Tag: self care

Not saving it for best

Yesterday evening I was given a most lovely gift by a friend.   It is a homemade body scrub, made with care and affection and packaged beautifully and smelling deliciously of lime, lemongrass and tangerine.

Last night I carefully put it next to my case ready to pack when I leave the friend’s house.  This morning I had what feels like a brainwave.  It doesn’t take much to make it feel like a brainwave on a cold dark November morning.  What am I saving the body scrub for exactly?

It is a huge jar full of great smelling loveliness and will likely last me for ages, but it will go off eventually as it is made from natural ingredients with a limited shelf life.

I grabbed the jar and headed for the guest bathroom with its amazing power shower and made it into a full on spa experience, albeit for just a few minutes, on a random Tuesday morning.  The smells were, as planned by my friend, uplifting and energising.  And even more than that, the day started with treats and makes me feel like it can only get better.  

A very good lesson in not saving things for best.  I have no clue, today may be the best, it has certainly started very well indeed.

Always something better to do

I am struggling with making myself write in the mornings.  Yesterday was a good lesson in why I should though.  There is always a list of things I should be doing in the mornings; various parts of my volunteering roles are very much email or computer based, so this precious 15 minutes could definitely be used for the greater good.

This morning is no different.  I need to write a report, it should have been done a few days ago, so I need to crack on. Yesterday I got the laptop out deciding I would check my diary for the week and then do my account reconciliations – also overdue.  I wrote this blog instead.

The result surprised me. It gave me a bit more energy than crossing things off the list would have done.  I had forgotten that this exercise of putting thoughts onto paper first thing seems to straighten out my thinking for the morning and enables me to just get on with things a little bit faster.

I still didn’t get the report written, but I did get lots of other bits and bobs done yesterday, which I suspect I would not have had I not taken this bit of time to do something fun first.  To get my own thoughts sorted and out there before I start writing for everyone else and doing the chores that enable everyone to flourish together.

This is my version of putting on my oxygen mask before helping others.  I still need to plan what I am going to write though, eventually this is going to descend into sheer babbling if I don’t.  Some may say it already has!

white plane on the sky
Photo by Mircea Iancu on Pexels.com