On healing old wounds
I once stepped on a small piece of glass that got lodged inside my right heel. It was so small that at first I didn't see it still stuck in my flesh, and I had thought that the stinging sensation I kept feeling was because my flesh got pricked and it was healing.
After 4 days, the skin over the wound had closed, and yet, I was still feeling a sensitivity everytime I put pressure in that area of my heel. The soreness was dull enough that I could ignore it most of the time, but I also found myself babying my right heel and walking with a slight gait to avoid putting too much pressure. I noticed my entire body becoming tense, rigid, contracted when I had to put my heel down as I went down the stairs.
Though on surface level, everything appeared fine, but the wound itself hadn’t really healed yet. A glass piece must still be lodged in there, and I decided I needed to do something about it.
The importance of self-nurture for anxiety, stress, and depletion
We hustle to get these things done, every day, 7 days a week, only to crash into burnout, depletion, stress, and anxiety. Or perhaps our body pulls the emergency brakes to force us to stop (since we aren’t voluntarily stopping and resting) by throwing out our back, giving us the flu, flaring up pain, and aggravating other physical or mental symptoms of an imbalanced lifestyle. We might rest, or be forced to rest, for a day or two, then we’d get up and try to make up for lost time, which would start the entire cycle of hustle + crash all over again.
With the demands of our modern world, we have lost any sort of self-agency over our own body and life. We are allowing others to steer our chariot rather than us taking the reins.
It is no wonder many of us live in a perpetual weight of anxiety and depletion, barely surviving rather than thriving.
This is why I focus my work on establishing self-nurture rituals with my clients. In the paragraphs below, I’m sharing more about what self-nurture is, and how you can get started on your own self-nurture journey to reclaim a life with more ease and vitality.
Too busy for self-care?
So why isn’t self-nurture more a part of our daily life, just as brushing our teeth is?
We were taught from a young age to take care of our teeth, but not taught the value of taking care of our mental and emotional well-being.
Having self-nurturing practices in your day serve as anchors for your life. It is hygiene for your soul and your mind just as brushing your teeth is hygiene for your teeth.
How to afford self-care
You work hard so that you can afford self care...whether with time or money.
But that time you CRAVE for self-care never seems to materialize.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t realize self-care is not something you buy or wait until you have time for.
It’s a way of life.