Common Thread Coaching

In the past week several friends and acquaintances have experienced physical and emotional unease and anxiety. As they spoke, they revealed how they had exhausted their physical and/or emotional reserves. As a result, one man’s body reacted by producing an enzyme that could bring on a heart attack and found himself in the hospital overnight, and a woman friend found herself extremely exhausted after looking after new tenants in a rental and had to rearrange her normally well-balanced schedule in order to rest.

At the root of each person’s discomfort, and my own feelings of dissonance when I find myself tired and off-balance, is a lack of self-care. Self-care can be defined as a mindful recognition of what nurtures us on all levels, and when followed as a practice, maintains our health and wellness in a holistic manner (physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually).

Walking through our daily lives nurtured in this way, we are able to respond with clear, intelligent, and creative solutions to the challenges and circumstances that inevitably appear.

A commitment to daily exercise, stretching with a simple yoga routine, eating healthy foods, drinking enough water, cutting sugar out of my life (a hard one!), finding quiet time each day to meditate, and taking the time for a daily visit with the desert landscape outside my front door is my current self-care practice. It also includes quality time with my husband, making time for my writing, and staying in touch with family and friends. It adds up to a calmness and awareness that then sustains me when the vicissitudes of life appear. I know it works because of the way I feel when I don’t take care of myself…grumpy, quick to react, with less energy, flexibility, and joie de vivre.

Today the birds were singing at 5:45 a.m. here in the desert. After a hectic morning, I will follow their example, take some time to enjoy the view of the mountains towering only blocks from home—bursting with green foliage and yellow flowers from the winter rains—and hum to myself. This simple and mindful time-out will then inform the rest of my day with a calmer mind and a rested body, able to respond and feel with clarity, recognizing what’s to be put aside until an appropriate time, and what requires attention.