Japanese Beetles have mastered self-care in my garden. Bastards.
August has been a bust for taking a break. The heat, the bugs, the looming non-magical birthday (no trip to Hogwarts or surprise inheritance) and I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of care-taking, as my family goes through a big transition with my mother-in-law.
One of the hardest lessons for me to learn is taking care of myself in the face of others’ needs. Care-taking sounds all very dedicated and honorable, but I am the Empress of Overkill. It always ends in tears and/or rage as I burn myself out and fill up with resentment.
Self-care boils down to taking time, if only a moment, to see to one’s individual needs. I’ve learned in the last few years that there are some daily basic things I need, to feel okay: sleep, writing, exercise and a period of solitude. What do you need, to be okay?
I continue my month of blog introductions, with this week’s post on 4 blogs: an artist who is a student of self-care, a healer who talks about Aura-Soma (something I never knew about), a spiritual pragmatist, and a humorist, because I never underestimate the curative power of laughter.
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Meet Sandy Sue at A Mind Divided: Artful, Conscious Living with Bipolar Disorder
Managing my mental illness is my spiritual practice. I try to be honest about the weird convolutions it takes while finding a few answers and even more questions. I stick my artwork on most posts, and there’s also some fan-fiction for those so inclined. My life is an Adventure, and I share it all.
Here are some samples:
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Meet the Pragmatic Hindu: A Practical Journey Through the Bhagavad Gita
My blog is about learning to reconcile the modern world and all its challenges with the age old traditions and expectations that come with being a woman. I look to the Bhagavad Gita and its wisdom and reflect on how that ancient wisdom can be applied to everyday life for women of all faiths and all cultures.
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Meet Susan at Often on the Bottles…: Colourful news and clues from Susan
I’m a chronologically mature Australian woman with a love of colour and words. I am combining these passions with no particular end game in mind, although to teach about the Aura-Soma colour care system that I work with would be a bonus.
Most Recent Post:
Something in the way blue moves
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Meet Greg at Almost Iowa: Where irrationality trumps reason
Most often, the comment section of a blog is a place for readers to interact with the writer and while that is a great idea, it is a greater idea to ask your readers to “talk among yourselves” while you take a break. So with that in mind, I will leave a few links for “yourselves” to talk about.
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Thank you to the participating bloggers for taking the time to share a little with the readers here.
Tune in next week for more blogs you can put on your coffee table!
The Green Study 
What do I need to be OK? Tea. A quiet cup of tea. Just like my mother, just like her mother. I think it connects me with my roots. Thanks for sharing the blogs, they look interesting – I believe that I found your blog several years ago when someone shared it on their post. I wish you peace. Care giving is a huge challenge.
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It sounds like there’s a BIG transition taking place, and I know how devastating those can be. I’m sorry. I wish I lived closer to help (even if was to throw coffee at your front door as I drove by).
I hope you can continue to take the time you need in order to keep doing what needs to be done (Ghods, I sound like Garrison Keillor!). Some people think that’s selfish, but it’s just pragmatic (those other people are dead now, BTW).
Thanks for putting my head on the block here.
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“Put your own mask on first,” they say on the airplane! Good for you for taking care of yourself. Strength and peace to you and your family. And thank you once again for your generosity of introductions. Take care, and look forward to reading you again next week! 🙂
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I hope you manage to at least get the daily basics of what you need to take care of yourself! I need Don, solitude (which can happen even when Don’s around), walking and blogging – pretty much every day. Apart from that I’m good for whatever. We leave for Turkey, Jordan and Egypt on Sunday. Thanks for introducing all these interesting bloggers.
Alison
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As care-taker of everyone but myself, guilt-ridden is an understatement when it comes to taking full advantage of the “me time” available now that our children are adults. For me to feel (not necessarily be) okay, I need to convince myself that the other shoe is not about to drop. This is a moment to moment endeavor. Someone recently told me they think I roll with the punches better than anyone they’d ever met. So, I suppose, the best advice is to roll with it.
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As a mother I think I am my own worst enemy. Clucking around my family I stick my beak into any drama that’s going. If the family is happy and on-track, then I am too. I feel everyone’s pain!
It’s only now the chicks have left the nest that I am able to sit back and take time-out for myself. Like you, sleep, writing and solitude are high on the list.
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I would have to agree that writing, time to think, and rest are huge for keeping the sanity.
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