When was the last time you stopped to take a few moments to really look after yourself? Quit telling yourself you're not smart enough, thin enough, rich enough ... and just say you're OK. Our souls are beautiful and fragile and don't deserve the beatings we often give them.
Here's a bunch self-nurturing things that I do sometimes, or often, and think that others might like to participate in too ...
- Treat yourself!
- Go out and buy yourself a bunch of flowers to sit in your room, or a CD to listen to, or a ticket to a concert. Something that you don't usually do. And make sure it's something that you really want, not just something you need!
- Give yourself a wonderful hug!
- Everybody needs hugs. I need 8 a day to survive and 10 to thrive properly! Here's another very good example of a hug just in case you forgot how and the first link isn't enough.
- Read Quotes!
- I'm always on the lookout for short sayings that feel good. Here are some of the positive and uplifting ones. Every so often, I choose a few and print them out and stick them on the wall beside my bed so I can read them every night.
- Pray!
- I guess this sounds rather strange, because I don't actually believe that there are gods up there listening to me, but I still sometimes like to pray. Just saying things out loud can be useful sometimes. When I'm not just saying what comes into my head, these are my favourite prayers and sayings.
- Relax!
- I guess most of the things on this page are different ways relaxing and 'taking a breath' from life, but it's useful to do specific relaxation things sometimes too. Take a look at my Alternatives to Meditation page.
- Snippets Of This And That
- Snippets of writing about this and that which I think are nourishing to my soul. Ones which make my spirit want to get up and dance!
- Listen to Music!
- Music is wondrous stuff. Try doing it differently from just having standard ordinary music on in the background all day. Find a song you really like and haven't heard for a while, put it on, and concentrate every single fibre of your being on listening to that song. Interesting effect that's generated, isn't it! Or just sing along when there's nobody around to listen!
- Light a Candle!
- I'm not sure why candles are magical things, but they definitely are.
- Have Hope!
- Sometimes hope is the only thing we have left to hang on to, but we always have hope. Land Of Hope was the name of the miniseries I loved that was on TV here in Australia many years ago. The words to the theme-song are very powerful and I keep them close by at all times.
- Use Affirmations
- Affirmations are often dismissed as "new-age tripe" but they actually can have a lot of power. I have a program called "Cocoa Fortune" which pops up an affirmation of my choosing on the screen of my iMac computer four times a day. It's lovely! Here's my list of affirmations, for anybody who's interested in looking.
- Get off the computer!
- Computers and the Internet are wonderful creations. They allow us to interact with people that we'd probably never meet anywhere else, and to create things, and to talk about things, but despite all that they just aren't the same. So turn off your computer and wander outside and look at the bird and the bees and soak up the sun! You can always turn the computer on later.
- Turn off the TV
- This is probably an ever stranger notion even than not using the computer, for a lot of you. Just in case you're at a loss, here's lots of things to do instead of TV.
