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“ The grass is greener where you water it.”
– NEIL BARRINGHAM
Over time this pattern of trying to please everyone turns into a habit of self-neglect and leads to resentment, feeling unappreciated, and eventually burned out. If you can relate to any of this, you are not alone. I have been a professional nurturer for most of my life and learning the power of self-nurturing has been the key to transforming the overwhelm and exhaustion that came with over giving into a life filled with peace and joy. Learning to create space in my life for flow has been essential in this healing process as it has allowed me to no longer live in crisis management mode.
When we feel responsible for other people’ s needs and making everyone happy, our nervous system becomes easily dysregulated. We feel the ongoing stress and anxiety of navigating our packed schedules with little time for rest and relaxation.
Living with unrealistic expectations of ourselves drains us and encourages us to work harder to feel like we are good enough. All of this takes a profound toll on our nervous systems and mental health. We can become depressed living with constant stress and anxiety.
One of the important aspects of creating space in our lives is the opportunity to settle our nervous systems and open to flow. When we are overwhelmed with stress while tending to everyone’ s needs, most of our experiences feel challenging and difficult.
The pressure of time, schedules, responsibilities, and competing priorities feeds our fight / flight / freeze reaction, and we often make reactive decisions rather than responsive choices for our wellbeing. If you have experienced trauma in your life, you are more easily triggered by outside events when your nervous system is activated.
If you are interested in experiencing more flow in your life, I invite you to bring love and compassion to yourself as you nurture your nervous system. Intentionally creating more space in your day will allow you to access the energy of being in the flow.
Each act of self-nurturing will remind you of your value and worth and make it easier to prioritize yourself and your needs, transforming your habit of self-neglect into a beautiful practice of self-nurturing.
HEALTH & WELLNESS
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