Self Care 101

This material is copyrighted by M. Kirby Moore. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Please enjoy your visit and be sure to check out other posts in this category.

Disclaimer: The author of this post is not a licensed medical practitioner. If anything is suggested about changing one’s lifestyle, please do not make any changes yourself until you speak with your doctor, nurse practitioner or registered dietician, etc. This info is presented primarily for entertainment / educational purposes only.

I was speaking with a friend recently, a practitioner of Polarity Therapy (among other modalities) and he articulated what I have been thinking for quite some time now, but I was not sure I had ever said it like that. So, just in case this is a review for some people, I think it might be worth reading again.

In my previous post on Preventing Cold Sores, I mentioned that it would take many words to elaborate on quality self-care, and all its multifaceted levels. So to begin, one little chunk at a time:

My friend said, to paraphrase, “When we offer bodywork to people, we offer them the chance to see what balance [and alignment] looks like. We bring them toward a space of healing and ease. Now, the question however is, what do they do when they get off the table?… People have so many toxic habits – whether their diet, their choice of friends, stress at work, etc. So when they get off the massage table, what are they going back to? And how can they hope to maintain the balance they have just discovered with us if they are going back to toxic habits [and environments]? The answer is that they have got to do the work themselves – the real work begins when they get off the table.”

I appreciate these sentiments and I agree for the most part. Personally I try to be careful about calling myself a healer or saying that I do anything to the client (without them participating completely in their own healing process) – I’d rather have the client empowered from the moment they step through my door – but otherwise, I love this information! And I believe this fits in well with my thoughts on Practicing Quality Self-Care.

So when he mentioned the part about the toxic habits, that is a strong way of putting it – another way of saying it, with less negative connotation, would be to call them “temporary compensations” (from Julie Henderson). Yes, we all have various habits and we make choices each moment. And not all of these choices serve our highest good – which is fine! That’s why they are called choices! If we need to rest somewhere for a while, that is okay. When we are ready to get to work and move on, we will. No use badgering the little guys in the process!

With that said, if you want to improve yourself, to gain a deeper awareness of your health and your body / mind system, then continue reading. If you are happy where you are, and if you will be provoked by my words and react in defensiveness and disapprobation, then you may want to stop reading now. 🙂

I want to emphasize that physical, emotional, mental (psychological) and spiritual well-being are interconnected. I doubt we can say, “this month I’m going to work on my physical health only! I don’t want anything to do with emotions right now.” Sure, we can SAY that… but do we really have that choice? In other words, when we truly start to slow down in order to refine our patterns, at that point, we might begin to confront whatever underlying (subconscious) issues were keeping us moving at that hectic, break-neck pace to begin with. We will then be face-to-face with emotional, psychological and other issues. So when we are ready to take the step toward greater self-awareness and therefore increased self-care, then we should go for it. Get support, get our help and get on with our lives, if we want to, when we are ready.

With that said, just to reiterate, when we start to slow down just to analyze our life, just by asking the question, “what, if anything, needs to change in my life?” we have already begun moving toward quality self-care. Pat yourself on the back baby!

And now we should be aware that this process will go so much smoother if we have good support. We have many many blind-spots. Our egos are so deeply entrenched that they don’t want to change. Therefore, the mind will conceive of many ways to keep us distracted in the long run. That is why it is good to have quality and appropriate support. If we try to fix ourselves without a mirror to look in from time to time, how will we know we are making any actual progress at all? Sometimes, our self-care may simply be inflating our ego! (Ever been in a yoga class where egos are running rampant? I’m just saying…)

So be aware that just consciously slowing down a little is to practice self-care. Sure, there are times when the body / mind does not give us a choice. When we injure ourselves, sprain an ankle or throw out our back, what do we think that means? I guarantee that we will be slowing down no matter what else happens! But let’s prevent such gross pleas for slowing down and get started now.

To wrap up what I am saying in this post is that we cannot divorce physical needs from emotional, mental, psychological or spiritual needs. Ever eat a sugary, caffeinated treat and feel the blood sugar spike? Does that elicit any changes in our mental functioning? Does it elicit any additional emotions? Pay attention next time. I say “yes,” to both. Therefore, as the cliché goes, START WHERE YOU ARE.

I am going to begin the next post with physical self-care, but if you are ready to tackle emotional or psychological issues, then start there. I will get to them soon, wisdom beings willing and the creek don’t rise.

Thanks for reading.