“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Audre Lorde • The holidays laid me flat for a minute. Sometimes I have to step away from a crowded room and just breathe, take a minute to notice what isn’t mine and release it. I have to work to create firm borders around my mental space, create a safe area where I can move freely. If I neglect this work there are physical consequences. I suppose the purpose of this post is just to voice this secret, quiet part of myself. This is what I look like on bad days, when my mind•body•spirit is spent. I appear to be doing nothing, sometimes for days. In reality, I’m doing the difficult and important work of cleansing and regeneration. The empathic work of sorting out Self from accumulated energy, thought, and feeling. The constructive work of building safe and peaceful space by-and-for the Self. This is not easy. I am not a peaceful person. These are not peaceful times. “Self care” has become a commercial enterprise, a bullshit parade of peaceful upper class white ladies telling us to change our attitudes. Self care is not always peaceful or pretty, not Pinterest worthy. It’s letting yourself be unlikable and making space for your trauma and pain. It’s blossoming in shitty conditions because you insist on nurturing yourself even when the world tells you you don’t deserve it. For women , in particular, it is letting what comes out of our mouths reflect what is happening in our minds, honest and unvarnished and not dressed up in sugar-roses. So here is my human self, not always peaceful or happy, and much funnier in public than I am at home. #tarotbylibby #empathproblems #columbusohio #witchesofinstagram #witchesofohio #selfcare #fibromyalgia #highlysensitiveperson #asseenincolumbus #tarot (at Columbus, Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsJKtJ-gZOC/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ogpi4w69n7c9
