Self Care Sunday

Sunday is usually my day off from "work" and a day of fun and relaxation with my loved ones. Carlie always has Sundays off (as long as she's in town) and Patch usually has mornings free. Soon we'll be trying to get Nick, our adopted nephew, time on Sundays too as he's moving in today and tomorrow. Sometimes we have Sunday Brunch together.

This Sunday was all about "self care" a term Shellie Ruge talked about in our recent support group for those affected by 1045. She gave us a list that breaks self care into several categories.  The 5 categories are Mind, Body, Spirit, Feelings, and Kid. After a busy couple of weeks (to put it mildly) Saturday was the largest Trans* Pride group ever to participate in Phoenix Pride. It was beautiful, and exhausting. So Sunday became Self Care Sunday and although I did still participate behind the scenes with 1045, I also managed to finally get in (Mind) an hour of reading, (Body) soaked in a tea bath and then used aloe from the yard to treat my pride sunburn, (Feelings) did some crying in front of the TV, (Kid) went out to dinner with Carlie, got some frozen yogurt yumness, and (Spirit) did some gardening and deep breathing before bed.

Paper Cutting over Acrylic Paint

Yesterday I covered each of the 5 areas by happenstance, because I'd made it  a day of self care. But really the goal is to do something different from each category, at least once a day. Since this whole thing started I have been trying to eat healthy, and make sure I do my hour of blogging each week, even tho I am not always getting the blogging done on Sunday as planned. I kept telling myself  "today I'm going to spend an hour reading in my hammock" or "today I will make art that is just for me" and then finding myself at the end of the day having done nothing. But now that I have a list of suggested activities, and orders from Shellie to do at least one a  day,  I plan to be much better about self care. Here are some suggestions in each category:
Mind: Reading, Writing, Sudoku, Body: Exercise, Stretching, Eating Healthy, Spirit: Singing, Meditation, Spiritual Practice, Feelings: Crying, Sharing, Journaling, Kid: Art for fun, Games, Being Silly.

This is important for anyone going through difficult times. I hope that all my friends will read this and take care of themselves as well.