The Nurturing Self

Some years back I had my first taste of Indian food and a surprising thing happened. About a half hour after I’d finished my dinner, I felt really good. I felt like I had been fed, rather than just feeling full. I’d never had that experience before, but it sure set me thinking. I liked that feeling of having been fed. I felt nourished, I felt energized and strong, I felt cheerful and happy. I wanted to enjoy more of that feeling, so I started to look at what nurtured and nourished me. Well, it wasn’t the food I was eating. Oh, I had a decent diet, but it was mostly based on ease and tastiness, rather than delicious nurturance. I started to shift my diet to foods that I loved and made me feel better for eating them, like zucchini and leeks, mushrooms, pit fruits, and so on, and to drop the ones that I liked but felt kind of yucky after eating, like Cheetos and sandwich cookies. I noticed that I felt better after drinking water than drinking pop. You get the idea. I looked at my spiritual life. I prayed a little, but that didn’t leave me feeling fed. Nor did going to religious services. I found that spending time on my porch watching the birds, and experiencing the weather, seeing the occasional rabbit or squirrel or chipmunk, smelling the smells, and hearing the sounds, that left me feeling spiritually fed. I made changes in my friendships, and let go of friends I didn’t like. I know that sounds funny, but a lot of us have friends whom we don’t like. They aren’t even necessarily toxic people, just folks who don’t leave us feeling better that when we arrived. I spent time poking around in my feelings for old habits of anger, guilt, and resentment, and began to let them go. That made room for more feelings of gratitude and appreciation, feeling that leave me feeling emotionally fed. I breathe more. Lovely, big, deep, refreshing, cleansing breaths, all the way down to my toes, and through the top of my head. We do most of our physical detoxification through our breath, so deep breathing is a wonderful way to clean your body from the inside. I spend some time meditating every day. Going inside like that is like hitting a reset button. I release a lot of stress, I stop old thinking-patterns for a while, and focus deeply on body stuff. It’s a soft way to break bad thinking habits, to do some gentle rewiring in my brain. I practice being present the best I can. I have found things I like to do to move my body, and practice them regularly. Moving my body, stretching and using my strength feels wonderful, and I feel physically fed. I spend some time every week doing creative things, this feeds my spirit. I share my time and resources with causes and organizations whose work I like. What nurtures your whole being? What foods leave you feeling fed? Who are the people who leave you feeling richer? What activities are the most satisfying? How do you make room for gratitude and appreciation? When we develop the habit of self-nurture, it makes it way easier to create a nurturing space for others, who then, in turn, create a nurturing space for us. How nice is that? How do I nurture my self?