10/08/2024
Self-practice for wellbeing can be hard to maintain, and sustain. The key is to practice as part of every day life though, not just when there’s a storm in progress. This reality can be boring, frustrating, but it’s one of the most important realisations in self-care practice.
If I could live with a high degree of accessible solitude, quiet, wildness and water and nature, serenity in small daily certainties, I’d perhaps have more sense of what regulation and calm feels like more frequently. Reality means there is always daily uncertainty, in small and big ways, there is noise, there is sensory discomfort, there are demands unseen.
My nervous system, like many Autistic and ADHDers, is sensitive and can lead me into fight / flight and freeze responses easily, and quickly. I used to return to movement practices like somatic yoga, stretching, dancing when I was already burnt out. I’ve realised that simply isn’t enough , and movement needs to be part of my every day life, always. It helps me to regulate. It helps me to notice where in my body I’m holding my emotions with tension. Some days I don’t want to attend to my well-being in this way. I want to avoid, cut corners. But I can’t. And this is part of how my life has changed post-diagnosis that I can’t afford to let fall by the wayside.
Picture is me, sat on my yoga mat, in butterfly pose. Hands on my feet, mindfully.
