Inrageous/Outrageous Self-Care Enchantments for August 27, 2008

Inrageous/Outrageous Self-Care Enchantments for This Week

Can’t you just feel the changing of the seasons? At least we can here in the Northern Hemisphere. It is starting to feel cooler in the evenings and the evenings are coming sooner. Summer annuals are fading, and the hearty fall perennials are becoming more visible.

For women, the shifts and changes into fall can have many meanings. If one is a mom, with kids still in school, September can feel very much like the beginning of a new year. For other women, fall is truly a time of harvesting. We will be talking more of the changing seasons in September.

The Tao Te Ching speaks a lot to seasons and nature. This morning in my meditation, I read a couple of translations of verse 67 as follows: “Compassionate towards yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world” (“A Thousand Names For Joy: Living in Harmony With The Way Things Are” by Byron Katie) .and the last verse of the second translation “Venture with love and you win the battle. Defend with love and you are invulnerable. Heaven’s secret is motherly love” (“The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu” translated by Brian Browne Walker)

I think that the phrases “motherly love” and “compassion towards yourself” are saying the same thing and capture the essence of self-care!

In life coaching, I suggest that women spend time regularly going inward, going inrageous to root out those thoughts, self-limiting beliefs and old stuff that might prevent you from “giving yourself love and compassion”. It is kind of like pulling the weeds out of a garden or pulling out old plants that no longer fit in a garden transformation.

So, this week, your self care enchantments are about “pulling some weeds” and mainly about being loving and compassionate towards yourself.

Self Care Enchantments for the week:

1. Make a list of 7 old thoughts or beliefs that no longer serve you and create some type of “ritual” to let them all go. Some pretty standard ones are “I’m not good enough”; “I’m too fat”; “I don’t deserve that” etc. One ritual that other women have enjoyed is to write the seven “weedy” thoughts down on the left side of a sheet of paper with the opposite statement on the right ie “I am good enough and I know this because…. And then give examples of how you have been “good enough”. The final piece of this ritual could be tearing the left weedy side off and burning it, or adding it to the compost while saying “I freely and fully release these old thought patterns as they no longer serve me and I let them go, allowing for fresh new compassionate thoughts to come in”.

2. Write about self love and compassion in your journal. Go inside and ask how you are doing in this area. Ask yourself “what does ‘compassion towards myself’ mean to me.

3. Create three new ways you can give yourself “motherly love and compassion” and weave these into your life.

“May your life be like a wildflower, growing freely in beauty and joy each day.”

– Native American Proverb

Please share about your learning and exploration with these enchantments in the comments section of these enchantments!

namaste,

Zoey

Zoey Ryan

coach . catalyst . shakti sage

life & business coach for women

“Coaching for your heart & soul and the heart & soul of your business”

www.positivelyoutrageouswomen.com

www.entrepreneurialsuperstars.com

604-323-3700