Imagine how many layers of dust, sweat, dirt and grime would build up on your skin.
Imagine the days when for some reason, life puts you in a mud puddle and you get covered in slimy, gooey mud that cakes on your skin.
Yet, you still don't shower.
You probably think this analogy I'm giving you today is RIDICULOUS, right? Who wouldn't shower on a daily basis? Who would allow layers of Yuck to build up on their bodies?
Yet, isn't that what most of humanity does emotionally?
Life happens. We have days that are smooth and easy but even on those days, subtle experiences happen where we feel criticized or judged by someone close to us or even a stranger. A thin emotional layer of hurt coats our spirit.
We deal with the financial stress of paying the bills and the pressures of ensuring our families eat, our children have clothes and schools to go. Whether we realize it or not, a layer of inner stress coats our spirit even in the ordinary stress and strain of life.
Then, those bigger, harder days when a friend or family member ends up in the Emergency Room from a freak accident. We go on an Adrenalin rush as we hold the space calmly and facilitate the person getting the help they need. As we do so, a thick layer of subtle or not-so-subtle inner mud coats our spirit.
But, who takes the time clean their emotional and spiritual body?
Hardly anyone.
The result, we have layers and layers of emotional build-up covering our spirits. We find ourselves over-reacting to small things because we are so over-loaded that we spill over. How could we not when we have allowed things to become so built up and pent up within our emotional and spiritual bodies?
The solution we have for keeping our physical bodies clean is pretty simple, isn't it? We take daily and sometimes twice a day showers to carefully wash off all the muck. It's a natural part of our routines that we would never give up. Who wants to stink or look sloppy and dirty?
None of us.
What if we need to take develop the same type of self-care routines to cleanse our mental, emotional and spiritual bodies?
How better might we feel if we took daily time to process our emotions and pain, and find ways to release what doesn't serve us allowing it to wash down the drain just like we do the murky water from a shower?
How might our relationships improve if we increased our inner self-care to a point where we didn't have a "Pain body" surrounding us?
How much more joy would we be capable of experiencing if we regularly washed up our insides?
Listen, I'm still on a learning curve myself with caring for my emotions and spirit. I sit here this morning after having experienced another Prader Willi Syndrome storm last night. And, I sense how scattered and upset my own energy is right now. I'm learning to be more gentle and kind to myself every day. I'm learning as I sit in silence to honor every single emotion that I have and process it with the help and support of the Divine. I am choosing to take time to be with myself more and increase my self-care to extreme levels where needed. I'm purposefully stepping back and saying no to invitations to help others when I can feel inside my soul that I MUST, FIRST as a top Priority CARE FOR MYSELF.
Sometimes I use my physical showers to envision my spirit and emotional body being cleansed. I feel the water run over my body and I ask God to help me and clean me on the inside too. I open, surrender and willingly release anything that has built up and no longer serves me.
I don't know about you, but I want to feel well on every level. I don't buy into the belief system that living in a constant state of stress and "fight or flight or freeze" is necessary. I believe we sometimes must step back and re-think the helter-skelter, non-stop schedules we've created and find a way to first and foremost choose well-being as our highest priority.
How might you find a daily ritual to process and clean the emotional and spiritual bodies?
How might you increase your self-care and prioritize it so that you move a step closer to true well-being in mind, body and spirit?
I sit with these questions today too. Life seems to be giving some extra big doses of difficulties that are causing me, once again, to grapple with these questions.
I figured I'd share all of this with you because I know we are all going through intensive processes of our own these days.
Listen, if you have wisdom and know things that work for you on this topic, please share them in the comments. We all need to learn from one another's hard-earned wisdom.
May we be guided to new ways so we THRIVE in the midst of any circumstance,
With my deepest love,
Patricia Omoqui, The Thought Dr.
www.patriciaomoqui.com
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