One of the highest callings for us humans is to deeply know and love ourselves, and as much as possible to be a force for good. Perhaps you will agree that being good to yourself, and making healthy choices throughout the day, is a large portion of what makes up a good day. At the end of the day, it feels satisfying to know we did the best to honor and extend our one wild and precious life, taking the high road in every encounter and treating ourselves right, too.
A few of my daily practices to promote graceful aging are full-body dry-brush skin brushing when naked between PJs off and dressing for the day. I also very much enjoy the quick rigorous practice of exposure to cold water, which I do right after skin brushing. Either walk in place in a tub of ankle-deep cold water, or do that then sit quickly in the tub and splash chest, armpits and face, or take a quick cold shower. Somewhat contra-intuitively this will actually be warming via a vaso-constriction (from cold) rebound to vaso-dilation as soon as the quick cold exposure is over. Delightfully invigorating!
My New Year’s commitment was to re-establish a daily meditation practice. A local meditation teacher recommended an app called Insight Timer, which has been helpful because of a rich variety of content and also a format which allows for personalization. If you started the year with a new health and peace-promoting practice but have fallen off, consider exploring in a
non-judgmental way what has impeded that initial salutary urge. A simple morning meditation practice, prompted by the acronym RPM, need only be 10-15 minutes of gratitude, either sitting in silence and marveling at your breath, or enjoying a guided meditation. RPM here stands for rise, pee, meditate. Best to deploy first thing.
Looking for the positive
Your top of the year resolution may have been more related to healing a valued relationship, or volunteering for a cause which is meaningful to you. Both of those examples conceivably could feel overwhelming: Where to start? What if it doesn’t work? What if I’m rejected, or feel unable to contribute? Fear, doubt, worry, shame are easy to come by in our society, alas.
While capitalism in general has lifted most of the global population out of dire poverty and driven enormous creativity, the seamy side is that “value” has been tied to money, and keeping up with the Joneses, and it can be difficult to not literally buy into that.
Almost everyone is trying to live their best life. We all have hardships. We don’t need to get into a trauma olympics proving our suffering is more intense than someone else’s suffering in order to justify our continued attachment to our misery. It is not healthy to chronically revisit our suffering as our modus operandi.
In my opinion, being gentle with one’s own, and others’, pain is a prerequisite for being a decent human. However, let's not dwell there. A practice I was reminded of recently was to write down (or at least say out loud) five things for which to be grateful, every day. Have you noticed that when we have the opportunity to divulge intimate parts of ourselves (to a trusted friend, or therapist, or priest) it’s often, frankly, complaining? I think there is a way to ask for help without entirely identifying with our pain and trauma. Most of us don’t really enjoy listening to complainers. That has firmed my resolve to not be one. It is the high road, which of course does demand more energy, more attention and more consciousness. But, as they say, the view is so much better.
Choose an activity and get started
If you have slipped off your daily self-care path, do yourself a huge favor and turn your gaze onto one achievable health-promoting activity (for physical, mental or emotional health—they are all connected) and start today. You will not regret it because taking care of yourself, also the foundation for taking care of those in your sphere, is never a waste of time.
Emily Kane is a naturopathic doctor based in Juneau. Contact her online at http://www.dremilykane.com.
