I myself met Dr. Nicole when I was in a very difficult place in my life and she started me on my healing journey. Like many I wanted to do everything and get it done with, but healing does not work that way. Changing foods and adding supplements is the tip of the iceberg. No argument, they do make you feel better and get your body more in balance, give you more energy, and cleanse you of what is hurting your body. However, other things are more challenging, let’s talk about self-care that does not include the dietary changes you have made for yourself. These are the changes you need to make for your mind and your spirit. You know those self-care things we are all supposed to do, say we know how important it is, but just can’t fit in anything more right now, we will get to them when we have time, money, energy, after work is finished, after I get my children get a bit older, my wants can wait for now…the excuses are endless and let’s be honest we know better.
What we don’t realize is, the things that feed our minds and spirits are the things that we are passionate about, get creative with and do our best interactions in and with this world. These things my lovely people are not wants, they are needs for our hearts and souls. Those moments with working with what we love to do are a very big part of what sustains us, and makes us thrive.
During those first few years (yes, years, I’m stubborn and willful and at that time fought everything as if it where an epic battle, epic things take a lot of time) while attempting to gain balance within myself physically, mentally and spiritually, I thought the only thing I could do was take care of my body. During this time of healing I had low energy and my body hurt. Somedays I could not get off the couch. I would knit, crochet spinning, embroider and everything I could get my hands on to explore deeper into in the fiber arts world. I felt like I was being lazy, I should push myself more housework, cleaning, working part time and being a mom taxi and I did. However, those where the days are when I felt the worst, but thought I felt better mentally because, I overcame my bodies limitations and strained it again in order to get what I though was most important done. This stagnated my progress for quite some time.
During my first year of healing I spent enough time on that couch to make enough things to have a homemade Christmas for my family, our parents and closest friends. This completely elated me, and my family as well. I went into the next year knowing I would do better. Of course that meant being 100% in a couple of months, right? Well, no, but I did improve. However, I was still missing the point of what was actually helping me heal and move forward. Every hat, mitten, sock, sweater, afghan, and piece of art work was an act of saving myself at the time. While creating I was immersed in learning, making, feeling excited and building a passion for something new. This creating was moving me forward, making me want to get up, feeling good about myself for what I was creating, no matter how bad I was at it in the beginning. I found that wanting to create made me not only want to live, but to be active, participate in life and continue exploring what I love to do.
Your interests and passions most likely live elsewhere than where I found mine to be, but the amount of self-care you give to yourself while pursuing what you love, gives so much more love, healing and self-worth back to you, it is priceless. It does not have to be a full time job, and probably at the moment it cannot be, however, making time for it daily even just a few minutes to move a project forward bit by bit is fulfilling. This is a big thing asking yourself to make yourself a priority, a number one priority at that, for just a little while each day. How could we think we did not have time for this? Why we are not worth our own time? I found I had to do it before I could understand why it was helping me, and I found that it made it easier to give to others when I had already created the”love” they needed me to give, it had been created when I was creating. This has increased my ability to give, rather than feel like it was being drained from me.
So, what is it that you are passionate about, curious about, want to learn about, want to say yes to? How about making your passion a priority?
Love and Blessings,
Thea
