Taking care of our health…

It is an important element of these days and everybody seems to be thinking about their health. But one day this shall pass and then we shall go back to our old ways… I hope not.

Health is wealth as it enables you to do as many things as possible and obtain resources. If you have health, but no wealth, you can at least generate the minimum resources for your life, but if you have wealth without health is like having feet but not shoes…

And health is a very complex topic as our bodies are complex. But we need to not only take care of it during the crisis, but learn to take care of it at all times.

Let’s not forget our mental health as we fight against being in enclosed spaces or living with other people in ways we were not ready for that.

I am not from healthcare, but I would like to suggest you to take care of your health in three different ways, based on my many experiences of dealing with my own body:

Let’s keep on checking with doctors. Although this present crisis has shown us that we must learn how to research on health topics and we shouldn’t be depending only on doctors, it is important to insert them to our life, and according to our lifestyle, since there are many avenues of medicine.

We take care of our lifestyle. A good diet, a powerful routine of exercises and many habits will help us to improve our capacity and immune system. It is time to invest time and energy developing all of those.

Spirituality also helps. It is a very wrongful myth that spiritual people don’t take care of their health, but even many spiritual people also believed it. In fact, by developing spirituality we will naturally take care of our body, as we will understand the importance of health in our lives. Practices as meditation or prayers have a wonderful effect in health too.

This is the first of a series of articles on self-care.

Cultivating a not-so valued treasure

Talking about values is an interesting topic. After all we all love to have cheerful friends, peaceful parents and honest co-workers. But there is little thought on how that come to be…

Why is Richard so happy? Is that something happened in his life and so this is why he is like that? Gens?

Why are your parents so peaceful? Anne’s parents are always restless or angry… Does that have something to do with their beliefs?

And what about Joanna? I have never heard a lie coming out her mouth during all the time I’ve been working with her and I don’t understand how that is even possible!

But when values are under threat – and crises particularly create an interesting environment that threatens our deepest values – it is time to rethink them, revise them and reinforce them.

Richard has lost his mother and is in profound depression.

One of your parents had had an affair and that is affecting their lives a lot.

And Joanna finally lied to me!! All because she wanted my position in the company.

This is part of self-care: to treasure your values. Even though you often don’t notice their importance, the reality is they affect your relationships and the way you relate to your environment.

The first thing you should do is to rethink them in relation to the present situation. For instance, how can Richard be happy now that his mother has left? A good answer could be she would like him to keep on being happy after her departure. The difficult and deepest answer is to find the roots of happiness and work on them.

The second thing is to revise the values. For instance, maybe your parents can’t be peaceful anymore, but why not being stable or assertive? Values can be exchangeable and if one value does not work in that situation anymore, another one may replace them. If you want to go even deeper you could think about peace, where peace comes from and how to being peaceful even in awful circumstances.

Last thing is to develop the capacity of the values, that is, to reinforce them. So, Joanna was attacked by greed or need and she decided to leave aside her value of honesty; maybe if she took a course of assertiveness or if she would learn a mediation process, we could talk and find a solution. You could go even deeper and try to understand where honesty comes and reinforce that part.

As part of your self-care, I would like to share an easy homework: create a list of values, rethink them in relation to the present environment, revise them and apply certain techniques to adjust them, and reinforce them.

This is part of a series of posts on self-care.

Helping the self

It is a new concept for some, but self-care is IN… Hopefully it is not a fashion and people from next generations will be taking care of themselves more and more.

But self-care does not mean only something physical, there are many dimensions to be taken care including emotions, mental welfare and spirituality.

It means to book some time out of a busy schedule to give the self and so many people could think this is so selfish…

I have learnt many years ago, when I started my spiritual path – which has its origin in India – that the only way to help others is to help first the self, and the example of old sages who used to go to the forest and stay there for years absorbed in deep meditation or contemplation, and then they could go and help other people to overcome their own weaknesses.

You are the most important person and you should be very well. Take your time and learn how to take care of yourself.

When you accomplish that task, many people will be grateful.

A session of coaching, just for you – part I

This has been a very interesting year and so, this session of coaching, distributed in two different posts, has an aim of helping you find meaning in the past year.

 

First of all, look for a place where you feel secure, safe. Along with that, do this at a time when you are not needed by others.

