I have been in a grumpy, foul and just plain irritable mood since Friday. I'm tired, I'm upset, I can't get motivated, I just want to give up on it all and hide under a blanket. This kind of behaviour is, as my husband duly noted, cyclical and temporary, thank goodness (I actually find it ironic that he seems to know my cycles better than me at this point). But it does bring up a conandrum: How do you nurture your self when you don't feel like it? How do you feed your body whole, healthy food that nurture when what you're really craving is junk food and its euphoric "feel good" fix? Is a craving your body's way of asking for what it truly needs or a mind's trick learned to ward-off negative moods? How do you elevate your mood, confidence and motivation when you feel defeated?
These are some of the questions I struggled with this week-end, as I lived on pasta (with butter) and chocolate. I'm afraid I didn't find any mind-blowing answers. Three days of carb and chocolate indulgences later, I feel gross and am trying to fend off the thoughts that want me to see my indulgences as failures. Instead, I'm choosing to see this week-end as a teachable moment, an opportunity to ask myself how do I prepare for the next time my negative moods come back (as they will in roughly 28 days). I think the only answer I came up with is that the only way to nurture myself in these days of feeling low, is if I have a plan in place and a strategy in mind. I'm not sure what my self-care plan is going to look like, but I have four weeks to come up with it which gives me ample time to come up with ideas. How about you? How do you nurture your "Me" when you're feeling low?
Today, I took care of my "Me" by being gentle with myself and not engaging in self-defeating thoughts. I also connected with friends, read a book that made me laugh, and stared at the sunlight while trying to absorb every ray. How about you? How did you take care of your Me today?
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