“Every artist was first an amateur.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
I love the idea of becoming artists of our own lives. When we feel empowered to show up boldly in our lives and creatively express our authentic purpose and truth in the world, not only are we transformed but so is the world! Through this process we learn to listen to our intuition, trust and value ourselves, and prioritize our own needs.
If this sounds intriguing, you may be wondering how do I become the artist of my own life? Well from my experience, it requires intention and a consistent self-nurturing practice. That is why I have named my Aspire Magazine column “The Art of Self-Nurturing.” My intention for each column is to offer you nurturing ideas and strategies to deeply connect with yourself, new ways to cultivate peace and joy, and inspiration to invite more self-compassion, self-awareness, inspired action, gratitude, and vibrant health and wellness into your life.
My hope is that you will receive these offerings as an invitation to explore new ways of being with yourself rather than another thing to put on your “to do” list. Giving yourself permission to be curious and explore new ideas will release any energy of “should” and create a nurturing foundation for your practice.
I have intentionally used the phrase “self-nurturing” rather than “self-care”, because I believe that self-nurturing is more a comprehensive approach to health and wellness that involves cultivating an on-going relationship with yourself. Self-care are the activities you may engage in temporarily, but self-nurturing is the practice of being in a loving relationship with yourself, which positively influences everything that you do.
To explore this idea further, I define self-nurturing as the practice of caring for yourself by deeply nourishing, cherishing, and encouraging your growth and potential. The category of nourishing is quite expansive and can include any activity that nourishes and fills you up, including healthy food, exercise, walks on the beach, time with family and friends, purposeful work, being creative, meditating, dancing, or any activity that lights you up.
Cherishing is about how we treat ourselves, how we teach others to treat us, and how we prioritize our needs. Cherishing ourselves influences our choices about how we spend our time, what boundaries we set, and how we compassionately and lovingly respond to ourselves like our own best friend. Imagine someone you cherish, like a child or beloved pet, now imagine the possibility of feeling that way about yourself.
The category of encouraging our growth and potential is motivating and inspiring because it provides us endless possibilities. For instance, through the lens of self-nurturing we can view every challenge as an opportunity to learn and grow. I believe the power of our self-nurturing practice is both in the endless opportunity to learn and grow and in the fact that our practice results in our growth and expanded potential. Imagine all the possibilities available to you right now to encourage your growth and potential. If we return to seeing ourselves as artists in our lives, the creative options for encouraging our growth and potential are endless and could include taking a class or workshop, reading a book or magazine, learning a new language or instrument, watching a Ted Talk, learning a new skill on YouTube, writing, and/or expressing yourself creatively in any way.
As you develop your practice of self-nurturing you can use these categories and reflect on:
- What nourishes you?
- What does it mean to you to cherish yourself?
- How do you currently encourage your own growth and potential?
Take a few moments today and journal the answers to the questions above. Then identify one thing under each category that you can do to nurture yourself during the week. When we begin the process by recognizing our strengths and acknowledging what we are already doing to nurture ourselves, we feel much more empowered in the process. Then we can try out new ideas and add to our self-nurturing practice expanding our capacity to respond to life’s challenges with courage, grace, and resilience.
Being an artist in our lives requires that we make intentional choices that support us in living our most authentic lives. Knowing that we all start as amateurs takes the pressure off and allows our self-nurturing journey to unfold naturally. By bringing more awareness to these three categories, you can begin to cultivate more self-nurturing practices that you gently integrate into your life.
Remember the key to becoming an artist is practice. The amateur does not wake up one day and become the artist, it happens over a period of time. The process is as important as the resulting self-nurturing practice. Starting with self-compassion in this process is the most self-nurturing thing you can do. When you bring curiosity and non-judgment to the process, every experience can teach you something about yourself. Through our increased self-awareness, we can make more nurturing choices and begin to deepen our gratitude and appreciation for who we are. Over time, our default will become self-nurturing and that is when the artistry will be easier to embrace.
I love this wise reminder from Anna Quindlen, “The thing that is really hard and really amazing is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.”
Embracing this creative process as an amateur diminishes any need for perfection and opens us to the unfolding magical experience of becoming ourselves. The process of developing a nurturing friendship with ourselves will feel more and more natural over time and expand how we nourish, cherish and encourage our growth and potential. Then we will joyfully become the artists of our own lives as we nurture peace in the world from the inside out!
Sending you peace, love and gratitude, Kelley
