Radical Regard…for Yourself – With “MY SACRED SPACE TIME”

In my last two blog posts I offered two questions that support you in honoring YOU.

“What will you do this summer (or any season you are in) to honor yourself?”

“What Sacred Space do you need in this season of your life?”

In Compassion Coaching and Psychotherapy, the foundational practice I teach clients is to learn how to skillfully pause. Our everyday lives are full of distractions. We are busy and “on the go.” We live in a culture with gadgets that keep us “on” and “connected” 24/7. Pausing supports us in “listening within.” When we pause, we can hear the sacred voice within us responding to those to questions.

When we hear a truth rise up from within us? We follow it.

And here’s my suggestion:

Begin to treat yourself with RADICAL REGARD and block out time to live out your response to those two questions.

Block out time in your family’s calendar for you. Call it “My Sacred Space Time.”

Instead of hoping this sacred space magically appears after everyone else’s camps and activities are filled in on the calendar, begin to see yourself as worthy of RADICAL REGARD.

Instead of giving yourself the scraps that are leftover, leaving you like a hungry dog scrounging for nourishment (and yes, this is so often what I see in moms), block out time in your family’s schedule for YOU being in YOUR SACRED SPACE.

Think about that image – treating ourselves as hungry dogs scrounging for the nourishment of time, care, and attention?!!!

Treat yourself with radical regard. Block out time: My Sacred Space Time.

Write it in your calendar: My SACRED SPACE TIME. Let your children and partner know. Tell your girlfriends. “I am making sacred space for me.”

This is honoring yourself. This is treating yourself with lush regard.

When my youngest went off to kindergarten last fall, I did not take on more hours, more teaching opportunities, or more clients. I began to block off time for me to treat myself with RADICAL REGARD.

I rested. I spent time doing NOTHING some days. I let the house be messy. I said “no” to demands on my time. I rested. I rested and I rested.

And then when I was deeply rested, my soul said, “Write.”

And I KNEW that if I didn’t block off specific time slots in my day for writing, I’d never do it. Someone else’s need would get pushed to the top. So I named the timeslots I would dedicate to writing – every day. And I honored it.

And here’s something else that happened:  as my children saw how I blocked out My Sacred Space Time to write, my daughter began to write, too.  She began to write stories and poems “like my mommy,” she says.  She began to create her OWN “My Sacred Space Time” for writing, painting, and drawing.

The truth is most people’s nervous systems are frazzled. Many moms have been tending to others and may have lost a sense of “here I AM.”

You need more than just ONE time sipping a cup of coffee with a girlfriend – you need a regular date with her.

You need more than just ONE walk outside this summer – you need a date with yourself to move your body every day.

You need more than an occasional pedicure or manicure – you need time every week to luxuriate yourself (and in some seasons, that “luxury” is REST).

You need more than time alone for a quick shower – you need a nourishing bath several times a week where you slowly caress your body with fragrant oils.

You may even need more than a friend listening to you – you may need sacred space that is devoted to you and someone to hold that sacred space with keen attention to SEEING you. THIS is what I am about in Compassion Coaching. And in August, I’m opening up five new spots. (see details below).

I often tell my Compassion Coaching and psychotherapy clients, “YOU are CEO of your life.” Whether you are leading a family or company, everything stems from you regarding and honoring yourself.

Far from over-indulgent, blocking out sacred space for you is necessary to restore calm to your senses. It supports you on an ongoing basis to respond instead of react to the emotions that you have and to the ever-changing moods of others around you. It supports you in “listening within” and living your life based NOT ON THE TIME ON THE CLOCK but rather on WHAT IS MOST SACRED to you.

It’s time. It’s time for sooooo many of us to treat ourselves with radical regard. It’s time to block off our Sacred Space time. It’s time to feel resourced and nourished in your everyday life. It’s time to create a life based on what is most sacred to you.

“There comes a time when a woman, a mom, a healer, a friend, a human being recognizes that the person she must tend to the most is her own self. There comes a time when all that she does for others MUST be balanced with tending to her own well-being — for her own spirit, body and heart as well as those she nourishes.”

Block off your “My Sacred Space Time.” Let others in your family know.

Come. Be nourished. I have a space waiting for you.

*Dear Ones, starting mid-August, I will have five new coaching client spaces open. If it’s time for part of your “Sacred Space Time” to involve Compassion Coaching, claim your space. I’m here for you.

Blessings,