Make your own needs a priority – 7Mind Impuls (KW 42)

Indulge yourself. I don’t say: Always do that. But I say: Do it again. Be there for yourself as you are for all other people.
Bernhard von Clairvaux

How do I indulge myself?

In the week before last, I spent a lot of time wondering what was good for me and how I managed to take good care of myself.

It’s like a gift for me when I start the morning without an alarm clock and can just wake up in peace over a cup of coffee. And I can make most of this gift here on our trip. So I often have a perfect start to the day here.

In the meantime, I have succeeded well in creating conditions with which I can live and work well. So I can take good care that it is not too warm or too cold for me, that I have a good view, that I adopt a good posture – these are daily small adjustments that make life easier and gradually adjust themselves, become a kind of habit. I take the time to put the saddle up, put on or take off my jacket, adjust the girth of the camera, etc. I also take the time to take the saddle out of the saddle.

Since I am influenced by the motto: “First the work, then the pleasure”, I always tend to work through my to-do list before doing anything for myself, even if I feel like doing something else. It’s hard for me to let go of the pattern, because it gives me a good feeling to have everything done and the list doesn’t get any longer…

“Time” is also such an important component that I like to lose sight of. So it’s not uncommon for me to pack too many things into time windows that can’t be changed, and at the end I realize that there’s no time left to do things that are good for me or that I wanted to do for myself. To be honest, I am even a master of it. Here I often do not give priority to my well-being. Then everything is ready and done, but my battery is empty at the end of the day.

Have I been there for myself?

On the first day of the impulse I felt the need to have a quick nap at noon – I rarely feel the need and then there is usually no time for a midday nap. On that day I started cooking half an hour later and just lay down while Manfred went on a photo safari. It was a small change with a big effect.

In New York I would have had to take the time to continue writing on my blog topics, to feed my diary daily, etc. Here I decided not to overtax myself and just make a few nice days beyond my list.

I’ve realized over the past week how easy it is for me to make small adjustments to take better care of myself and be there for myself; but how hard it is for me to deviate from my own patterns and adapt them to my well-being.
None of you pressure me to post on time or post new photos. The print comes out of me all by itself. And the thing with the blog is only exemplary and can be replaced or supplemented by some other things. It is the small constraints to still have to do this, to still want to do this, etc. and they work independently of where I am and what I am doing right now. Here I would like to work on myself in the next weeks and try to let go of my demands on myself a little more and give me more space / time to be able to grant myself.

How are you doing? Are you there for yourself regularly? Do you have an eye on yourself? What prevents you from indulging yourself and how do you manage to take care of yourself anyway?

Taylors Island, 28.10.2019

Saradevi