Self-Care: Finding Balance & Learning to Shift

Welcome to April! Yesterday, I just went for an amazing bike ride. The air was fresh. My body felt so good. And my mind and heart were taking it all in (don’t worry, I kept my social-distance).

Whenever I get to ride, it’s such a beautiful, freeing time. My body, soul, and spirit come alive. For me, it’s a chance to put other things on pause. I can’t search the web, read a book, chat, look at social media, or anything else. We need these types of activities regularly in our life where we turn everything off and spend time with ourselves, God, friends, family. But in this season when social connections might be through the internet, just getting to turn things off is so helpful to creating peace and stillness inside.

I’m a big believer in balance. In order for things to remain in balance, you really do have to let some things go from time to time. And while that idea used to totally freak me out, I’ve been through that cycle now so many times that I’ve seen it all comes back when the time is right. So now, I’m not usually afraid of “putting something on the shelf” for a time to allow myself the space to do what’s needed in front of me. Now, of course, we’re laying some things down and picking other things up.

Why wouldn’t you want to listen to yourself? Well, the truth is, we all do that quite a bit more than we even realize. Disease is often a sign that we’ve not listened to our body for a long time and our body is screaming out for attention.

I’ve found that there are usually three reasons why most of us don’t listen: 1.) we have become too busy and focused on what’s happening around us that it’s become too hard to “hear” and 2.) we aren’t sure we will like what we hear when we do listen. And many times, it’s a combination of the two of these. And lastly, 3.) we haven’t been taught how.

Why wouldn’t I like what I hear? Well, how many of us want to hear that we need to let something go, or slow down? How many of us want to hear that that “treat” we keep eating isn’t actually doing us any good? While change can be not only good, it can also be hard and painful at times.

But if this change leads to a healthier, happier you, maybe it’s worth a try.

I can always tell that I have a bit too much on my plate when I start to feel overwhelmed. It may take me a “minute” to recognize it, but that recognition is getting quicker over time. What maybe even used to take weeks (or months!), this process may take me an hour to a week depending on how tuned in I am. The times that it takes longer is when I’m really just not willing to listen. We all have those moments.

So a few things that I do to reset my balance are: practice awareness, take a pause, and re-evaluate.

I do actually do these regularly because I have this funny habit of getting full lost and wrapped up in what I’m doing and can easily lose sight of what’s important if I don’t check-in consistently.

Practicing Awareness

This is a key. The more you practice awareness of what’s going on internally, the more you’re able to listen to what your body, soul, and spirit are saying inside of you. Are you listening? Just take a moment even now and listen. How are you doing?

I do this as often as I can. I try to do this a few times a day actually. It’s when I don’t that I do start to notice that I get a little “crazy.” I start looking for ways to comfort my own self.

What do I do? Well, it goes with this next step:

Take a Pause

It’s definitely hard to pause, let alone be still, in this culture. When I moved from San Luis Obsipo where the acronym is “SLO” (and people really live that way!) down to Los Angeles where it feels the motto is “GO”, I can feel it in my bones. No matter where you live though, there’s always an element of taking a moment to be still. Sometimes all you have is 30 seconds. But WOW that 30 seconds can be a game changer!

When I first started healing from adrenal fatigue, I actually bought a little “GymBoss” interval timer. It’s used for interval training, but it’s also used to re-focus your mind. I set it on vibrate and to go off every 10-20 minutes to remind me to pause and be still for 10 seconds.

Sounds a little funny, but it really helps! I actually still use it when I notice my thoughts turning negative or worn out. I write down some positive declarations on a note card and every time the timer goes off, I just meditate on those words.

All it takes is 10-30 seconds of pausing to shift your own atmosphere.

Try it now. Just pause. Close your eyes and take a breath.

Now, when you re-open your eyes, you’re able to see your life from a new perspective.

So then we take a fresh look and …

Re-Evaluate

This is something that is good to do regularly as well. Actually either at the end of a week, or at the start of a new week, I’ll take a look at my goals, dreams, desires and tasks and evaluate if they are fitting in well with the direction I am wanting to head.

I also do this every time I notice I’m hitting a roadblock.

Let’s do this with a simple health issue:

• I notice I’m starting to get extra fatigued (awareness).
• I take a pause and breathe.
• I ask: “What is currently happening inside?”
• If I get an answer, then I look at how I can make adjustments.
• If I don’t, I’ll begin looking at some key areas to see if I can address what might be causing extra fatigue:
  • How hard am I exercising?
  • Am I eating well?
  • Am I missing any key nutrients?
  • How well am I sleeping?
  • What’s my water intake been like?
  • How is my current stress level with my daily work tasks?
  • Is there anything relational I need to resolve?
  • Are there any underlying beliefs causing me stress?
  • Have I gotten enough fresh air?
  • Is there anything else that might be putting an extra drain on me physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally?

Simply write out something like this:

• Where am I winning right now? (What is going well?)
• What is working?
• What isn’t working?
• What do I need to either stop or press pause on?
• What do I need to keep?
• And anything I need to believe about what is possible for

 

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Watch

Check out my video this week on “3Ps to Pivot in Any Season”

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[acf field=”author_kirsten”]

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