Self-care is an important part of wellness. Many of us take care of others (humans, animals, plants), but do we take the time to take care of ourselves? And what does that self-care look like?
When we take care of someone, we are ultimately giving them our attention. In fact, one might even argue that the degree to which we devote our attention to someone is directly proportional to how much we care about them, and vice versa. If someone says they care about us, but they never give us their attention (or full attention), we will not feel that they care about us. It would feel like conflicting messages, like something is not adding up.
So how do we care for ourselves? Most important is to pay attention. How do we pay attention to ourselves? Simply by bringing our attention and awareness to our breath.
Why the breath? Well, in all honesty, what are we without our breath? Nothing but a corpse. Without the breath, you are not the person that you are, the soul that you are. Therefore, we ARE our breath. The breath IS us.
When we pay attention to our breath, we are paying attention to ourselves. We are getting to know ourselves, we are beginning to care for ourselves.
Then, when our attention wanders off, we gently guide it back to our breath. Guide it back to caring for the breath, caring for ourselves. That is why mindfulness practice naturally cultivates compassion—compassion for ourselves and compassion for others.
Photo credit: RR
Mindfulness FAQ 