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Self - Care Now More Important than Ever!
Self-care means loving yourself unconditionally, respecting and valuing all of who you are. Self-care can be very challenging because it asks that you authentically look inside yourself. Self-care starts within. The mind, body and emotions are three areas that can give us a true sense of how we are being towards ourselves.
Mind/Mental: The inner voices speak loudly and constantly. Which voices are you paying attention to? The ones that are telling you how “you’re not good enough”? “You don’t deserve to be happy”? “Nobody loves you”? Your mind is a very powerful aspect of your self-care. Become aware of what voices you are listening to, or you are feeding energy to. Awareness is key, once you become aware you can make a different choice. You can choose to listen to the other voices. Yes, the quiet ones in the back of your mind that are uplifting, encouraging and always positive. The truth is, YOU are amazing and very powerful.
Physical/Body: The body doesn’t understand nuisances or intent. It is literal. If you feed your body negative thoughts etc, it absorbs it as truth. Taking care of your physical body isn’t just exercising or eating nutritious foods. It is understanding it is the vehicle for your soul to inhabit while on Earth. Be aware of negative beliefs or thoughts you feel or tell yourself. Remember, your body is literal. Exercising, eating healthy, appreciating and loving all of your body as is an important part of self-care.
Emotions: When I was growing up, my mom coined a term for me; “worry wart Shane”. She said it with love, she was right, I would worry about everything within and out of my control. Worry, anxiety and fear or a few emotions many of us experience in life. It wasn’t until I was in my late twenties before I realized how much the emotion of worry impacted me. Here is one way I was able to let go of the excessive worry in my life.
- I began to pay attention to when I felt worried.
- When worry overcame my body, I took a few deep breaths in and out slowly.
- I asked myself is there any reason I should be worried right now? 99.9 percent of the time the loud answer was NO!
- I also assessed how much of my energy throughout the day I was spending on worry. Think of how much energy is spent like dollars being spent. You aren’t able to get any money back until the next day. 100 dollars to spend the entire day is another way to think about it. Let’s say by 9:00 am I was already in debt.
These two exercises helped me realize just how much of life was spent worrying about everything. Since then worry has not controlled me.
Self-care can be one of the hardest things to do because it requires to authentically look at our life and change. Change can be hard, but it can also be easy once you feel the benefits. Start with awareness of all three aspects mind, body and emotions. Ask “am I willing to authentically look at my life and make changes if necessary”? Remember to be patient and kind to yourself, there is no hurry.
The Impact Our Thoughts and Beliefs Have on Our Body
Have you ever heard of the idea your thoughts and beliefs effect your life? How about this “thoughts are creative”. The movie The Secret described the Universal Law of Attraction - “Under the Law of Attraction, the complete order of the Universe is determined, including everything that comes into your life and everything that you experience. It does so through the magnetic power of your thoughts.” This idea is not new by any means, however, are you aware of how the idea affects your health?
The physical body we see is only a part of who You are. There are numerous subtle layers of energy that surround your entire body (including your insides). The layers are known as your Aura or Human Energy Field. The closest layer to the physical body is known as the Etheric Body. It is ½ inch to 2 inches from the physical body and is connected to the Root Chakra. It connects to the physical organs and meridians in the physical body. It is also related to our health and condition of our physical body. The second layer is known as The Emotional Body. It extends 2 to 4 inches away. It is tied to the second chakra called Sacral. It is connected to your feelings, emotions and experiences. The Emotional layer is where unsettled emotions such as fear and guilt are stored. The third layer is referred to as Mental Body. It extends 4 to 8 inches from your physical body. This layer is connected to the third chakra called Solar Plexus. Our belief systems, consciousness, ideas and Intellect are validated here. There are several more layers that make up the Aura Field. Our purpose is to look at the first few layers and the impact of our thoughts and beliefs on our physical health. All of the layers interweave with each other, simply put, they are not separate from one another.
Understanding the subtle energy system helps to make sense of why our thoughts and beliefs impact our overall physical health. Each emotion, thought or belief carries a frequency that can be measured in hertz. Love registers at 500 hertz, verses, fear registers at 100 hertz. The higher the hertz the lighter you will feel. An easy way to play with this idea is to think of someone or something you don’t like. Notice how you “feel”. Take a couple of deep breaths and let that experience go. Now, bring to mind someone or something you love. Notice how you “feel”. Did you notice a difference? Love feels lighter and comfortable, whereas, fear feels denser and less comfortable. The aura is impacted too. The lighter energy of love causes your aura field to expand. You feel safe. Fear causes your aura field to contract. You move into protective mode as if a threat were coming.
Our thoughts and beliefs have energy frequencies too. A common one in my experience is depression. Energetically, someone who is depressed feels a sense of hopelessness, (this is a generalization). The weight in the emotional body of the field is vibrating at a lower frequency. It feels dense and heavy. Over time the weight becomes denser and heavier materializing as a disease in the physical body. Refer to the etheric layer of the aura. Anxiety is another one. The belief behind anxiety is “not trusting the flow of life”. – Louise Hay, Heal Your Body. Both conditions resonate at a lower energetic frequency. Literally changing your thoughts and beliefs to ones at a higher vibration will help you heal. Referring to our two conditions. One higher belief regarding depression would be, I am full of joy and hope. Anxiety would be, I love and approve of myself, or another one, I am safe.
Clearing the lower frequencies out of your Aura will help your overall health. The lighter the frequency the lighter and healthier You feel. BECAUSE You are literally lighter!