“Awareness is like the sun.
When it shines on things they are transformed.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
There is so much healing power in the practice of nurturing our self-awareness. Bringing our awareness to how we feel and what we need is the foundation of nurturing a relationship with ourselves and making nurturing choices in our lives. Creating time during the year to pause and reflect on how we are nurturing ourselves can be deeply enlightening and empowering. Bringing this renewed awareness to our self-nurturing practices can illuminate where we have grown and highlight what areas we may have been neglecting. Creating regular times to intentionally reflect on how we have been nurturing ourselves interrupts of our habits of self-neglect and supports us in making new nurturing choices.
There are natural times of the year we may feel more reflective and could begin this empowering practice like the end of the year, the beginning of the new year, and/or our birthday. Developing a practice that supports us in reflecting on, refreshing, and recommitting to our self-nurturing practices is motivating and encouraging, and highlights how healing and transformative nurturing ourselves can be. Choosing to reflect on our lives also provides a structure to acknowledge our growth and hold ourselves accountable to our nurturing intentions. Putting aside time for reflection also encourages us to listen deeply to ourselves reinforcing our value and worth.
Over the years I have developed a beautiful ritual of reflection that I regularly use with clients, friends, and family and would love to share with you. I start by inviting in a spirit of curiosity and non-judgement and take a few grounding breaths to connect to the present moment. I then set an intention to reflect on my life with love and compassion, bringing special attention to acknowledge my growth in the five areas of cultivating my self-nurturing practice: cultivating self-compassion, developing more self-awareness, taking inspired action to nurture myself, acknowledging myself and my growth, and deepening my gratitude practice. I light a candle and incense to define this time for myself as sacred, and with my journal and a favorite pen I begin answering the following questions:
1.What am I most proud of about myself from the past year?
2.What was the greatest lesson I learned?
3.What self-nurturing practice most supported me?
4.Where do I notice my growth when it comes to cultivating my self-nurturing practice regarding:
- Cultivating self-compassion
- Developing more self-awareness
- Taking inspired action to nurture myself
- Acknowledging myself and my growth
- Deepening my gratitude practice
5.What do I need to let go of in order to cultivate more peace and joy in my life?
6.What area of my life am I currently neglecting?
7.What new self-nurturing practice(s) will I develop?
8.What support do I need to recommit to my self-nurturing practice?
When I have finished writing I honor the wisdom and insights I have received. I thank myself for taking the time to reflect and to recommit to my self-nurturing practices, including the new one I identified that will help me in addressing the area of my life I have been neglecting. I also make a plan to follow up on the support I need, which may be to ask a friend to join me for a yoga class or to become an accountability partner, or I may create a family self-nurturing challenge to encourage me to establish the new practice. Remember self-nurturing does not need to be a solo act so inviting others to join us will inspire us to prioritize time for these life enhancing activities.
This reflective ritual can be engaged in individually or with our family and friends as a way of cultivating self-nurturing communities where we can give and receive support and accountability around nurturing ourselves. We can also choose to reflect more often, perhaps quarterly or monthly, as a way of developing more self-awareness and intentionally making more nurturing choices in our lives. The wisdom you receive from this regular reflection will guide you in further developing the art of self-nurturing, the ever-evolving practice of listening deeply to what you need and taking inspired action! With the hustle and bustle of life, the holidays, and the new year, pausing to reflect can be a powerful act of self-nurturing in itself!
When we pause to reflect on the past year, past quarter, or past month it empowers us to make new self-nurturing choices from a place of love and compassion. This nurturing ritual focuses our attention on our strengths, how we have grown, what we have learned, and how our self-nurturing practices have supported us. These questions also encourage us to recognize what we need to let go of, an essential part of nurturing our growth and making space for new adventures in loving ourselves. As we use our insights and wisdom to recommit to nurturing ourselves in new ways we encourage our growth and potential and our practices are refreshed.
So pick up your calendar and set aside some time to engage in this empowering reflective ritual. Celebrate your commitment to yourself and your intention to live with more peace, joy and meaning through your practice of self-nurturing. Remind yourself that the more filled up you are the more generously you can shine your love and light in the world. And friend the world needs you!
May you embrace the nurturing practice of reflecting, refreshing and recommitting to your self-nurturing practice as you nurture peace in the world from the inside out!
Sending you so much peace, love and gratitude, Kelley
