A new season brings in fresh energy of a different flavor, which means how you spend your time on self-care changes, too. The weather shifts with the daylight and your focus becomes more inward or external depending on where you live around the world.
We all feel the itch, a fresh infusion of change as the earth does her thing, so why not join in the creative flow by switching up your self-care routine a bit, too?
Maybe you celebrated the most recent season by eating healthy and sticking to a better diet, but were always low on sleep. Or perhaps you kept pushing the creative commitment to yourself off until late into the evening so it always came last, but you still spent a lot of time lamenting over your lack of inner creative connection or inspiration.
No matter what you’ve been doing, a new season offers you the chance to start again with renewed spirit and vision. Heck, you can do it any day, really, but the change in weather is a natural prompting process for humans and animals to shift priorities and routines.
And you can join me … I’m in the middle of changing up my self-care practice a bit as well.
Feeling When it’s Time to Shift, Caring Enough About Yourself to Do It
This summer has been a bit chaotic for me with moving into a new home and all the fun things that come with it – cleaning, moving stuff, arranging and rearranging, making a new budget etc. Toss in random “stress creep” like, a “surprise” leaky pipe with a bit of a bit of a tricky fix, broken cars and family drama and you can start to see the picture of how I’ve spent most of my summer.
And here is the not-so-surprising confession – over the last few months I haven’t had the best diet or sleep patterns. Late nights, sorta healthy food (at least I’ve been going to the Farmer’s market the last 4 weekends) and lots of overstimulation. My meditation and energy balance practice (including yoga) has been pretty consistent, helping to balance out the other influences. However, doing the bare minimum to maintain a healthy lifestyle is not the same as committing to a healthy self-care practice that will change your mind, body and spirit – and in turn, your inner creative connection.
While routines tend to frustrate me as a general rule, I like to think of a self-care practice as more of a mind, body, spirit booster. The activities don’t have to be the exact same every day to be effective, but it helps to have a range of self-supportive, healthy options you can choose based on your mood. It really is one of the most loving things you can do for yourself.
Review your Current Self-Care Practice and Change the One Thing with the Most Impact First
Thinking about what you want to change is always the first step, but that generally begins in the mind. It makes more sense to start by tuning into the one thing that calls out to you most. Is there something you keep putting off, something your heart is craving but you never quite allow in? Instead of jumbling up a whole mess of changes to your self-care practice at one time, pick the one thing you think will have the most impact on your life and well being, and make an effort to change that first.
My first change is going to be about sleep. I’ve started setting my alarm about an hour earlier and going to bed earlier and I’m going to see how that goes. During the last few weeks I feel I’m able to get more done earlier in the day so I can relax more or do extra reading or meditation in the evenings, but it’s still a new step I’m getting used to. I’m definitely not a morning person.
At the same time, on the mornings I feel like I need more sleep, I will honor that I best I can. There is no use feeling bad about not sticking to something that you see as a commitment when your body is telling you it needs something else. The more you can tune in and get a better sense of what your body needs each day, the easier it will be to create a routine that is flexible enough to honor your self-care needs, while still getting to the work or creative projects that call your heart.
I would love to hear what you want to change or are in the process of adding to or removing from your self-care habits. Want a little extra support when moving through your self-care changes? I would love to help! Send me an email or check out some of my core support services.
Photo credit: ironrodart , ancientindians