Monday 15 September 2014

Self Care: Taking Charge of YOUR Life

TAKING CHARGE


Jump Start from freedigitalphotos.net
I've said it before and I'll say it again - each and every one of us is 100% responsible for ourselves. Forget about the caring and sharing that is different. Ultimately the buck stops here. YOU and no one else but you needs to take charge of your life and make all the decisions, all the mistakes and take all the opportunities.

Just taking that first decision to take charge, to stop being a victim is liberating. It's hard, yes I know it's hard, but ultimately it is the only way you can live your life. Take help and advice where ever and whenever you can, talk to people, to guides even, but know that whatever road you do take, it is your decision to take it.
As an aside, the reason they are called guides, is because that is their job, not to take charge, but to guide your path, to give advice, comfort even. If a guide makes the decision for you, he, she or it needs to be fired.

Acting on someone else's advice only gives you another target to shoot at if it doesn't turn out as you expected. You cannot pass on the responsibility for yourself. You can shift the load for a while maybe, but somewhere down the road it will all come back to you.
And remember the road NOT travelled may well have to be travelled another time, if not in this lifetime then in another one.

And the positive spin on all that? Isn't it exciting? Life as an adventure with an endless variety of paths to tread and all of them here just for our own lesson, our own individual achievement so that we can each evolve as a human being and as a light being? At the end of this life, you will be able to appraise it and be able to say 'OK is wasn't always easy but I learned this or I learned that.' Or even, ' I choose not to learn that this time - maybe I will the next time.'

I can fly - by annmackiemiller

How do you take charge of your life?


  • First and foremost you need to learn yourself. Be totally aware of what your body, your mind and spirit are telling you. You have the most immense wisdom within you and you do have the capacity to access it.
  • Physically know what foods your body responds well to. Take the time to work out those that hinder your health, for example, dairy products, wheat, yeast or sugar. You don't have to produce severe symptoms or allergic reactions to have a sensitivity to certain foods. You can tell by really listening to how your body reacts after taking these foods, try one a time to eliminate them.  For example you might feel slow and sluggish the day after eating lots of dairy products and so on. 
  • Further look after the physical body by taking some exercise. It doesn't need to be strenuous, start with 5 minutes a day with simple stretching and breathing exercises, Tai Chi or Yoga. Take a 20-minute walk 3 times a week or swim 3 times a week, both gentle exercise but two of the most effective in stimulating the whole body. Once you overcome the initial inertia that we all suffer from, you will find the more you do, the more exercise you want to do.
  • Know when to rest. Pushing yourself to the limit isn't wise. If you don't take time to relax you will find nature will find a way to force you into it.
  • Play. Just as important as work.
  • Pamper yourself occasionally - you deserve it and you need it. It doesn’t need to cost anything. simply having a bubble bath or taking a night off works.
  • Learn to listen to your inner self with meditation or with divination. These are tools to help you hear yourself. Meditation can be simply sitting quietly and allowing your breath to be relaxed, you enter a sort of half waking state where the right side of your brain, that is the intuitive side, can come to the fore. At first it may only appear as flashes but as you continue to exercise your mind in this way, the messages will become clearer.
  • Find out some simple forms of divination - there is nothing spooky about it all, it is all rather magical - and you can use anything from a dictionary to animal guide cards to crystals. All you need do is be aware that you are asking for some message, hint or tip for that day or that situation. Then pick up a dictionary or other book, open it at random and read what your eye fixes on first.
  • Learn to trust your instincts. Usually the first thing that pops into your head is the right one for you at that time. It is usually when we start to intellectualize things that we introduce doubts and make it more difficult for us to reach decisions. For me, the telephone seems to work really well but I seldom seem to trust it. I KNOW in my heart of hearts that if I can't get through on the phone there is a reason for it - maybe I need to think things through more, maybe it is not the right time for me to take action, maybe I need to leave someone alone. I find if I persevere until I do reach that person, something doesn't quite click, they will tell me they can't meet me as I want them to, or that this is a bad time for them. The same goes with the Internet which is really just another phone line isn't it? A community website I edit was 'stuck' showing only the home page for three weeks, until I took out the page telling the world I was selling the post office and it published first time. The universe does it's very best to save me time and effort. It's not its fault if I am sometimes slow on the uptake.
  • Keep a journal or diary. This is an excellent way to getting to know yourself or at least at listening to yourself. It doesn't have to be elaborate - it doesn't even have to be grammatical. No one else will ever see it but it is revealing to keep going back to it after several months. You'll be amazed at the journeys you have taken.

There is a saying in Reiki circles, when you heal yourself, you heal the world. This is only the beginning.

This is part of the self-care programme Your Life in Your Hands from Ann Mackie Miller MA(hons) RGN, SCM, GSSR which will appear in book form later this year. 

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