Have you had enough, yet?
The weight of the world just never seems to let up, and all you need is an outlet, somewhere for you to focus your energies when life has come along and sapped you dry
You need a safe place. A safe space that you can call your own.
But more than that you need nurture, and unfortunately the older we get, the less we can rely on others to provide for us.
And to find nurture often means finding ways to nurture yourself.
How and when you do that is going to be dependent on your needs. But if you’re on anything close to resembling a spiritual path, you’ll probably find some of the following helpful.
1. Protect Your Space
There is nothing that will bring you down more and keep you there longer than being in a place that’s stuck in an energetic funk.
And that doesn’t mean just clearing your space of other people’s energy.
You leave just as much crap around your own space as other people do. All of the stress you bring home from work, the arguments you have with your partner, and anything else that imprints itself onto your space all affect you long after the fact.
So, what does protecting your space entail?
It means taking the time to do regular clearings and ushering out of the dense energy that has attached itself to your space.
You can burn sage, place sea salt at the four corners of your rooms and do weekly revocations and blessings. Because no matter what else you do, without a clean space, none of it is going to particularly self-nurturing.
If you want some more ideas for protecting your space, you should check out the 11 best ways to provide spiritual protection for your home.
2. Rearrange and Clearing Out Your Space
There’s a lot of talk of space going on here, but for good reason.
The physical space you inhabit affects the mental and emotional space.
And there are several ways to look at this.
The first is by arranging your space in a way that feels comfortable to you so that everything is in its right place – feng shui.
That doesn’t mean you have to study the art extensively or even look at the concept at all to reap the benefits; it just means setting things up the way you want and the way that’s going to make you feel most ease.
The other angle is the clearing out…
You may have resorted to this in times of procrastination, clearing out cupboards and closets. There’ll have been a ton of other tasks that were demanding your time, but you just couldn’t help yourself.
And at the end of it, you felt so much better.
When you click into that mental gear of clearing out physically, you can feel that energy throughout the rest of your being. It’s incredibly therapeutic to clear out what no longer serves you. It’s more than just a symbolic gesture.
It’s a state of intent and an affirmation that you’re clearing out the old to allow in the new.
Metaphysically speaking, you can think of it as a ceremony or ritual
3. Sleep with a Pregnancy Pillow
This one is slightly from left field, but can be useful for males just as much as females.
A pregnancy pillow is a long cushion that matches the contours of the human body. It’s intended use – as the name would suggest – is for pregnant women to avoid tensions within certain areas of the body
There are four different types, but the most common is the U-Shape, which are designed to support your whole body.
To use it, you lay your head on the tie of the U-Shape and place your legs underneath and on top of the ‘arms’ – straddling them. This simulates a cuddling position.
And although it does have a practical application, it also means it doubles as a very useful comforter.
If you’re someone who likes to intertwine with your partner, but can’t for whatever reason or currently find yourself single, this is a great substitute.
And for those of you that don’t, if you’re ever found comfort in hooking your leg of the top of your duvet on a hot summer’s night, this is that experience take to the next level.
4. Make One Night a Week Your Special Night In
Staying in is the new going out.
At a certain point in life – and I reached this stage in my late twenties – you realise going out getting blind drunk and nursing a hangover on your one day off a week isn’t the best thing you can do for your health.
Why continue to punish yourself out of some misplaced sense of social obligation?
Your biggest obligation is to yourself.
It’s not wimpy or lame.
Doing something that is for you and only for you is what self-care is all about.
It is your idea of special, so if that involves rom-coms and tissues don’t stop until you’ve emptied the box, and if it’s a quiet evening levelling up on an MMO game, indulge to your heart’s content.
The older we get, the more we need to provide ourselves with these moments of self-nurture.
5. Have a Cheat Day
The thought of this is going to be quite triggering to some of you. But there’s method in a well-planned cheat day.
It doesn’t mean you have to go on a 10k calorie challenge and drift right off the scales into gluttony; it’s more about relaxing.
Food is the number one drug in the world. We all need it to survive, and most of us have questionable relationships with it. Most of the time, we’re either on an ultra-restrictive diet or eating for entertainment. Not many manage to strike the balance of happy medium.
And it’s a shame
Food is such an incredible comfort to us when we engage with it mindfully.
Denial of what we want is one of the worst things we can do to ourselves, and the mental anguish of not having that pizza or burger often far outweighs the physical benefits of abstaining from it – and I say that as someone who follows a plant-based diet.
Let go, maybe once a week or once a month, just eat the pizza!
6. Drink a Green Juice
Conversely, no amount of encouragement will ever get some of you to ‘indulge’ in the delights of the high-calorie buffet table.
Though, there’s no judgement for doing so.
One of my favourite hacks that will lift me out of any funk, and adds to my already zippy energy is green juice.
They’re an acquired taste, but if you give them a try, you’ll feel a sense of buoyancy that you can’t find in anything else you could put into your body.
People will argue you shouldn’t separate the fibre and you’re missing on vital nutrition etc. But it’s all nonsense. The reason you juice is to separate the fibre, so you can get a concentrated hit of vitamins and minerals that’s physically impossible if you try and chew your way through several pounds of vegetables.
I started juicing five years ago, and it changed my life.
I drink them in the morning, for lunch and even dinner – not all in the same day.
They’ve wiped out the worst hangovers I’ve ever had in an instant and given me the energy to do more with my days than I’ve ever dreamed possible.
But you have to go heavy on the greens.
My go-to is a ½ lb of kale, 3-4 stalks of celery, ½ lemon, ½ oz ginger, and 4 apples. It makes about 3 cups worth.
Make it, and drink it in one shot you’ll be amazed!
Alkalize. Alkalize. Alkalize
7. Give Compliments to Others
Now, this is radical…
Self-nurture is meant to be about yourself, and if that’s the case, why would you want to go around spending your time giving compliments to others?
The reason is simple.
You receive the exact amount of energy you put out to the universe in return. It’s the law of reciprocity.
When you’re extending yourself to others in an authentic way, you’re giving yourself that same compliment. Since we are all aspects of the same source-consciousness, anything you give to others comes back to you.
It’s the mirror effect of consciousness.
The real power of this technique is you get to practice it every day, and by choosing to give others praise, it creates an enormous paradigm shift in your life.
And where you once might have been on the edge of burn out, through giving of yourself so freely, you truly begin to reap what you sow. Expressing loving-kindness towards others is one of the hidden secrets of providing yourself – and of course, others – with endless nurture.
It is a cycle that keeps on giving.
8. Love Your Own Heart
Coming into your heart-space is the very essence of nurturing yourself.
When you’re performing these acts of kindness, what part of yourself do you think it is you’re focusing on?
You act from the heart to nourish the heart.
But there is another way for you to take this practice to the next level. More than performing these acts of love for yourself, you can send that love directly to your heart.
Your heart is a muscle, both physically and spiritually that needs regular exercise. And you exercise it by showing it the love you want to reflect onto others.
The easiest of way of doing this is to literally say to you heart, ‘I love you.’ Over and over and over again. Sit in silent meditation, place your hand above your heart and send it those I love you’s either silently or out loud.
There is no greater or more direct way of nurturing yourself than by simply loving your own heart.
