Does anyone else feel like the last 2 years have been a whirlwind of crazy stuff going on all to end up with war? It is like everywhere you turn there is something going on that can take you away from yourself, pull your focus, increase your worry, make your anxieties skyrocket. We can see this a lot with our kids who have less of a capacity to handle all the crazy that is happening. The question is how do you worry about yourself and your health and wellness when you know there are people across the globe that are suffering and having to run for their lives? How can you focus on what may seem trivial to you or others in comparison to the lives being lost? What do we tell our children to help them get through it all?
First I think the most important thing to remember is that even with all the crazy going on, all the war and death, it is important to realize that if you don’t take care of yourself then there is no way you can be part of anything that may help with the situations at hand. If you are run down and out of sync with yourself, you can not possibly think you can help in any of these other larger situations.
Secondly, I think it is important to gauge what you are capable of in terms of helping. Are you in a position to help in a large-scale way, or do you need to set your focus on a more locally centered effort? We all want to feel like we have done our part have reached out and supported what we felt was important but that does not have to happen on a global scale sometimes it is just as important to focus your efforts on something more local and grow from there.
The only step that is important at the beginning is making sure that before you help others you have yourself in the right state of mind. You can not provide help or ideas for others if you are all out of sorts. Take a moment and write down what you want to accomplish and how you see yourself getting there. What is needed for you to make this happen? Do you need a certain amount of your time each day to be ready for your goals? Or do you need to find the right group of people to help you get there? Are the things you are involved in now helping you move toward or away from what you want?
Once you have laid out what it is you want and the path you wish to take to get there you can better prepare and plan your route to that goal. Start with the small easy goals and work your way to the larger ones, some of which may include providing the help and support to others that you wish for. Maybe if you are someone that wants to do more for the people suffering across the globe your first step may be to donate money or help raise awareness in your local circles. Starting here while working towards a larger scale effort will keep you from feeling overwhelmed and like you never seem to help.
Maybe you are in a situation similar to mine where you are not sure what you want to do to help. I don’t know what I want to do, or how I should handle the things I see or hear about, so my effort has been focused on trying to be sure my kids understand what is happening. It is just as important for those of us with children to focus on helping them cope and understand the things they hear and see. Teaching them is what will help later generations make what we hope are more informed decisions.
So this Self-Care Sunday message as a whole is to try your best not to let the crazy and horrible take a root in your life. Take a moment and make a plan on how you can handle the things going on without losing yourself or letting it harm your children. Take a break from the world and the news when needed it will still be there tomorrow and you can not be a part of any solution big or small if you are not good yourself.
