Solitude & Sereni.tea

This week was chalk-full of lessons for me. I honestly didn’t realize how difficult it is to make your wellbeing a priority. When I started this practice, I used ChatGPT to devise a self-care schedule for me. Together, we made exercise and getting outside the priority. With a little bit of scheduling guidance from me (ie work, meditation/therapy/social commitments), ChatGPT helped me organize my life to include 90 minutes of outside exercise daily, yoga and stretching workouts, time to relax (watch movies/read books), include date nights, and suggest vegan meals to cook (which I chose to ignore for now).

Here is what I discovered about making self-care a priority in my life:

• Spending 90+ minutes exercising in the sunshine, everyday, makes me feel great-so great that I felt that I didn’t need to go to therapy any longer. Note* I NEED to go to therapy.
• Self-care calendars are not sustainable. Life happens. Accidents happen. Calendars are built to make you feel bad if you miss an appointment. That said, I am still creating a calendar for next week, just because I need to stay accountable.
• Down time is really important, we need time to recover from activities (even non-strenuous ones).
• Whenever I put myself first, inevitably someone(s) in my life demands all of my attention. I haven’t figured out how to balance this out – but I will.
• Have a backup plan when weather has other ideas on what you should be doing. It is not safe to be exercising outdoors when the temperature hits 31 degrees Celsius. Nor is at advisable to be out during downpours/thunderstorms.

Like I said yesterday, I am going to restart this self care plan. I feel like my first week didn’t end the way I wanted it to. And I need a refresher before I add more to it. Since I am not feeling fantastic (wicked headaches and general soreness) from the fall – I am going to be taking it easy over the next couple of days. Just some somatic yoga and meditation, and extra rest. I did ask my body what it needed and it told me that it needed a lot of water, rest, and slow movements. So thats what my plan is going to be. I will be back outside enjoying long walks and sunshine on Wednesday.

Today’s tea choice- iced basil and lemon tea.