Taking care of yourself so that you can take care of the environment may seem counter-intuitive at first! If we defend a cause, no matter what cause, isn’t it a waste of time to take care of yourself? Shouldn’t we give ourselves body and soul for this cause?
Why taking care of yourself?
Taking care of yourself to be able to take care of the environment.
When we are obsessed with our worries and issues, it seems impossible to have energy for the outside. Remember the last sleepless night you had, the last migraine, the last flu. At times like these, we tend to forget the world, we want to heal, to rest, rather than taking care of others. With 39° of fever we do not see ourselves investing in anything. It seems fair physically. The same goes when we are in a bad mood or sad. It’s less easy to help the person who needs help with climbing up the stairs. We have less energy to help the colleague who asks us for a hand. In short, we are closing up ourselves. So when we have less energy, it’s hard to get involved in a cause.
We need to feel good in our body and mind and with our feelings to be ready to turn our attention to the outside, to be able to help.
Beyond this idea, a positive environment is built from within. Gandhi said “Be the change you want to see in the world”. We understand this sentence at first as the need to be an actor or an actress of change; starting our own business, investing in an association, etc. But this sentence is not just about the actions we do but more generally about our behavior, our way of being with others. We want to live in a healthy, serene, calm and fulfilling environment? Than, better to start by being healthy, serene, calm and fulfilled ourselves.
By taking responsibility for our own well-being, we are potentially removing a burden from other people. We tend to rest on those around us, to make them responsible for our happiness or our sorrows. By realizing that this power is in our hands, we relieve others; allowing them in turn to recover energy to engage in their own causes.
“Managing your brain (and the thoughts within it) is the most important thing you will ever do to create your desired results.” ― Brooke Castillo
How to take care of yourself?
It is essential to take care of yourself to be able to get involved for various actions, such as taking care of your friends and family or protecing the environment. Learning how to manage stress, to relax, to find balance, and to know yourself but also to set up new habits ans stop procrastinating are keystone in every actions you take in your life.
Understanding how our brain works is key to get out of guilt and begin to understand how to implement the actions you want. Changing habits can be challenging, it is liberating to realize that we are not lacking will. Understanding how to set up new habits, identifying your values, what is important to you, will allow you to achieve everything that you would wish for.
Lots of methods to feel good exist: yoga, tai chi, breathing exercises, relaxation, gratitude exercises, mindfulness meditation… This firstly involves a healthy lifestyle; paying attention to your diet, practicing physical activity (good for body and mind!). But keep in mind that it is mostly about finding what suits you the most.
Self-exploration
It is essential to know where you are starting from and where you want to go, to respect yourself, to take care of yourself, to gain self-confidence and self-esteem, to feel good with others…
Finding balance
Learning how to get organized and to prioritize important tasks for yourself, understanding and overcoming procrastination, implementing healthy and solid habits you can rely on, understanding what causes burnout to avoid it or at least overcoming it…
Listening to your body
To succeed in listening to your body, you need to know yourself and respect your own needs by establishing a healthy balanced life, this will involve the way you eat, stopping emotional buffers, respecting your energy by doing sport or resting …
Life is an exploration
Getting centered to reconnect to the environment
The ultimate goal of this self development process is to feel in perfect harmony with yourself, to reconnect, to focus.
Paradoxically by focusing on ourselves, we reconnect with the environment. When you think about it, it’s less paradoxical than it seems. After all, human beings are part of the environment. By reconnecting to ourselfves, we become aware of the life within us and then of life in general. So we again feel the connection between us and what surrounds us. Taking care of yourself is the greatest gift you can give to others and to the planet.
Author Otto Rank wrote “What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” Landing, taking care of yourself, refocusing is indeed the first step towards building a world more in line with our values.
Share your own tips, comments or experiences below!
I’m curious to know what you think about first taking care of yourself before being able to take care of others and of the environment.
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