Self-Care Consistency
There are many different interpretations of self-care. For some, self-care may mean to be able to carve some time out in their day for watching their favourite series, for others it may be to meet their friends and for others it may instead mean to be able to go to a yoga class.
Whatever your self-care may be, I discovered that it takes a great amount of effort to make these self-care acts consistent. During the past few months I have enjoyed the almost effortlessness of practicing self-care each and every single morning before starting work. I have been having this opportunity as during lockdown and perhaps also going forward, I continue to work from home.
I have always been an early riser, but in the past couple of years I had somehow not managed to stick to my routine of having some lukewarm water with lemon and ginger before having breakfast and starting my day. Until lockdown kicked in and boom: every morning this little ritual has had the power to set my day and keep my resilience going.
Ginger and Lemons
Putting the kettle on, squeezing a few drops of fresh lemon juice in my cup, adding some finely sliced ginger and pouring the warm water over this mix became a sacred time to set my intention for the day ahead. Whilst doing so, I realised that I’ve become better at setting up healthy habits and healthy boundaries. I have further developed the awareness of listening to my body and worked towards giving me permission to do more of what I wanted every single day. This is what I call leading with the hearth instead of with the mind.
Quite often, it’s the little things that keep us strong and we shouldn’t forget about those.