Taking care of yourself is more than a list of to-do’s. It’s more than getting good sleep. It’s more than eating well, and exercising and not judging yourself. Taking care of yourself is more than growing in knowledge or producing. Sometimes doing all these things we can still feel very uncared for.

When we reduce and tease apart the workings of our minds, when we hold the threads of what we thought made us up, we realize that our essence is not in hand. That essence being love. To love yourself comes when you know you were loved 1st by someone else. Everyone has been. Even the most unfortunate. Not everyone knows that but that doesn’t make it disappear.

Work simultaneously with that love, and these other efforts of roadblocks, biological and behavioral therapies – the character threads that we isolate and nurture then will weave together into someone friendly.

I feel comfortable saying that that someone who loved me and you 1st is God, but that can be confusing to people. I don’t think of world religions when I think of God. I think of all that I see that is good, like stars who’s light reaches me from thousands of years away, or my son’s smile right beside me. I think of the witness-mother of her murdered daughter who found forgiveness.

When I think of love, I think about a wanting in me. Someone asked me, “Why believe in God?” My answer is my own as is yours. I believe in God not because of what He will do for me but because I want to share every bit of life with love. I’m comfortable believing that is who God is. But don’t be afraid of being confused.

Madeleine L’Engle wrote in a Wrinkle In Time:

“Don’t try to comprehend with your mind. Your minds are very limited. Use your intuition.”

Intuition if nothing else tells us that there is love. It’s like the melody in music, love. Without it, we are nothing but clanging sounds.

Self Care Tip #8 – Love. Be a friend to yourself.