The tool called internal self care empowers us to become most fully ourselves.
If you already know what internal self care is, great! But many readers may not have a solid understanding of it. Journaling is a smart way to change that.
Internal self care is living life from the inside out. It’s the opposite of defining your life in terms of outside pressures.
We’re all fundamentally rooted in the flow of inner life, and up until the age of 5 or so, we operate from that place for the most part. But then something happens: we become conscious of outer forces and begin to let them take over.
We learn that What I Want is not exactly What It’s All About. And thus begins a lifelong struggle to balance inner necessities and outer demands. As the years roll on, unfortunately, we tend to favor outer demands until we end up with no idea, anymore, about what our inner necessities are.
But it’s inside where the keys to health, happiness, fulfillment and all that good stuff are kept! That’s why people often end up in their mature years wondering what went wrong, why they feel so unfulfilled and lost. If you’ve lost touch with inner needs, with only the outer world to provide signals and guidance, you can begin to feel adrift in nothingness.
The outer world tosses us challenges, puzzles, roadblocks of all kinds. Our inner being knows the answers. By nature, we are depthless wells of perfect solutions for our lives, if we only take the time to listen.
Let’s spend a week getting a grip on internal self care.
Wednesday: Refuge
Where do I turn for refuge? Describe the thing you access when you need comfort and solace. Is it a substance, a story, a person or place, a faith, a ritual?
Thursday: Inside Me
Close your eyes and spend several minutes in a visualization. Imagine you are very small, and you enter inside your own body through any opening and travel to the area around your heart. Explore the region, this particular section of the inside of your body. Then open your eyes and write in your journal about the experience.
Friday: Tuning In
Where are you experiencing issues in your life right now? Take your worries/questions/pains to your gut (below the navel, the abdominal region) and write about it. Example:
“I’m worried about my income; it’s not enough to meet my needs!” At first, I feel sick with fear about not having enough money. And then when I really listen, tuning in closely to what my stomach knows, I hear it say, “Bull! That’s just me freaking myself out. I know I’ll be okay in the end.” It completely trumps my agitated brain!
Saturday: Love You
Saturday’s the Fun Day, Do What You Want Day, Indulge Your Hobbies Day. What do you love to do on Saturdays? Whether or not your life allows you to actually do them right now, make a list of things you would include in a perfect Saturday. And then write about what that list says about who you are.
Sunday: Self Care
Self care is paying attention to inner urges. It’s things like massage and taking walks and meeting with friends. It’s also journal writing, ensuring that you stay in close touch with your inner needs. And we each favor our own method of nurturing inner peace, inner equilibrium. Practice whatever method you choose for self care, for maintaining harmony and balance in your life, and journal about the experience.
Monday: Information
When we keenly focus on a question, the answer becomes apparent. Very often, it’s not the answer we hoped for, and so it gets ignored. But the whispers of advice never cease to flow from your inner self. Journal about the information you have received lately from your inside self. If you don’t know where to start, take a few deep breaths, ask your question, and listen with total consciousness. Then begin to write, whether or not you know what you’re going to say.
Tuesday: Values
Is the foundational, primordial You worthy of respect? Is your inner You important, compared to your outer, professional, societal You? Do you think it is possible you were born with a certain purpose? Do you believe you can find personal fulfillment? What values guide your relationship to your inner self? (It may be helpful to journal an encounter/dialog between your brain and your heart.)
Self care is a relationship between you and You. Like all relationships, it’s always changing. You have to pay attention.
Bottom line: self care is really important! Use your journal to stay on track.
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