Last winter, my husband had noticed that I had been sharing progressively worse symptoms of a sinus infection over a couple of weeks and kindly pointed out to me that maybe I should go to the doctor the next day.
My response was a sigh, followed by the abrupt, defensive statements: I don’t have time. I am booked tomorrow. There’s no space in my calendar to go to the doctor tomorrow.
That night I was awoken by my eldest daughter who had a viral infection with fever a few days before that had gotten better. I quickly surmised that the fever of 103F had returned, suggesting that it might be a secondary bacterial infection. This would mean a trip to the doctor in the morning.
We cuddled together in her bed as she shivered and I began to rearrange the next day in my mind so that I could take her to the doctor. No question. No abrupt, defensive statements. I would create time to go to the doctor.
As a result of her illness, I not only magically created the time for her to visit with the doctor that I so quickly and abruptly stated that I did not have for myself, I by association checked myself in to the doctor and was treated as well.
I so easily decided to create time for my daughter without question or resentment. And yet when we are suffering, we just ignore it and keep going. It’s so easy to get caught in this cycle of saying no to our minds, hearts and bodies even when they are trying so hard to ask us for help and to rest.
Working with this for myself and my clients, I see how the more we consistently take care of ourselves in a pro-active way, the more easily we can prevent the crisis management of illnesses and lack of energy. When we choose rest earlier we not only prevent illness and suffering in our lives, we create time for ourselves to create more of what we want.
Some useful questions here are: Is there a pattern here? What happens before I get sick? What is rest for you? How do you feel energized? When do you most feel you need to take some rest? How could you take rest ahead of time?
We are our most important renewable resource. If we do not take care of ourselves, then we do not have ourselves to give. What then? This seems so obvious and we know it, don’t we? Yet, to embody it we need to be gentle with ourselves in the knowing and begin to put it into practise so that we may build an understanding.
If you are feeling like you are ready to practise taking care of yourself so that you can feel more energized when it comes to your writing, work and home life, please connect with me by email at support@melissaeanders.com for a Discovery Call so that we can discuss what’s happening for you and whether the work that I do is a good fit for you.
Melissa E Anders 