Weekly Self-Care Guidance 7-13 October 2019

Hello! Welcome to this week’s self-care guidance for 7th – 13th October 2019.
 
As I write this blog post, Storm Lorenzo is making its way towards Castlebar.  It is so cold out, and it feels particularly apt that this week’s self-care essential oil is Black Pepper.  Black Pepper is a wonderful warming oil physically, and it a lovely oil for the circulation and warming up the body.
 
Mentally and emotionally, Black Pepper encourages fearlessness, strength, stamina, endurance, motivation, flexibility and comfort.  Storms provide great analogies on how to cope with life.  Take these quotes as examples:
 
“When you are in the middle of a storm cloud it's hard to think outside of it, but the only way out of the storm is to ride through it and things will be a lot clearer on the other side.” - Jodi Ann Bickley
 
“When the storm has passed, put your energy into rebuilding your life, don't waste time looking back.” - Leon Brown
 
“You can look at my palm and see the storm coming. Read the book of my life and see I've overcome it.” - Mary J. Blige
 
Storms come along and afterwards, we repair and rebuild.  Whether it’s after a physical storm like Storm Lorenzo, or after a personal storm, we carry on and learn to overcome and rebuild and thrive.
 
Self-care provides the fuel for overcoming storms, rebuilding and thriving.   While going through a storm, or just after it, we can feel detached or cynical.  Yet, with self-care, we rebuild our inner world first, then we rebuild our outer world.
 
Black Pepper helps us move from denial to acceptance.  When we deny when things are bad or that we’re hurting, we build a wall that keeps out peace and success.
 
By taking a deep breath and calling on our inner resources, you can look your situation in the eye and trust that you’ll find a way through.  Often when we look at something we’ve been avoiding; we see it’s not as bad as we thought.  If it is as bad as we thought, then we found out we’re more resourceful and resilient in recovery than we originally believed.
 
Sometimes we need support to help us to take a deep breath and call on our inner resources.  This week’s stress management technique is to make time for a treatment you like with a therapist or practitioner you like.  Whether it’s massage, reflexology, reiki, osteopathy, shiatsu, acupuncture, find a treatment that helps you relax.  There are so many different therapies and therapists out there that it’s important to find a therapy you like with a practitioner you like.  I often find that every reiki or massage therapist I go to is a completely different experience from the others
 
I invite you to devote some time to your self-care this week and book a session with me. This could be Aromatic Kinesiology, Indian head massage, reiki, foot reflex massage or a Kundalini yoga class. I have guided meditations available at on Bandcamp. You’ll find information on all my services at www.relaxfromstress.ie