ABOUT: ME AND MY SELF CARE

Welcome to my page- I’m Jacqui! My pronouns are she/her. I’ve chosen to introduce myself to you by way of my modeling my personal brand of RESOURCING.

Sometimes my self care is sipping a cup of tea, rolling on my peppermint essential oils, napping or going for a massage. Sometimes it looks like doing the dishes, flossing my teeth, organizing my Tupperware drawer or doing my taxes.  Sometimes it’s singing (I hosted karaoke for 20 years and dubbed it Theraoke).  Sometimes it’s calling a friend, reading, or staring at the wall daydreaming or into the flames dancing in my fireplace, or watching tv (cheering on WPG Jets or the Orangutan Jungle School). I often redirect from social media and the news by learning Italian on Duolingo (great app! not an official endorsement).  Sometimes my self care means the discipline of attending my Tuesday night hot yin yoga. Sometimes it’s the leeway of not going.  Sometimes it’s being compassionate and offering flexibility while other times self care means accountability, boundary-honoring, following through with action, discipline and commitment. 

See what I’m getting at here? We need different things at different times so the key aspect of self care is tuning in and asking “what do I need right now? What would I benefit most in this moment and what might also be taking care of my near-future self?  What is my capacity and how can I work with that?”  Sometimes self care it’s productivity and movement. Sometimes it’s rest and stillness (Consider: Rest as an alternate form of productive in terms of recharging and realigning, try reframing by adding an ING to trust that nothing is actually somethING).  

Sometimes self care means tuning in and feeling the feelings (with curiosity, gentility, and non judgement) -accompanying this soothing practices can be helpful. Sometimes tuning out and turning to distraction and mild healthy forms of short term numbing is okay (hint: try granting yourself that permission and see what happens).  The overall idea is balance, titration, moderation and discernment. There are may brands or pathways of nourishment into self care as you may have noticed in my shared variety too.  Spiritual, intellectual, emotional, social, interactional, and physical.  My walks in nature for instance, cover multiple categories making it a helpful tool when I can access it. 

I also practice both PROACTIVE and REACTIVE self care. Pro-active involves my pre-emptive choices to prevent burnout, to foster calm, attunement and clarity as ongoing strides.  Reactive is what I need in the moment right away, maybe a declared break from unproductive dialogue or a pausing a task I’m stuck on to go claim space to self regulate with some deep breaths before returning to try again.  

During our sessions together, I’d be honoured to lead you in an exploration to cultivate insight into consolidating your preferred self care practices while developing more resourcing tools to expand.

Here’s a prompt: How am I already taking care of myself? What can I experiment with to take even more care and nurturance?