The Power of Rest — No Stone Left Unturned

I’ve been writing about my word for the year - healing. The funny thing is, it’s as if the universe knows healing is my word and is going to do everything in its power to help me find my path.

One of my besties sent me a text. She shared with me her daily quote on the Insight Timer app, “You Can’t Rush Healing”. I will definitely keep that in mind. I brought this up last week, Insight Timer is a great app if you’re interested in guided meditations.

Have you heard of DailyOM? Check it out at www.dailyom.com. You can subscribe and get inspirational emails. They also offer tons of self-help type courses. You choose to pay what you can afford.

This week I received an article titled, “Parts That Don’t Want to Heal”. Here is what the article had to say; “In almost every case, we know what is best for us in our lives, from the relationships we create to the food we eat. Still, somewhat mysteriously, it is often difficult to make the right choices for ourselves. We find ourselves hanging out with someone who leaves us feeling drained or choosing to eat fast food over a salad. We go through phases where we stop doing yoga or taking vitamins, even though we feel so much better when we do. Often, we have no idea why we continue to make the less enlightened choice, but it is important that we inquire into ourselves to find out.

When we choose that which is not best for us, the truth can be that there is a deep-seated part of us that does not want to heal. We may say it's because we don't have the time or the energy or the resources, but the real truth is that when we don't take care of ourselves, we are falling prey to self-sabotage. Self-sabotage happens unconsciously, which is why it's so difficult to see that we are doing it. The important thing to realize is that this very part of us that resists our healing is the part that most needs our attention and love. Even as it appears to be working against us, if we can simply bring it into the light of our consciousness, it can become our greatest ally. It carries the information we need to move to the next level in our healing process.

When we recognize that we are not making healthy choices, we might even say out loud, "I am not taking care of myself." Sometimes this is the jolt we need to wake up to what is actually happening. Next, we can sit ourselves down in meditation, with a journal, or with a trusted friend to explore the matter more thoroughly. Just shining the light of our awareness on the source of our resistance is sometimes enough to dispel its power. At other times, further effort is required. Either way, we need not fear these parts that do not want to heal. We only need to take them under our wing and bring them with us into the light.”

Wow. I know I am guilty of self-sabotage. This is something I plan to bring up with my therapist. Yes, you read that right. I saw a therapist the first week of January and will be seeing her again next week. I am serious about this healing stuff!

DailyOM offers several healing courses. Here are a few examples: Heal Your Soul by Letting Go of Emotional Addiction; Re-Parent Your Inner Child; Heal Your Past, Heal Your Life; Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul; and Breaking Free from Addiction.

I think taking a couple of these courses would be a good way to focus on healing.

One of the ways that my tribe members support me is by reading my blog faithfully every week. They know that I am dealing with a great deal of stress brought on by caregiving burn-out. For Christmas two different tribe members gifted me with books. The one I am currently reading is called, “Wintering - The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times”, by Katherine May.

Per May, “Wintering is a season in the cold. Some winterings creep upon us more slowly, like the gradual ratcheting up of caring responsibilities. Some are appallingly sudden, like discovering your partner is in love with someone new. However it arrives, wintering is usually involuntary, lonely, and deeply painful.

Yet it’s also inevitable. We like to imagine that it’s possible for life to be one eternal summer and that we have uniquely failed to achieve that for ourselves. We’re not raised to recognize wintering or to acknowledge its inevitability.

Wintering is the active acceptance of sadness. It is the practice of allowing ourselves to feel it. It is the courage to stare down the worst parts of our experience and to commit to healing them the best way we can.”

May’s most important take away for me, “take your focus away from pushing through. Wintering is an open invitation to transition into a more sustainable life and wrest back control over the chaos we’ve created.”

Okay, so I am wintering. May says it can be lonely. Not for me. Because I have all of you.

While I have been working on my wintering, my healing, I have been busy trying to untangle myself from the chaos of daily caregiving. I have written about having to think outside the box because providers are extremely short staffed. I want to update you on my efforts.

We have interviewed another candidate for the live-in aide position. Travis met him and they have similar interests such as Xbox gaming and Pokemon. We are in process of getting the background check completed and hope to have him moved in within a couple of weeks.

I asked a neighbor of Travis’s if she knew of anyone that might be interested in hiring on with a provider agency to help Travis with cooking and cleaning and she said she would do it. Travis already knows and likes her. I believe she is starting the training with the provider agency this week.

Travis has been seeing a new therapist for about a month now. I went in with him the first week, I met him there with his dog, Sheila, the next week so his therapist could meet her. He is now driving himself with just a reminder call from me. Travis’s therapist seems to be doing a good job of building a relationship with him.

We are on the other side of a medication change and Travis seems to be more himself lately.

Travis came to our house one morning this week, had breakfast with me and brought Sheila home overnight. Maybe once his aide moves in she can spend more time at his house.

“If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but still the same amount of snow.” - @mindfulfitness

“New approach to self-care: talk to myself the same way I talk to dogs. Hey sweet girl! Look at that beautiful belly! You’re so clever! Want a treat?” - Author Unknown