So here we are in 2020, and what a chaotic start to the year it has been. From the catastrophic bushfires in Australia to the impending doom and fear spread by the coronavirus. All of the turmoil has left me feeling the angst of every space I walk into and I suppose the only thing to do now is to breathe, reflect, reassess and focus on my blessings.
It was my birthday recently and I was lucky enough to be surrounded by family and my loved ones during this time. It was of extra importance because my parents no longer reside in Australia but have made it a tradition since they left to always spend my birthday with me, no matter where in the world we have each been.
With everything that’s been going on plus all the uncertainty I feel within my career it’s made me focus on the small things that provide us with the simplest joys in this life. It’s meant going back to basics and reflecting deeply on the things that provide me with peace and stability and what I find joy in outside of working or paying my bills. It’s also been an active exercise in promoting a sense of self care that I have been consciously neglecting for a while now.
All of this has made me think about what it is that feeds my soul, that eases the anxiety I am absorbing from the world and what brings me back into myself. I’ve always understood that I am a better person when I write; and not just when I write my blogs or pieces that I submit to online publications. But when I write for myself, whether that be journaling or scribbling down thoughts and ideas that pass through my head during the day. The importance of words, verse and language in my life has reminded me of a love that I have overlooked in recent times – that of reading and my love of storytelling through books. Whenever my life gets busier than usual I tend to abandon the pursuits that bring me such joy falsely claiming in my mind that I don’t have time for them. More likely here the truth being that I just never take the resolve to make the time for them.
Within all of the chaos and uncertainty it often feels like we are being swept into a storm which we cannot avoid. The additional pressure we put on ourselves to always be on our game and consistently have the answers adds a level of worry and stress that we simply don’t need, and is detrimental to our mental well being. I realise how common and simple the term referring to self care is, we use it all the time and we see it everywhere in our society. From on our Instagram pages, by health bloggers and celebrities alike. But it is also associated with a rhetoric usually of ‘take care of yourself by getting in shape’. But the concept of self care that I present to you today focuses less on get into the gym and more about take the time to stop, to breathe, to appreciate all that you have and understand that in order to take care of others, you first need to take care of yourself. Take the time out to listen to yourself, to your body and feed your soul with whatever its whisperings are to you.
Today, the world is in a state of consistent fear and this coupled with the dread I feel about potentially being on the wrong path vocationally in life has made me more angsty than usual. But I’ve started to understand that instead of feeding those thoughts consistently I can instead just breathe, do what I love and bask in the glory of my loved ones until everything else in my life receives more clarity. Maybe it is just as simple as that and perhaps promoting that self care we always talk about is the key to keeping us grounded in times of absolute uncertainty.
Sx
I blog for Change. 