Life serves up challenges regularly. Have you noticed? We all need tools for contending with these challenges. And those tools rest on a strong self-care foundation.
Why a Self-Care Foundation
If self-care makes you uncomfortable or perhaps sounds selfish, reframe your interpretation of self-care. Consider that self-care is the fuel for serving and giving. After all, we give from the resources we have. Without consistently replenishing our resources, we become depleted, hurting ourselves and others.
Just as the integrity of home and institutions depends upon solid foundations, your wellbeing and wholeness are reliant on your self-care foundation—the consistent care you give your body, mind, and spirit.
Elements of a Strong Self-Care Foundation include:
- Nourishing food
- Movement
- Hydration
- Engagement in the natural world
- Connection
- Inspiration
- Stillness
- Laughter
- Reflection
- Reset Practice
Why a Reset Practice
Seeing the opportunity in life’s challenges necessitates a reframe—a practice that resets the clock and gets you back in touch with the things you know are true. And those things tend to slip away quickly amidst daily and inner chaos not to mention a global pandemic and social justice movement.
My Reset Practice is to show up and just experience my favorite hour of the day!
Favorite Hour of the Day
That hour is the one that surrounds the sunrise—the hour of dawn that begins in darkness and ends with the sun above the horizon.
I love being outdoors this hour!
Regularly experiencing this most wonderful hour of the day grounds me, inspires me, humbles me, and connects me with all that is majestic, mysterious, and wondrous.
The hour of dawn feels ordinary yet magical—a little scary and comforting.
This Hour Reminds me that Change is Constant!
Every few minutes, in this hour of the day, change is apparent.
- Light Changes: The light transformation can seem slow and gradual, yet rather rapid and distinct. Varied colors and light intensity emerge throughout the hour and vary widely day-to-day with changing weather patterns and cloud cover.
- Sounds Change: Quieter night sounds, which evoke stillness, transform into lively and louder daytime noises—generated from both nature and humans.
- Moon Changes: The moon may be present, or not, that hour depending on where she is in her monthly cycle and place in the sky. The moon may shine prominently, or not, depending on those same variables as well as how many clouds surround and dim her reflecting light. Always changing—always variable!
This Hour also Offers Certainty and Predictability
But hang on. While this hour evokes a strong awareness of constant change, this dawning hour showcases certainty, dependability, and trustworthiness. The sun will come out tomorrow, Annie said so!
The sun’ll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There’ll be sun!
- So dependable—the sun rises as expected, at the time expected, in the position of the sky expected EVERY TIME. Yes, there’s wonderful seasonal variation in the sunrise time and place on the horizon. Change amidst the consistent predictability!
- Don’t you love that dependability and that variation? You, me, and the planet are counting on it.
I love experiencing this hour walking alone and walking with friends, on ordinary workdays in my community and on spectacular vacation days all over the world.
Choose Your Reset Practice
A vibrant self-care foundation needs a Reset Practice, something you can do regularly that connects you with real things—things outside the critical, looping mind and things beyond the must-dos and want-tos.
What is your Reset Practice? What is that experience that grounds you and renews you?
If early mornings aren’t your thing, believe me, I understand! Only in the last decade of my life have I become a natural and excited early riser! Maybe you’d rather watch the sunset every evening or just take a short walk near birds and trees every day to begin your own Reset Practice.
Whatever works for you, do it. But consider building this practice around nature to help ground you in the larger context of the world and space. Enjoy what this experience brings when you practice it regularly to strengthen your self-care foundation.
Photo by Jordan Wozniak on Unsplash
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