You do You

This is a rant.

Consider yourself warned.

I took a quick vacation down to the mountains of North Carolina to see family this past week, and I adore the slow mountain pace. Things are just less pressured there, less rushed, less anxious all around. The collective energy is different (I know those mountains have just a little something to do with it, but that’s another conversation for another day…).

Coming back home was like being plunged in ice water. The energy here is just so different. Top that off with news about violence and car accidents, and a major earthquake in Turkey. Not the greatest re-entry into ‘normal’ life.

I see people everywhere fussing about other people. Relationships suffering because the other person won’t do this or that.

Here’s the deal. You must focus on doing you better before the world can be better. It’s a collective thing.

Animals (your pet included) are only ever worried about their own survival. Put on your own oxygen mask first. Feed yourself (physically and metaphorically) first before you worry about anyone else and their “problems.”

Feral mother cats will abandon their young if the babies get sick (which is very common).

Let me say that again: They will leave their babies to die before they will risk their own life. Put on your own oxygen mask first.

How focused are you on your own well being? Self care is more about your own well being than it is indulging. Bubble baths and all that are nice, but if you aren’t truly tenderly caring for your own animal body and mental/emotional/physical well being, then you are sacrificing yourself.

And that leads to bitterness, resentment, anger, anxiety… the list goes on and on. Which can’t help but spill out into the world at other people through road rage, anger at politicians and “others” and all the things they/those people have done/are doing.

Here’s the truth: When you put yourself first, tenderly caring for your own body, mind, and spirit, then many things “out there” will simply resolve themselves. They just aren’t the same problem that they were when your self wasn’t cared for.

If we put as much energy into caring for our own self as we put into fussing and worrying about the rest of the world, the world would be a dramatically better place.

There would be so much more room for compassion and gentleness. There would be room for ease, and presence.

All of this creates the space for each person to be as they are without the pressure to change because when we are deeply grounded with satisfaction within ourselves then there’s less pressure to change the rest of the world (because we don’t feel pressure to change ourselves which spills out into the rest of the world).

The animals are showing us the way all the time. Look to your pets, to the wildlife, to nature to find the support and answers for making your self the priority, and everything else will begin to fall into place.

It IS the cliché: Be the change you want to see.