Are you feeling nourished? For so many of us, the answer might be, “Are you crazy? I don’t have time for that.” We get busy taking care of those around us, at home or at work, forgetting to fill ourselves up.

But honestly, how many times have we been told we have to put our own oxygen mask on first, then tend to those around us?

We can’t give what we don’t have. Whether it’s our attention, love, care, whatever. We need to be closer to full on the nourished needle than to empty.

Self-care is nourishment. Remembering, and accepting, that you’re as important, if not more so, than anyone around you can be a challenge. We tend to think we need to go all out and be everything to everybody. But it’s not possible and especially not when you’re running on fumes.

Argh. I went to see the Barbie movie last week and that song the Kens sing to all the Barbies started floating around in my head. As I have mentioned in the past I have a positive, life affirming song that I use as a replacement whenever this kind of situation presents itself. But oh my gosh.

“I’m going to push you around, yes I will, yes I will”
“I am sacred, you are sacred, we are sacred ones”.
After a few rounds, my life affirming song takes over and is fully in my head.

I’m so grateful I have my go-to song. Can you imagine if I didn’t? Repeating Ken’s amazingly catchy tune over and over would start to imbed itself in my subconscious and once there, it can start to inform – subconsciously – my thoughts and actions.

Not. What. I. Want.

In the softness of your heart
Venus
Her loving embrace
Invites an opening
An awakening of your truth
 
Who are you
When Venus expresses herself through you

In many of my blog posts, I’ve written about our relationship with our bodies and body image. For me, this topic comes naturally having lived in the body image world since the day when I was twelve years old and noticed that my girlfriend’s knees were bony and mine were, let’s say, not bony.

I notice these kinds of things and question them which can sometimes get me into trouble. In this case, it’s not that it got me into trouble exactly, but rather it put me onto a path of noticing body types and deciding which ones I preferred and wanted to have.

Because this attachment around body image has been with me for so long, I know how it feels to want what we naturally don’t have. To crave so intensely a body that is not mine. It’s painful and all encompassing. And that gets me wondering…

According to the Labyrinth Society, labyrinths have been around for roughly 4000 years. Using sacred geometry, a labyrinth creates a resonance that brings us into a harmonic state with nature and life.

Personally, I hadn’t paid too much attention to them until several years ago when I was on a summer solstice retreat in Hawaii.

On the retreat site outside of Hilo, was a huge seven circuit labyrinth with lines made from a series of volcanic and white beach rocks. At each line end was a statue of an angel and in the center was an altar of crystals placed by walkers from all around the globe. Placed upside down next to the altar was a green plastic chair and there was a volcanic fissure that either led into or out of the labyrinth, I'm not sure which.

I loved this labyrinth and as we got to know each other, it offered me an experience I've never forgotten.