Beyond Bubble Baths: Searching for Deeper Self Care

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Beyond Bubble Baths: Searching for Deeper Self Care

What I love most about my work is the joy of witnessing people heal. On the flip side, I also witness a lot of suffering. To be capable of holding the suffering as well as the joy, I’ve had to deepen my understanding of self care. It is no longer good enough to get a massage or take a yoga class when I find that I’m stressed out. Those things can be great to do, but real self care, I’ve found, involves adjusting my attitude about caring for myself, as well as setting up a lifestyle in which I attend to my own needs on a much more regular basis. It's about keeping my tank filled so the needle never ends up on empty.

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A Case Study In Dealing With Negative Emotions OR How I Coped When My Cat Barfed on My Laptop

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A Case Study In Dealing With Negative Emotions OR How I Coped When My Cat Barfed on My Laptop

Despite my best intentions, sometimes I just don't get to everything on my To Do list. This week has been especially bad in that regard. With a sick child, a sick dog, and a laptop that is dead because my cat barfed all over it, I'm ending the week with lots of important things undone.

I've decided to take this experience as an opportunity to try to learn something about myself. So, upon reflection, I've identified the following internal experiences related to my undone tasks:

  • First up is anxiety. I'm jittery and tense. I feel a lot of impulse to be active.
  • Some of the anxiety becomes anger. That damn cat! He did this on purpose! I should take him back to the shelter. Why did everything have to go wrong at once! Why can't I ever get a break?
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