I’m craving a l-o-n-g walk, I’m due a brain-clearing. I’d like a minimum 7 days, 150 miles. Looking at the South West Coast Path or the Pennine Way, both a tad longer.
I was never a long distance walker until one day I just went for a walk.
I long for the silence, to be disconnected and yet fully connected.
I need to light an outdoor fire, sit by it and watch day become night, I need to sleep under canvas, sip wine and just hang out with my mate Ms Nature for a while. I need to feel every muscle in my body ache at the end of the day. I am still a hippy chick at heart.
I’ve also said four times in the past month that the walk will ‘need to go on the back-burner’ for a little while: work commitments and promises made elsewhere.
What?
There are no back-burners here. None that I knew about.
I will change the plans.
I will make better promises.
Things can be shuffled.
Needs: your personal needs cannot be queued up at the back.
Never ignore instincts: if they speak, listen up.
When you stop taking care of your own needs you are saying ‘my needs don’t matter’.
Take a moment. Think. Go for a walk. Is there anything that you have been putting on the imaginary back burner that needs to come on the front rings?
This isn’t about ‘finding time to fit it in’, this is about caring for your emotional and mental well-being. What do you need right now? No lectures, say yes to yourself, that’s all.
We get so caught up in our busyness that we forget we even HAVE personal needs sometimes. Thanks for the reminder to pay attention to our cravings. We must take care of ourselves as a top priority.
There are just certain things for me that there is no back burning of: exercise comes to top of mind. I make the time for it even if I have to get up early (earlier) to fit it in. I can be my own worst enemy if I avoid taking care of me.
Valuable post, thanks.