What It Means To Nurture Yourself
Nurture: Care for and encourage the growth and development of, and:
- Protect; guard; keep from risk
- Provide for; look after
- Cherish
- Love
- Hold dear; to be fond of
- Treasure; regard as precious; value highly
When you nurture yourself, you are demonstrating self-sufficiency. By taking responsibility for your own health and well-being, you free others from being responsible for your happiness. This frees you from feelings of resentment. As a consequence, you foster healthier, more balanced relationships.
Six Ways To Nurture Your Relationship With Yourself
- Give yourself the benefit of the doubt. Tell yourself, “I’m doing the best I can with what I know and what I have right now.”
- Forgive yourself. If you feel it’s necessary, make apologies and amends, assuring the person receiving the apology that you won’t make that mistake or error in judgment again. Then forgive yourself by letting it go. Be proud of yourself for apologizing, that can be a very scary thing to do!
- Make a list of your core values (there is a True North Values List with instructions for how to select (and how ‘not’ to select your values) and how to use your list to make your most important life decisions in WORTHY A Personal Guide for Healing Your Childhood Trauma
- Spend 15 minutes daily reviewing what went right with your day.
- Which of your strengths showed up?
- Did you choose to do or say anything that reflected your core values?
- Did you take a moment to praise yourself for something you handled well?
- Did you comfort and encourage yourself when things didn’t go quite right?
- Love yourself unconditionally. It’s a long life and you can choose to go through it as your worst enemy or as your best friend. Observe closely how you talk to yourself. Would you accept the things you say to yourself from anyone else?
- Do things regularly that you are passionate about. If your budget is tight, then volunteer at an organization that focuses on what you love. Do you love horses? I once was a volunteer at a ranch that did equine therapy. I got to ride occasionally and especially loved one of the horses whose favorite thing to do was hug humans. Do you love dogs or cats? Volunteer at the Humane Society. Almost any nonprofit takes on volunteers. Nurture your inner child and go out and PLAY!
More to come on this precious subject. We’ll talk soon.
