FIND WHAT FEELS GOOD
Find what feels good and go there often.
This, to me, is nourishment summed up.
Providing you’re not harming yourself or anyone else. Find what feels good and go there often. There is a responsibility within each of us to nourish ourselves. To not always look outside for nourishment but to be able to self-nourish, to self-soothe. The default in society I think is to seek outwardly, to find the answers outside oneself. I’m not talking about reaching out when you need support or letting your people love on you or seeking knowledge and growing - this is different and I am wholeheartedly here for it. More of it in fact; learning how to receive love from another, learning how to accept it, evolving. What I’m talking about is always looking beyond yourself and to others to feel good, to feel satiated, to feel more whole.
We can be our first port of call.
We can be our own answers.
If rather than critique ourselves over what we’re not doing or become consumed by what we’re feeling, we instead observe ourselves; our responses, our choices, our reactions, our feelings, we can understand ourselves better and we can hear what all of this is telling us we personally need to feel nourished.
For sure it’s a life practise - what isn’t? I ebb and flow and stumble too. What do I need to feel nourished?
Rest. Increasingly rest is becoming a big one for me. I’ve had an elusive relationship with rest since childhood due to weighty responsibilities from a young age. Pair this with a naturally time consuming detail orientated approach to my work in general, and vocational dance training later in life, and the practise of rest is something I have yet been able to cultivate (at least not in the way I truly desire). This is without me even beginning to talk about the generational displacement of rest in my family. I am working on changing that. I love resting and desire more of it in my life. I’m starting with structuring rest into my schedule the same way I do tasks, responsibilities and commitments, with the idea that consistent practise will equate to it becoming an interwoven part of my life. The same way yoga has.
My closest people - laughing, talking, eating, drinking, dancing, frolicking, galavanting, naturing, learning, being and absorbing art with them nourishes me BIG TIME.
Travel and connection.
Food. Not only the eating - the pleasure though! Not only the intelligence of food, but also the creativity in making a meal, pulling all of the individual parts together to make one delicious (and sometimes beautiful) whole. Though I haven’t enjoyed creating with food in this way for a long time. But that’s a story for another time. Also I cannot forget feasting with my loved ones, and cooking for them slowly.
Losing and finding myself in nature. Or as Victoria Adukwei Bulley said in our May Talk by Heart convo - dissolving.
Feeling and being financially at ease.
Feeling and being time rich.
These are the things that nourish me.
What makes you feel satiated and deeply nourished?
Rests your soul? Nutures your spirit?
Once you identify what feels good for you, go there often. Cause you know you can’t pour from an empty cup.
Ama x
Picture: Click for Artist