Meditation Monday: Listen to Your Soul

Good Monday morning friends! In meditation today, and over the past several days, I have been reminded (rather aggressively) by the universe to stop and listen to exactly what my soul is trying to tell me. For much of the past year, I have been non-stop. Minus an amazing vacation and a quick weekend trip to see my youngest kiddo, my focus has been school, business and working with the rescue dog I adopted last February. I often have little idea of the actual date and rely heavily on my calendar and reminders to make sure I am where I need to be at any given moment. Overextended is a word that comes to mind regularly and I am actively working to make changes to that reality.

As we start a new week, many of us will put that to do list together for the coming days and get started on the tasks that make our personal and professional lives run as smoothly as possible. My question for you is this, where is your self-care on that list? We talked a bit last week about making yourself a priority in 2022 and today I want you to focus on listening in to what your soul is trying to tell you in the midst of chaos.

My soul and body recently gave me an unexpected vacation in the form of a sinus infection and non-consensual system reset. Ok, I consented but I was not happy about it initially. I worried about letting my clients down (I have only needed to cancel appointments for illness twice in over 6 years of practice). I worried about losing income during the busiest portion of my week. I struggled with not doing anything but healing my body and watching T.V.. If you know me, I don't "sit still" often. I spent three days on my couch sleeping, blowing my nose and cuddling with my dog, who is not the most awesome of nurses but gives great hugs. Even for professional healers that allow time for meditation and self-care, it is sometimes easy to get caught up in the hustle of life. The meditation and self-care can become just another part of the list to be checked off and while they get done, we can sometimes forget to allow the recharge time to actually do it's job. I was forced to slow down and let the responsibilities sit dormant while I brought my body back to well and it helped put a perspective on my too-busy life.

Now, how to we put this into practice? I empathize with how much it is easier said than done. This needs cleaned, that needs done, there are deadlines. I get it, but I want to let you in on a little secret. If you were to take an afternoon, leave your phone at home (or in the car) and go browse the bookstore, walk the trail, see a movie, or whatever fills your soul, those things will be there when you are done. However, you will be recharged and have the energy to do them with a calm soul. You deserve to allow yourself to relax. You deserve an hour, an afternoon, a day, a weekend of peace. You deserve to refill the gas tank before you're running on fumes and only have enough "money" to bring it up to a quarter tank. What if you never let your tank get below 3/4 so that when you top it off, you get to be full?

Take a deep breath. Listen to your body. Listen to your soul. Unplug. Reset. Plan the time to take care of you before the universe does it for you.

Be well friends! Drink your water, meditate in your way, stretch something and be the kindest human.

Namaste,

Chrys