I sat here on my couch for a solid half a day off and on, contemplating if I should focus on a self-care tip or take a more personal route with this week’s post. With my life being an absolute shit show right now, I decided to go with the latter. Not only does it help me, but usually others find it beneficial.
Without getting too personal, life bitch slapped me like the six-armed Hindu god Kali. The below image depicts this metaphor. I apologize in advance for my poor drawing abilities.
Every above hand possesses the potential to break a person with a single blunt strike. I literally got hit with all of that in a week’s time.
I like to think of myself as resilient individual. I have been through hell and back. Even I have my limits however. By the time the fifth and sixth blunt strike came from the hands of doom, I practically laid there and took it. I played dead in hopes that the bear would stop attacking and leave me be.
Once the coast was clear, I rolled over. My life turned into a real shit show. I was fucking spent. Mentally. Emotionally. Physically.
Even the best of us take a beating once in a while. That part was inevitable. What defined me as a person up until now was my ability to bounce back and manage the aftermath.
Self-care became not just a luxury at this point. It was a necessity. I needed it to get my shit together and make sense of the shit show. I went back to the basics. I took off two days from work, which I seldom do. I engaged in several meditative activities including going for walks and fishing. I spoke with my friends and family about what was going on. I went to therapy and set up medical appointments.
I greatly reduced my expectations of self. I have a bad habit of being hard on myself, but I constantly reminded myself that I was not at my best right now. Understandably so, I needed to heal and get back up on my feet. Doing the bare minimum and taking care of myself was perfectly fine until I whipped myself back into shape.
I tapped into my logic during a time when my emotional tank was on empty. I utilized reasoning to counteract the distorted reality that this shit show painted. I relied heavily on my common sense to guide me through these beginning stages of refueling my energy.
Sometimes we really do just need a break and using that time to fall back on essential self-care. After getting knocked down repeatedly, we fall back onto tools, support, and wisdom. We do so in order to wade through the shit show and champion life once again.
-The Caring Counselor