Niki’s Thoughts: On Boundaries & Self Care
“With every act of self-care your authentic self gets stronger, and the critical, fearful mind gets weaker. Every act of self-care is a powerful declaration: I am on my side, I am on my side, each day I am more and more on my side.” Susan Weiss Berr
Looking into the new week and contemplating this powerful quote on self-care, has me thinking about what is coming up to be shifted, changed and applied.
Boundaries seem to be a strong theme for a lot of people at the moment and the importance of time for yourself, which is coming up for me again and again right now. I think it also has to do with the time that we're in - we have all experienced so much in our individual lives, and we need time, space and boundaries to protect our new integration.
How do we create boundaries? By asking yourself; what you want to participate in, what doesn't feel aligned anymore, and what feels like it's taking from you more than giving to your day. And that could even be simple things, which we may have used to love or used to use.
For example, take something seemingly simple like coffee. I used to drink coffee in the morning. But I noticed it was starting to increase my anxiety and stress levels. So now, I have and am taking a conscious choice of creating a boundary from the coffee because it is creating an experience that is not in alignment with how I want to feel. This new boundary is protecting my state of being and allowing me to move closer to a more positive and aligned life which is how I want to feel moment to moment.
This process could be applied to a lot of other things. It could be using the morning to do a self-care practice instead of sleeping in, or could just be setting new small habits throughout the day. It doesn't have to be huge things that require a big mental or physical change - but that small change will have long last results that ripple effect through your entire life.
In my experience, it is better to set yourself small, steady shifts in your daily life instead of trying to make big goals and big changes. Don't make it too much for you to achieve, almost try to sneak in these small adjustments so that the changes don't create too much stress. See them as small coins of gold you are filling up your personal wealth bank with and with each small adjustment you are adding more worth to your personal bank.
