My Soul Care (Self-Care) Practices for Autumn
“ Nobody is inferior and nobody is superior because each individual is unique-- no comparison is possible. You are you and you are simply you, you cannot be anyone else. And there was no need either. You need not become famous, you need not be a success in the eyes of the world. These are all foolish ideas.”
- OSHO
The Foolish Ideas We Believed
Today, I choose to stop caring. When I care too much about how other people are doing… I start judging myself for how I’m doing in comparison. Perhaps it's because they are also comparing themselves with others when they tell me about their life situation. I pick up on the energy.
There is a great joy, a deep abiding joy, that comes from knowing who I am and what I'm here to do and how to be me. I've recently restarted my meditation journey. I've meditated off and on for several years. The practice of meditation always felt self-nurturing. It felt like I was giving myself permission to drop all of my own self-judgments, and other people's thoughts about my life that I have absorbed unconsciously. Meditation was an opportunity to just be me — a very rare opportunity — since Life often feels like I'm have to be someone or something else.
In fact, the entire Western world's concept of life is based on achievement and accomplishment. What is the point of awards like lifetime achievement awards?
Cleansing My Soul
Today I'd like to do a reflection and inventory of all of the self-care/ Soul Care activities that helped me to stay centred in my beingness, in my primary identity as a child of God. These practices are a form of cleansing. They cleanse my soul from all of the other conceptions of myself that I absorb just by being alive and around humans. These practices intuitively feel extra important these days. I have been living in the city for 2 years and I know that it's changed me.
When I first felt it happening, it felt like the cells of my body were revving up, like a car accelerating, or a human preparing for the treadmill moving faster. I discovered I have the ability to commute, to show up at work in an office with people around me, and to not die in the process. (I'm not trying to be dramatic haha. I genuinely it was not sure how The Traveler Anita would fair in the matrix.)
Once I figured out that I'm not going to die living in the city, and that I could survive, the next level was to figure out if I can thrive here. I challenged myself to drive here. That is what this year 2019 has been all about.
In December, I will spend much more time reflecting on and reviewing my year, but it feels like November is about growing the Soul and Spirit side of myself. November is about taking care of my soul and coming to an inner stillness that I've been missing. I've been doing a lot of outward action, filming videos, editing videos, scheduling, publishing, driving around. Now it's time for might inner tank to be filled.
My Soul Care (Self Care) Practices for November
Celebrating Myself
I don't think it's possible to celebrate myself too much. Western Society is constantly bombarding us with reasons we need to be more or less of something. when I spend time celebrating myself, all that I am, all that I have become, it feels like I'm purifying my mind from the world's idea of me. Celebrating Who God Made Me to be is the Antidote to the Pathology of Ambition.
Celebrating is it an act of defiance! it is declaring to myself and the world that I choose to love myself. I am imperfectly perfect. I love this quote from a show about perfectionism:
“Life is beautiful in all its imperfections. Nothing is perfect. Let me say to you: even God is not perfect -- because if God is perfect then Frederick Neitsche is right that God is dead. Perfection means death! Perfection means there is no possibility of further growth. Perfection means now everything is finished. Imperfection means it's impossible to grow. Imperfection means the excitement of new pastors, ecstasy, Adventure. Imperfection means you are alive, that life is going to continue.”
- OSHO
I need to celebrate myself to remember that other people are imperfectly perfect as they are too. When I fully accept myself, I can accept others too.
Meditation
I'm so excited to start meditating again. I recently picked up a few books just to give me a refresher. meditation is more than just sitting quietly although it can include that. meditation is training your mind and they're being to operate with more clarity. I know I need it because I spent so much time refining my schedule that I think about it too much. I'm looking forward to learning how to practice meditation in my car, at work and in all the spaces of my life. I have spent good chunk of this year frantic and stressed, as I learned to publish content while working full-time. now it is time to learn how to do all of that while being called centered and joyful. :)
Sing and Dance for the Joy of it!
Two years ago, I started learning how to sing. It's fun but it started to become a chore — something that I needed to excel at otherwise there's no point in doing it. I turned it from something I find joyful into a task, a check mark for my list of “ accomplishments.” I now with choose to take back singing for myself, for the pure joy of it. I am also dancing again for the fun of it.
Dancing and singing are healing and cathartic to my soul and my body. I know it intuitively. Singing creates vibrations that hum through my body. It also allows me to express energy that otherwise would be held in. When I practice vocal exercises I make really strange noises, but it feels good.
Similarly, when I move my body freely I feel like I'm getting into the nooks and crannies of my body and clearing out cobwebs. It's as though my body knows where energy got stuck during my day when I got upset or hurt or frustrated about something. Dancing is when my body helps me clear out that stuck energy. I don’t need a doctor or acupuncturist to tell me. I just need to dance! I've done it dance classes before, but this is different. I need to free dance.
“All that you need is to be creative, loving, aware, meditative. If you feel poetry arising in you, write up for yourself, for your husband, for your children, for your friends -- and forget all about it! sing your song and if nobody lessons it sing it alone and enjoy it. Or talk to the birds and the animals and they will understand far more than human beings that have been poisoned for centuries and centuries with wrong concepts of life.”
- OSHO
This quote from OSHO means a lot to me because in the past I've definitely made singing and dancing things that were valuable only if I could perform for others. It's like there a way I can get more approval. This is so silly of me! I now choose to sing and dance just for myself (or between me and God). It's like my personal therapy! I don't need others to approve it or even see it or hear it. I will sing and dance purely because of the joy and freedom it gives me. :)
Infinite Love,
Anita