Please, don’t look at this as just a series of questions or tasks. Take them step by step, and take your time…

Take paper and pen, or pencil. If you want you can take a watch to keep time, but try not. And yes, be unplugged for the time of the exercise.

Let’s begin…

 

Session 1: it is better if you do all of this first, in order and during a certain time limit.

How do you feel in relation to this year? Write as much as possible.

Which things, scenes of your life or aspects of your environment you would prefer they would be rather different?

How much was your life impacted by all that happened this year?

Now, think you are being interviewed in 2025 about the year 2020. Indicate a few things you would tell your audience.

 

Session 2: do this after the first session; as you can see, there are two main questions, you can change the order if you want.

During this year you or another person has made an error that impacted your life. Which error was it?

By correcting that error, what would happen to the rest of your year?

By not correcting that error, what did REALLY happen (to the rest of your year)?

Something right happened that touched your heart or created a positive impact in your life; it may be the right thing you or another person did. Which right thing was it?

What was the impact of that right thing in the rest of your year?

If that right thing hasn’t happened, what would happen to the rest of your year?

 

Next week we will continue…

There is no self-care without the self

We take care of our body a lot in terms of health or esthetics, but how much do we take care of the soul within the body?

That is an approach we all have to reflect upon, particularly when there is the fear of death or some spiritual struggle.

Another approach is to take care of the awareness of being; to be soul conscious means more than a religious or spiritual phrase: it means to be connected with who I really am.

By being merged into the intense daily routine, a ferocious career, a health crisis or very unhealthy relationships, it is easy to just disconnect with that being and just react to whatever is happening around.

The problem is one day you will be living through a sweet easy routine, your career will be over, your health will be fine again and you will be ok with your relationships; but if you don’t take care, you will be something else, different than what you really are.

And that duality is not good for the soul’s health…

So, the best way of caring about the true self is:

• Follow your religious tradition. Time may be an issue, so find some time you can spare to take care of your own self.
• Meditate or contemplate. Get in connection with your true self.
• Reflect deeply. Don’t let things just pass; talk or write about them, or just sit down and think of what is going on.
• Change your lifestyle, so that it is aligned to who you really are.
• Look for a change of perspective by talking with different people or by reflecting in different ways.

This is part of a series of posts on self-care.

PS: If you are interested in meditation, I would like to recommend you to brahmakumaris.org; that’s where I meditate.

My mind: a sacred space

Your mind may be a runaway horse, aimlessly running from scene to scene of your life.

Your mind can be like a spoilt little child: crying and looking for attention.

Your mind could be just like a flying kite, being controlled by the winds of situations.

But if you take care of your mind very well, then your mind could be a cool lake from where beautiful positive thoughts would emerge… A very wise person who always has a great advice… Maybe a surf board: with skill and talent you are able to take the best advantage of any wave that happens in your life.

And those beautiful positive thoughts will show you the way; they will help you in your decision and success will be very close to you.

And that advice will open many doors, turning a crisis into unlimited opportunities.

And that wave will be a lever for your own growth.

This is what it means to take care of your mind: to understand its value and to change its form into something powerful.

This is part of a series of posts on self-care.

Am I still me?

Something a few people talk about is how crisis change people, for better and for worse. Maybe a new temperament emerges or an incredible ability of dealing with tough situations that turn a common person into a hero.

That’s also part of taking care of the self: to prevent the self to be contaminated or suffer of a post-traumatic stress so serious after a crisis that they may become almost unrecognizable.

Self-care in this case starts with knowing exactly the answer for this interesting riddle: Who am I? The idea behind is if you don’t really know yourself, it is easy to get lost in the hurricane of situations and adapt in a negative way like the frog…

Many years ago, I used to stay during holidays on the beach along with my late grandmother.

Once, she was cooking something and so let a bit pot of water in the stove while we went out to do an errand.

When we came back, the water was boiling. We could see the smoke, but she has left the pot open and there was a surprise…

A frog was inside it!

Legend says a frog would jump into boiling water and because its physiology, it would adapt to the temperature; unknowingly it would start to cook and when it realizes the danger, it would be too late…

Maybe that is the case when a crisis happens, because we adapt, which is good, but it is possible we start to lose some of our principles, most precious values, awareness and attitude. We start to change as people

By reflecting on the self and its depth, the individual learns more about him or herself and is able to keep their values, principles, awareness, attitude and all that is important and precious, no matter the crisis that is taking place.

