Today I am starting what I hope to be a new series of blog posts featuring a small artwork designed to be a Monday Morning selfcare practice. The reality is that it is often easy to think about selfcare on a Saturday or Sunday when we have the real time and choice to slow down or stop but can feel much more challenging to do so on a Monday when we have the kids to get to school and the commute and work to get done (or whatever version of that is our current reality.
And although I work at home I can be just as bad at this as when I went into the office to work. Maybe more so, because having kids and working for yourself both mean it can be difficult to give ourselves that permission to slow down and take good care of ourselves.
This then starts an invitation into your very own personalised selfcare practice. Its an invitation because you can choose to look at how you can invite selfcare into your life. It's a practice because when we practise what we want, when we take regular, committed action towards it, we start seeing benefits. We start believing in ourselves and our wondrous possibility.
Today I invite you into this practice. Light.
I have deliberately left the invitation broad so you can meditate on what LIGHT means to you this week, and what mantras will help you bring more of that light into your reality through action and awareness.
Here are a few thoughts / prompts to consider as you design your selfcare practice this week.
Find the light:
The light is a source of energy to us. When we think of the sun it bring the new day and closes our day. It gives energy to the earth. This week think about what finding the light means to you. How can you be like a flower turning to good power to fuel your practice and your life with joy? Ask yourself where the light is already present, even a little. And how you can find more of it.
Be light like a feather.
Feathers do not push they float gently on the breeze down to the ground or through the air. How can you bring more lightness to the way that you work this week? This is something I find a personal challenge with, holding myself with trust that I am going in the right direct whilst still taking right action to move myself forwards.
Be a light to yourself and others
If you can't find the light maybe be open to recognising when you are a light to others, or how you can be a light to others in a way that fills your soul up and feels good. Sometimes we are so busy we don't recognise the joy that being with us and connecting with us brings. Or they joy that we can bring others by simply reaching out and connecting.
Practical selfcare practice opportunities this week focusing on light.
This week I invite you to think about how you practice selfcare via focusing on the light:
Meditate on what light means to you. Here I have created a small meditation altar to help me meditate with a buddha candle holder and battery operated tea light, alongside my prompt card. I can use this small space to take a breath and meditate on how I can be more light in how I approach life this week, how I can see things as being simple and achievable.
Write out a mantra that sums up your lightness practice this week. I am as light as a feather. I am open to approaching this gently and in a state of flow. I am the light.
Think about what it would mean in practical terms to live that mantra this week. Invite it into your life and make space for it. What does it look and feel like? What choices does it help you make, by using this as your practice today, tomorrow, this week?
Notice the light around you this week. How does it affect your wellbeing? Are you in tune with the light? How does your day flow around it?
Until next time friends, Namaste.