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Taking Care of Self

How would you like to care for yourself? How would you like to be cared for? What does caring for yourself look like? What within you is asking for your care and attention?

We all care for ourselves, one way or another. We care for our physical selves in obvious ways like driving carefully, brushing our teeth, eating nutritious food, dressing and housing ourselves, and so on.

There are also numerous ways we can care for ourselves emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

My client, H.P., recently wrote me her insights about what taking care of herself is about. I hope you find it as inspiring as I do.

I got to communicate with my dad.

At first, I was just watching myself as a one year old playing with him... Christine then asked me how it feels to be with him... It felt safe, comforting,and free, like I was "home."

Then Christine said, "He lives on a higher plane and h.e has a lot to teach you, what is he saying?" ... And then it got really quiet and I heard him say, "I love you, and please don't take life so seriously," and then he hugged me as the one year old and me as I am now... We were all three hugging...

Then the one year old was left alone, he went away.

Christine asked how she feels, and I said confused, sad, afraid... She told me to hug the one year old, and ask her what she needs from me... She said she just needed me to be there to hold her and love her and not try to fix how she is feeling... so I did just that... And all of a sudden, I felt so free and light, and my anger, confusion, grief... all that stuff I must have felt then and carried with me until today... was leaving my body...

It was so crazy... I am experiencing that, when you take the time to go in and look at old wounds and face them honestly, they heal... I feel like a huge weight has lifted off of me. It is so hard to even explain...

For the first time ever, I understand what it means and feels like to take care of yourself. It means deep listening and finding the origin of your pain and then shining your light of unconditional love onto those parts of you that are screaming for your attention, and then giving them a hug.

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