Is it just me or has this week felt hard? I started the week with a chill, feeling drained and everything since has felt I'm doing it all wrong. I don't know if it's a lockdown thing, a half term thing or just a plain old couple of off days thing. If I'm not present with it though, this is when I find it creeps in a bit deeper and hangs around a bit longer.... and those seeds start sowing in, which turned into weeds that I can't get rid of so easily. So what do we do? I don't think there's a blanket fix all - we're all different. I had a similar feeling in October and felt I needed to go on a long walk up a steep hill, somewhere where I'd had some lovely walks with friends - that physical movement and being outside in nature shifted it. Is that the answer this week? No. Why not? Because I'm bloody tired and it's bloody freezing. So I need (give me a moment while I brace myself to say these words...... I can feel a sweat coming on.....it feels uncomfortable ) a bit of self love. Compassion, kindness to me, all that stuff. Which I find really hard, even though I will happily tell you all you should be doing it!! Is it indulgent to have a day curled up with a book of choice - NO. Is it wrong to eat good yummy nourishing food? NAH. Is it lazy to have a bath - not a shower - for at least 30 mins? NOPE. Aren't these things relatively normal stuff that we should be doing anyway? For some of us yes, but for some of us no, because we could be doing other things like cleaning the kitchen, shopping for elderly parents, homeschooling the kids, getting that work project done, and so on; you know stuff called LIFE. But when we're doing too much it's all those things that end up catching up on our energy levels and zapping us till we feel we are walking in treacle and can't do a thing. We spend all our time zipping from one thing to another, we don't actually connect with what we're doing - it's ticking lists. And that burns us out. And then we feel really bad and guilty because we can't get out bums out of bed - or at least don't want to. And that brings us to our seeds and weeds. So, yesterday..... I taught, I learnt (I'm currently studying Sacred Health for Womxn), I watched my favourite Korean supernatural drama, I slept and I ate good food. And it felt lovely. I'm not 100% recharged yet, but I'm getting there. And that feeling of feeling a bit better has outweighed the feeling of guilt for doing it. I'm not doing it every day, I'm doing it when I need to. Worth a try? I'll be blogging a bit more often on this - how we bring some yoga philosophy into practice for 21st Century experiences. #heal #rest #recharge #yogaphilosophy #yamas #niyamas #gettingthere #selflove #kindness