In fact, this will help to overcome the obstacles and advance onto another level, taking care of the self all the way.

This is part of a series of posts on self-care.

Unintended consequences

An old movie[1] showed a very hypothetical situation: imagine if Earth activities would stop completely; it takes place in the fiction work by neutralizing electricity everywhere.

In our reality, it is taking place by a virus and reality is completely different than fiction.

And there are consequences – the 1951 movie hasn’t showed much of the bad results, but in this era, we are watching it online.

Now, by writing this post I have always wanted to stimulate a different positive realistic approach in relation to reality. So I won’t get into the negative consequences we can know anytime by tuning into any media.

But there is something that is being talked at many of the current media: recession. It is an almost cursed word that takes us to images and stories we would prefer to avoid. I myself was brought up very far from the recession epicenter, in time and space, but I consumed so many movies that sometimes I felt I went through the recession, and the sensation was very bad…

So, what to do? Just cry and blame something or someone? Fight?

These are times of uncertainty, that is true, but these are also times for good leadership. At least, a good self-leadership. By being your own leader, perhaps you won’t solve the crisis, but you can have more clarity about what to do.

It is an opportunity for reinvention, to rethink the self and to choose new routes for your life.

It is a wonderful opportunity to take over your own life and design it in a way that your resilience increases and you are able to obtain success even against the odds.

It is an opportunity for solidarity, cooperation and a sense of being part of a big human family, as we never had before.

It is an opportunity… even though it does not look like that a few times. Just try it to see the situations in this different way and check the results.

This is part of a series of posts on self-care.

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[1] The Day the Earth Stood Still. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still

Unintended victims

Any crisis generates victims, not necessarily in the real sense, but it exists to put some of the structure you have created down.

Although the victim is often related to the crisis itself, however, some of those who suffered are not a direct part of it. Relatives, friends, coworkers and even neighbors also go through a rough path too; and yes, generated by you.

To be more accurate, it is generated by your way of dealing with the crisis. They are not direct victims and many times, they don’t have any idea why they are in that type of distress. Why does this happen?

Crisis makes the experience of many different emotions to emerge and it is quite normal that you enter in a kind of emotional hurricane. So it is possible you also pull others into the same turmoil.

On the other hand, there is the hero syndrome; many people act in such a way that the problems they are going through are nothing. They just dismiss them, but inside they are burning and eventually, they may explode. A common reason is that they don’t want to hurt others… and yet, they do, because by protecting them they may hurt themselves. Consequently, those who love them will get hurt when they realize it.

There are a few tips you may follow in such a way that you don’t hurt yourself and don’t hurt others during a crisis periods:

1. A recent post that is being shared around expressed that any crisis has 3 elements: an expiration date, a teaching and of course, always a solution. Although you may not know the ending date, you can start to reflect and find out about its teachings.
2. At the extent you focus on the solution instead of the problem that will help you to keep your emotions in a balanced state.
3. Don’t deny the problems and don’t fear to call them by their name. A part of you knows it and it will be a disregard for your own self to diminish the situation you are living.
4. Learn to talk about your problems with people who are empathic and who can contribute with practical solutions or give you some support.
5. Whenever you feel strong emotions coming, just take some time off from your present environment. Relax a bit, empower yourself maybe by meditating and then go back.
6. Don’t hide your feelings and emotions… Talk about them in a way that is both open and comfortable for you, and get as much help as you can.
7. If you let the door of emotions open and they come out with a destructive force, after it happens, check what took place and whether anybody was hurt. It is good to hold a dialogue with your dear ones after such an episode, and forgiveness may be part of it.
8. Meditate… Meditate particularly when the crisis is not affecting you so strongly. There is a state called Detached Observer; it is a valuable one and it may help you to find peace and calm amidst the adversities. That will impact others positively.

This is part of a series of posts on self-care.

Keeping healthy

No, I am trying to not talk about the… virus… After all, as a blog, it is possible someone uses it later and maybe – hopefully – nobody would remember what it is. What it was.

But it is always relevant to talk about keeping healthy and even though times change, that need won’t change.

In my experience, health starts in the awareness and attitude as that was my weak point. It took time for me to understand the importance of self-care.

So, the next posts will be on this deeply important theme: SELF-CARE.

For now, could you tell me: Do you want to know anything about it? Or do you want to comment on this and contribute with this topic?