How many of you have found yourself in recent days experiencing the following: anxiety, panic, sadness, boredom, fear, uncertainty, wild-abandon, denial...? I have! As a human being worried about a novel virus that's spreading quickly across our globe and country and as a business owner who is worried about how all of this will impact my relatively new private practice, I've experienced all of these feelings! I've watched more Netflix than I have in a long while and I've definitely been stress eating. I've felt paralyzed to know how to move forward and all of this while being asked to practice social distancing! I miss direct human engagement on both a professional and personal level.
One of the most intriguing things I've been thinking about though is that most of the time in my life I'm wishing I had some down time--to cook, to do some home repairs, to play in my pottery shed, to work on my vision board and to do some strategic planning for my business. I've also wanted more time to exercise, to meditate, and to sleep! So these past several days I've been working on flipping the switch from worry, anxiety, fear and to exploring those self-care practices I've been wanting to get to.
But I've also realized that desiring to do these self-care actions while I'm isolated and into a forced slow-down feels a lot different than when I'm busy and wanting to do these actions! They take on a new texture and sensation because they are not having to bump up against a hectic schedule. They are now bumping up against an abundance of space and time. Instead of carving out time on my calendar and putting reminders on there to remind me to exercise, I'm now realizing that I have to creatively fill up my calendar. It's an interesting shift and wonder if you might be experiencing anything similar.
My hope is that even when all of this is over and we start to return to our "regular" routines, I might have learned something about the fact that self-care is not just about "carving" time into the calendar, but also about a constant state of being--of being creative with space and time such that if/when another crisis of this nature presents itself, an undercurrent of peace and calm and creativity (that I've been practicing all along) will carry me through more easily! Hoping the same for you!
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