Monday Self Care
Seven Exercises for Firm Ground Under Our Feet
1. Monday: Self Care
The first step in our growth is birth. When we seek spiritual growth we need, first, to birth our separate self, that bit of us that knows how to, has the desire to and makes the decision to, go its own way. Moon is the birther for that, too.
It took me over 40 years before I could accept that self-care was my first, and foremost’ responsibility. Most of my generation were brought up to care for others more than ourselves. This appears now, to me, as a sort of ‘churchification’ of Christianity. If we are trained not to care for ourselves, we become more biddable.
In truth we have to care for ourselves. Who else can knows what we need and when we need it? Be that to eat, to take a pee, to sleep or to extend our love and care for others. All of those are self-care, at least in some part. We all need to give and receive love as much as we need day and night.
Self-care starts with bodily care. The in and the out of physical body care, is right food, and right exercise.
The etheric body (our life-system) needs good rhythms. The IN direction of this, is good sleep: Regular bed-time and rising-time. The ‘out’ gesture is socialising: Seeing and engaging with other people is important. Learning to balance these two helps.
The astral body needs spiritual input for its health. Deep conversation is the best, spiritual reading is good, online talks come next. When we watch moving images a lot is given to the astral body, ready-made. This needs little exercise to take in. A bit like refined carbohydrates for the body, screen-based input should, ideally be limited. Too much causes a kind of fat in the astral system, and sleep can be interrupted by astral indigestion.
Care for the spirit lies in such things as meditation, and the interest we take in fulfilling the destiny that brought us here.
Balancing all this is the creative-tension within the exercise. Taking it too seriously might not be self-care.
Learning to discern what we REALLY want is key: Is it best for me now to stop and eat or to continue focus on my work? Should I next go out for a walk or should I rest in the garden? Give yourself permission to ask for what you want. The risk of getting it helps us to know how valuable it is.
Asking for what we want is a strong gesture of self-care, but do not expect results: Expecting to be refused, versus, expecting to get what we request, both prejudice the learning we can gain through asking. Ask with an open heart, open expectation.
All of these 7 exercises address things that we do anyway. There is nothing new here, just a profound wisdom in bringing them together into a set of balancing acts. To seek awareness and conscious participation in these everyday needs, is a hugely grounding thing. If self-care is something we snuck into our lives before, to elevate it now, to our primary responsibility is a smoothing-out of an existing part of our daily life. Ask yourself: What happens when I fail to take care of myself?
This is the secret of these 7 exercises: they bring harmony and calm to things that we always do, but otherwise might not find the balance or harmony with.
The balance element is what led me to feel that what we are being asked to do here is to swing a pendulum through our seeking to know who we are in the world. The I AM, as it manifests in our daily lives, is visible within other people as much as it is within ourselves. This set of exercises swings the pendulum between those poles and brings it to rest in the centre.
Today, Monday, we swing the pendulum strongly into our own life, practicing self-care above all.
Here’s one option in practice you might consider as a backup to doing this exercise:
In a meditative space, imagine that you hear the voice of your higher self, speaking to you. This voice sounds, out of the space around you, out of the light that streams onto you. This voice sounds into your ears, into your body, into your warmth, everywhere within you.
Speaking:
“You, (Jane/Peter name yourself here), have been given to me, as my closest ally in this life.
All my love goes to you.
The more that we can achieve, as Love, in this world, the stronger I become.
All my attention is on what You need.
Tell me, today, how I may best support you in becoming who you most want to be?
So that we may shine the Light of Christ, into this world.”
Steiner’s original text for these Grounding exercises
Links
Article: www.SoundingBowls.com/1/freedom
Longform on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/561041941
Shortform on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XvKl6MQsbY
A guide to 7-day Rhythms of the Foundation Stone
