Self-care in Times of Chaos
I am going to be honest with you.
This email was ridiculously hard to write.
You see, today is the day I am supposed to kick off enrollment process for a new 10-week program I am teaching with the amazing and talented Shamanic Priestess and Shakti Mama Laura Wolf (who also happens to be a dear sister-friend and colleague). We have been working for weeks to create powerful content, make interesting videos with practical and powerful teachings, and provide you with all kinds of value to support you in the very important arena of self-care.
But I just can’t bring myself to send you the planned email content outlining the 3 reasons why women suck at self-care and how to stop sucking at it, and laying out all the reasons why this course is worth considering…
I can’t do it because there is something more pressing, more raw, and more urgent that my Soul is asking me to write.
Yes, I’ll probably send you the other stuff in a day or two, but for now, I just have to write from the place deep inside of me that yearns for something else than what we are seeing in our world right now.
What is stirring deep within me is the clear realization that we are being asked to make a choice. All of us. Together, and individually.
We are being asked, “What kind of world do you want?”
We are being asked, “How much dysfunction are you willing to tolerate?”
And even more importantly, “What are you willing to sacrifice to end what you don’t wish to tolerate?”
I don’t have any easy answers.
I am not wild about “call out culture” that thrives on the gossip mills of social media virally sharing suspicions of individuals in take-down style without knowing the full story. But when our systems of governance and public servants are unabashedly corrupt, when individual freedoms are being eroded (if they were even there to begin with), when bold-face lies are the daily menu, and congressional summons are flitted away like a pesky bug, I believe it is our duty to take a stand for something better.
And part of me hates that. Part of me recoils from that duty, that call.
Truth be told, I just want to live a peaceful life, focus on expanding the love and bliss I have worked so hard to cultivate over the last few years, enjoy my family and friends, and take some cool vacations once in a while.
But I also know that all of my work to make my life as amazing as it is, has to have meaning outside of just my personal gratification. It has to serve.
In my efforts to reconcile these sometimes conflicting parts of myself my Soul has given me some instructions and She's asking that I share them with all of you. So here goes...
My Beloved Warrior Woman, thank you for heeding the call…the call to love, serve, protect and evolve all which you hold dear. Thank you for not hiding or playing small. For not worrying about what others may think, and for taking aligned action. As you step forward into the fray, may these thoughts nurture and sustain you:
Give your life-force to causes you care about, but make sure you are actively keeping some for yourself.
If you are going to be successful, then you must do more than give some and keep some, you must also actively work to increase your life-force energy so you have more and more to share.
Look within for your marching orders. What stirs you deeply (not what outrages everyone in your Facebook feed) is the best place to get a window into the yearnings of your heart. Listen to Me…ask Me for guidance. Get quiet. Listen for what is yours to do. And do that.
Check your motives at each and every turn. Sometimes they won’t be perfect and you’ll go forward anyway (with that call, donation, boycott, protest, or post). But never forget you are a fallible human living in a world populated by other fallible humans so stay humble.
But also stay brave. You won’t always get it right when you use your voice, but if you are doing 3 & 4, you are most likely going to do good.And when you cause harm unintentionally, be brave enough to clean it up.
Pay attention to your body and your energy. Take breaks if you are starting to feel it taking a toll. Sitting by is also stressful so seek the balance that allows you to take guided action without depleting yourself. Use the practices you know to keep yourself whole in the midst of deep fragmentation. Do them with Purpose and Passion.
Connect with your support system, a friend, a loved one, someone who you can decompress with, someone who is willing to hold you as you cry when it feels hopeless and cheer you on when you feel empowered and activated.
Take breaks when you need them. Yes, this bears repeating. You are no good to anyone if you are dried up and crunchy or water logged from constant grief. You get to be joyful. In fact, you MUST take time to find moments of joy in the face of joylessness, even knowing that pain and misery may just be a news cast away.
Love this world with all your heart. Love the plants, the stars, the sun and the moon, the oceans and forests, the two legged, four legged, no legged and winged ones, AND the crazy fucked up humans that you share this reality with – LOVE like your life depends on it, because it does.
Ask for help from and trust in the Divine. The creative matrix that gave birth to form did so out of the energy you call LOVE and as such it has, at its core, an evolutionary perspective. While the evolutionary trajectory you are on may be a mystery to you, work daily to tap into it and have faith in it. It will not abandon you.
I offer these words from my Soul to yours, from my heart to yours. May they be of service.
And for those of you who have been waiting for info about the program I am launching with Laura, you can get a look at it here. I’ll write more about it soon.
But for today, just know...
I love you with all my heart,
Rima