journey of self-discovery, I was living in a beautiful home in southern Arizona that was completely fenced and had a wrap-around veranda. In trying to learn to appreciate and love all of me, I spent the summer in the nude. Now, 10 years later not only do I still struggle with my body image, I'm still very aware of the areas that I feel lack or not enough.

I took this exercise a bit deeper. I broke up my life into decades and said I LOVE YOU, to me in each stage of my life. I began with pre-birth. I LOVE YOU... I knew you before you were born.

I went to me in the womb. I LOVE YOU, knowing I was an unwanted child.

Next decade, age 1-10, I LOVE YOU, visualizing me as a child, feeling all the parts that I was told were unloveable.

Ages 10-20, I LOVE YOU, in those very awkward years of feeling like no one could love me.

Ages 20-30, I LOVE YOU, finding love and meaning in relationship and family.

Ages 30-40, I LOVE YOU, as the children grew and began finding their own path in life... and realizing that I wasn't a part of it. (I had to get my own life!)

Ages 40-50, I LOVE YOU, as the invitation (discontentment) to the path of self-discovery began showing itself.

Age 50-60, I LOVE YOU, accepting my path for living my life as untraditional and magical, when I rest into it and say yes to the doors that open. Still struggling with my side kick - 'not good enough.'

Let's see, that leave 2 more, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU... you're perfect just the way you are. You're made in the likeness and image of the creator, how can that not be perfect.

Pati, looking into my eyes with one hand on the mirror, I say one last time with true heartfelt meaning, I LOVE YOU.