Self care is a journey

Self care - creating new patterns, enjoying and celebrating every step of the way

Photo by Marina Vitale on Unsplash

Just as a reminder, three weeks ago, one grey morning before going to work I looked in the mirror. What’s different you might ask. You, we do this a few times a day so what? Well, we look but we don’t pay attention. We look quickly, splash some make up, with the mind already 10 steps ahead, trying to get as much enthusiasm as possible to go through another day. Just as we numb emotions, we place some invisible semi transparent veils in front of our eyes and in doing so, we see enough to get by but not all, we practice tunnel visioning for survival.

So back to the mirror. Suddenly I stayed a second more in front of the mirror and couldn’t relate or recognise the person who was staring at me. For years my hair used to have all colours of the rainbow from reds to blues, oranges and everything else in between. It was my identity, one of the few areas where I was expressing myself freely, where my true self was signalling …freedom. Well, nothing even remote was left of that. Pale almost grey skin, bloated, dark skin under my eyes a testament of long work hours, sleep deprivation, too many hours indoors without much natural light or air, lack of vitamin D due to limited exposure to the sun, unhealthy eating patterns, numbing the mind with too many hours connected to the internet and the artificial world and the list is never-ending.

I know only too well that I am not the only one who has such moments. Yesterday I was sharing bits of this story with a few neighbours, during a delightful garden party in the village I live in. Sharing, opened up a conversation which carried on for a few hours and reminded us all that ….at times we live on autopilot. Such times can carry on and last for years until one tiny thing happens and we suddenly notice ….again.

The result of such noticing, in my case was a question ….what is within my control? What can I change? The answer was …eating patterns. I can change them. I can change what I put in my basket when I go shopping, I can change what I eat, when I eat.

Photo by Taylor Kiser on Unsplash

Choosing intermittent fasting happened out of the blue and not after a lot of research. It is more of an intuitive choice and decision and I went with it.

I went through the myriad of thoughts, limiting beliefs related to eating patterns in the previous blog entry. Three weeks later I am still on track and this has been a learning curve.

At the soul level, the most important thing is to be compassionate with yourself and approach the new changes with curiosity and respect. Being moderately strict is good but being absurd goes into self punishment and I know I ve done enough of that and I don t recommend it.

At the moment, fasting period varies for me …it goes between 13 and 16 hours. A few key things I want to remind myself of and might be useful to you too:

• no food during the fasting time

• drink plenty of liquids - be very creative (recipes are in the pipeline)

• no snacking, plan the meals in advance, have some pre prepared meals in the freezer for those days when cooking is too much for you

• gradually remove the processed food

• cook from scratch - consider batch cooking (a few tested recipes coming shortly in the next blog posts)

• fall in love with preparing creative, colourful salads and salad dressings

• pay attention to the amount of sugar you are currently consuming and start reducing it gradually

• find a buddy to go through the process with you (not mandatory but helpful)

How do I feel 3 weeks later

• increased self esteem

• happy with the gradual weight loss

• an inner sense of “yes I can” feeling which permeates in other areas of my life

What can I do better

• cook smaller quantities

• eat the portions saved in the freezer

• prepare my signature cold teas in advance

Until next time, be well!

INSPIRATION AND RECOMMENDATION CORNER

MUSIC - QAWWALI is the music I resonated with all the time and this week I played it a lot. Nooran Sisters are true forces of nature

PODCAST - an engaging interview about the role Empress Farah of Iran played in promoting Iranian history, art, culture, ways of life.

SOUNDS FOR HEALING - listen to it whenever you need to reconnect with stillness and joy