self care
For a healthy mind, body, and soul.
Inside out:
Every year come January first, there are tons of offers for gym memberships, yoga retreats, detox diets, and fitness apps. Literally, support of every kind. Offerings and deals looking to help anyone and everyone yearning for a fresh start. I’ve subscribed and applied to all sorts of memberships in the past, bought all kinds of gadgets and equipment hoping I would stick to my fresh start for years to come, or at least until I reached whichever goal I set for myself.
By Roberta DeAndrade5 years ago in Longevity
How To Keep Your Vibe Up: Pandemic Edition
The pandemic. Lockdowns. Daily deaths rising. Borders shut down. Hello America. While other countries who share the same continent don’t have an alarming surge as America, it’s important that we all get through this time together as one. The human race is fighting off a sweeping death that has taken millions of lives globally.
By Liana Vibes5 years ago in Longevity
My Ongoing Journey to Self Acceptance
January 2021 I’m always keeping track and keeping score. How old I am, what I’ve eaten today, how much money I’m making, how much I’ve worked out this week, how much art I’ve made this month. It can be draining to keep score. It can highlight disappointments I have with myself. But lately, I've been trying to tell myself, “think less, feel more”. As a dancer, that’s something that I’ve heard in the studio. I’ve also heard it in guided meditations and I think it applies to many parts of my life. Instead of basing what to eat on what I’ve eaten earlier in the day, I am trying to base those decisions on how hungry I am and what I want to eat. Instead of holding myself to a strict work out schedule, I listen for when my body and my mind wants to move. And as it turns out, as a longtime mover, I want to move pretty often. I think it’s about the rules we give ourselves and how they align with our values. I don’t know that working out for the sake of having a six pack and being slimmer truly aligns with my values. Moving my body for the pleasure that it brings me and my desire to maintain my relationship to movement and dance is more in line with my values. If I consider myself an artist and human that is interested in connection, healing, learning and growth then that’s what my goals should align with. I’m thinking that if I become more in touch with who I am at my core, then it will be possible to quiet down the comparisons that I often make between others and myself. My automatic response to other people’s achievements is often to compare myself to them and inevitably feel a sense of shame at the idea that I’m not measuring up to where they are. But, if I know who I am and I practice acceptance, curiosity and openness on the journey to accomplishing my goals, then I think it will matter less what other people are doing. Or, even better, I can applaud what other people are doing and be genuinely happy for them.
By Hannah Robertson5 years ago in Longevity
Butterfly Bill & the Magical Butterfly Birthing Tree
I have a magical butterfly birthing tree on my balcony. When I first witnessed a butterfly being born on one December morning before Christmas it felt like a gentle miracle. It was the messenger of hope-fullness, transformation & beauty I didn't know I had needed so much until it arrived, coaxed into a premature departure from 'the womb' by my Staffy X, Crumpet, who'd taken an interest in the butterfly hatching, his wet nose nudging it into first flight, an unlikely kind of midwife...and then she was gone, on her way to greet the wild world.
By Marissa Cooke5 years ago in Longevity
Of What it Takes to Rest
Someone once told me, "There is nothing better for the traumas of the brain, than to sit by moving water,". All the flashes of glimmering waters supposably do charitable work for the mind. Along with my friend, myself, and other colleagues were a part of a unique working-class: employed full-time, but not paid enough for our careers. So we each pursued hobbies that made money. We were the one-hundred-hour-a-week crew in town.
By C.K. Douglas5 years ago in Longevity
Life's Big Questions: Why You Should Take Out Extra Time For Self-Reflection
This article was originally published at rochizalani.com I had a lot of those ‘life’s big questions’ growing up: Why do grown-ups have these things that they call ‘jobs’ and why do they have to do it every day? Why do we have to ‘work’ and ‘build a career’ anyway? What purpose does it solve, really? Why should I go to bed early? Why not have only a bowl of maggie for dinner?
By Rochi Zalani5 years ago in Longevity
Long Time Love
Leaving the life once I thought was perfect , I felt angered, betrayed, disgusted with myself for being used and abused in love with someone who lied, cheated committed every underhanded , petty deceitful act he could to work out his harmful and criminal reckonings because inadequate small and creepy people do that. Yet I doubted myself and my own strengths, my own integrity, if I loved him how could leave him? Eventually , I had to stop covering him and take care of myself, In five years time I 'd attempted suicide twice, became agoraphobic, drug addicted and alcohol dependent, I took sleeping pills, anti anxiety medication, and washed it all down with booze. Everyday at happy hour I made myself white Russians, vodka and milk sweetly flavored with kahlua on the rocks consumed 3-6 a day, and I wasn't happy, Can't say what exactly moved me to walk out on the Life I created with myself and the Creep, but I did it. packed up the VW with few belongings, left furniture, photos, books, clothes, my own house to leave the lying cheating little worm and drove as far as I could, across the country to another state and settled into a small house where I knew no one and didn't realize how sick I was or what recovery would take at the late age of 64. I found myself suffering drug and alcohol withdrawals, on my own, I couldn't find a doctor, I had very little money and I was alone.
By Susy Godet5 years ago in Longevity
Goodbye My Friend Cigarette
So I was in a long term relationship with my good friend Cigarette. We first met when I was 15 years old and we’ve been close friends ever since. When I first met her she made me feel special. She made me feel like I fit in. She accepted me regardless of who I was. She was introduced to me by my friends who already accepted her into the squad. I’ve always heard about her and even seen her around in my family but I never thought that she would want to meet me.
By Samantha Rodriguez5 years ago in Longevity
Stingy
In 2021, I will be a stingy therapist friend. I know, I know, it sounds horrible. 2020 was the worst year in recent history. I mean, for all. On all levels, personal, large scale, all of it. It felt very biblical. As if God’s wrath - if you believe in that sort of thing- was specifically vengeful toward everyone. How special. Throughout everything, my most profound revelation was that everyone needed more than what any one could give. The most beautiful trait of humanity is that when tragedy strikes, people truly want to help one another. And that is the exact thing none of us were allowed to do. Coming together was illegal. So why now, of all times, do I pledge to be emotionally miserly?
By Kirby Porterfield 5 years ago in Longevity
