Stop focusing so much on the external! Give yourself what you really need

If you were to audit your day, how much time would you find you have spent on your work, your people and your external needs?  How much time would you find had been spent in caring for your physical and emotional insides?  Like eating complete, nutritious meals, drinking water and moving your body on purpose.  Or reading for pleasure or growth, creating space for quiet contemplation and connection with yourself and/or others.

Ok, enough questions; I am not trying to make you feel bad.  I know you do a lot and probably think you should be doing more.  PLEASE...DON'T DO MORE!  Stick with me for approximately one more minute and discover how you can shift focus to start caring for your insides, too.

This summer, I shared a plot at a community garden with my friend.  I imagined planting seeds and starters, watering and then harvesting beautiful crops.  When we showed up on opening day, what we found was a bed full of weeds that needed to be dealt with before even thinking about those other things!  It looks impossible.  But section by section, we cleared the weeds, making room for those seeds and starters and then nurturing those plants.  The weeding that seemed like such a daunting task when the bed was full of them became one of my favorite healthy outlets over the summer months.  When life was daunting and overwhelming, I would go to the garden with my gloves and tools and clear the weeds (there weren't so many by that point!) so that our plants could thrive.

By the time we are in mid-life with families, careers, aging parents and other commitments, it seems impossible to attend to our insides, our most basic needs that fuel all of the good things we do on the outside.  Piece by piece, section by section, we will explore how to shift our focus and use the time we have each day to attend to our internal AND external needs, but to start with the internal.  Our beautiful plants (external) can't thrive if we're not caring for the ground (weeding) that nourishes them.

Some of the crops that were planted at the beginning of the summer didn't make it and some of them are thriving (more on this imperfect flexibility later!).  But I showed up on the regular, caring for the ground that was there to support and nourish them.  And, with all intended double meaning, it became one of the things I do to care for my insides!