How to nourish yourself in a difficult time

“When times are hard — as they have been with alarming frequency lately for many Americans — the first thing to go can be the desire to feed yourself. After two years of the pandemic, increased threats of gun violence, attacks on the fundamental right to control our own bodies, it can feel inconceivable to get out of your own head, open up the fridge, and nourish yourself well.

Taking good care of ourselves requires many tools, including community care, professional help, and self-care. Self-care, which has become something of a meaningless buzzword but is in fact an incredibly powerful and stabilizing force, can feel particularly hard in this current moment with all the concurrent crises.

It’s not your fault it’s hard; it’s how we’re wired and conditioned

It can come as something of a shock how feelings like stress, anxiety, and grief can manifest in our bodies. Connecting to yourself when you feel big feelings is the first and hardest step, by far. But it’s essential to receive all the information about what we are going through so we can understand ourselves and what we need. When we ignore and numb our bodies instead of listening to them, we get stuck.

When we validate ourselves for all these realities we can make room for self compassion to arise — and that can give us the energy we need to make moves. Many of us have a tremendous fear that any difficult feeling is going to last forever; sure, thinking goes, you got through today eating nothing but mashed potatoes, but what about tomorrow? And the next day? It can be easy to find yourself in a spiral, imagining your whole life stretching out before you with every day as hard as today, but that is not the case.

Start where you are

Here’s an exercise: Imagine someone you love struggling in the way you are today or in a particularly challenging moment in the past. How would you respond to their needs? Allow these imagined feelings and ideas to move through you and take the step for yourself that you might take with this imagined other.

Next, take just one step toward feeding yourself. If even the first step is overwhelming, take a few deep breaths and think how you can make it easier. Could you get someone else to pick up groceries for you? Could you simply eat the peanut butter and tortillas in your pantry and call it done? Let it be enough. Start where you are and know that feeding yourself — whether it is a bowl of pasta or a handful of nuts shoved into your mouth — is something to be proud of. Just as you would be proud of yourself for showing up for a friend or your child, you can be proud of yourself when you show up for yourself in the same way.”

Read the full complete article on Vox

✨Takeaway: A faith-filled act, feeding yourself with love and care is a testament to your inherent goodness. It can initially feel strange to take care of ourselves the same way we would take care of a loved one. In light of your low energy level, it could seem like too much labor. Allow yourself to feel thankful for what you have achieved.

✨Reflection: How do you nourish yourself when you are in a difficult time?

#Self-care #Eating #Food #Nourishment #Health #Well-being