Honor Yourself

Recently, I let go of the idea that I need to work hard to achieve something. By this, I mean I’m no longer ignoring my needs, values, or desires in my day to day life. I’m not pushing my body past fatigue to meet deadlines, I slow down when I need to, and I show myself some grace when things don’t get done.  I’ve learned to honor myself and no job, person, expectation (both internal and external) deadline, or plan can convince me to do otherwise! I believe I can still achieve all that I want from a place of ease, flow, and alignment.

This week, honoring myself has looked like sleeping late in the mornings and taking a nap with my son daily. I don’t know if I’m the only one experiencing this energetic shift, but I have been completely drained. Allowing myself to listen to my body and rest this week has meant I didn’t wake up at 4:30am, I haven’t done yoga all week, I was late writing this week’s blog post, and I missed a tag-up meeting at work. And even with all of that, I don’t regret slowing down and getting my rest.

I truly believe that the body always tells us what it needs, and this week my body told me she was tired. She needed rest. She needed simplicity. She needed to take it slow. She needed to exert energy on only the essentials. She needed me to honor her needs. And most importantly, she needed me to be understanding.

Now, it did take me a day or two to catch on to what my body was telling me. In the beginning of the week, I was trying to force myself to get up early and getting mad every time I failed. I almost beat myself up for it, until I realized that’s what I’ve literally done all my life. I’ve ignored the little hunches, signs, and intuitions I’ve felt and pushed myself to keep going despite my needs. Hence the reason it took me so long to recognize and accept that my body needed rest in the first place. I’m not used to hearing, trusting, and honoring myself but I’ve been making it a priority to do better.

I actually wasn’t sure what to write about this week on the blog. Inspiration for this post came through as I was taking it slow. We were on our morning walk surrounded by nature and I heard God say “Honor Yourself” and I literally laughed. I struggled all week to come up with a topic, and instead of raking my mind to find it, God sent me the idea after I totally surrendered and allowed myself to slow down. I honestly had just accepted that I wouldn’t be putting out a blog post this week and then BOOOM. So funny how God works.

I know as a mama we might believe that we never get to slow down. If we stop, everything will fall apart. Something will fall through the cracks if we rest. There’s always something to do. But I’m here to help you challenge that belief. Honoring yourself when you need rest will not cause the world to end. It’s a radical act of self-care and self-love that you deserve. Part of my work involves shifting the motherhood experience. It doesn’t have to be one of endless sacrifice, self neglect, and hustle. We can let that old paradigm go and learn to honor ourselves. Listen to your body. Listen to your needs. Do only the things that need to be done (yes that load of laundry can wait! Do the dishes tomorrow! Take a personal day, call out sick from work!). And honor yourself by resting and slowing down.

What is it your body is asking for this week? Honor yourself by giving it to her.

Stay ViKtorious, Mama!