This week I started listening to the audiobook version of The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck. It’s a hilarious parody/tribute to Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.
Last week, in my meditation class, I taught about sacred selfishness, and how looking after yourself is actually a form of worship.
It’s been a while since I wrote about sacred selfishness – the idea that we need to look after ourselves first. Our society tells us that selfishness is a bad thing, and when it comes at the expense of others, then yes, it is a bad thing.
However, the idea that we must always put other’s needs and feelings above our own is an even worse thing. It’s harmful. Not to mention exhausting.
Like they always say on airplanes, “Please secure your own mask before assisting others around you.”
When I give too much of my time and energy (and yes, my f*cks) to other people without taking care of myself, I start to become resentful, and I don’t want to do it any more. Sometimes I even get to the point that I don’t want to do ANYTHING any more. I get run down and depressed and it’s even harder to want to do anything for myself, much less anyone else. (Yeah, I learned that lesson the hard way…)
So now, I work on making time for sacred selfishness. It looks different all the time. Sometimes it is cross stitch and zoning out to videos. Sometimes it is a walk in nature. Sometimes (only recently) it is a weekend getaway with my husband. Sometimes it is sleeping in, or reading a novel, or getting dressed up, or eating chocolate, or saying no to events or people, or any number of little things that fill my cup. Doing this not only serves me, it serves Deity, because we are all divine.
The key is to do more that fills my cup than empties it. Ideally, I do enough to fill my cup to overflowing and give from the overflow. I can’t claim to have that down perfectly, and it is something I strive toward.
How do you fill your cup?
Blessings,
Mary