“A calming place, where you can go to escape it all and just focus on your body, is so wonderful to have.”
-Mary Helen Bowers
To focus on yourself, on your self-care, and on your body’s needs, you must have a calming place to which you can retreat. However, ongoing pandemic restrictions make this difficult. This is a moment in which we must adapt the best we can to a less-than-desirable situation.
My calming place is the ocean. The moment I step near it, I feel tension slough off me, I feel lighter and more peaceful. When I swim, I feel like I am the only person on earth and no problem can touch me. I feel free. I can’t get to the ocean now. The closest two things I have are my baby’s sound machine that plays waves crashing on a beach all night in our shared bedroom and my bathtub.
Even in the midst of grief, we must be able to adapt ourselves to the circumstances in which we live if we have hope of finding calm. The substitute place may not be exactly what we want, but we have to choose between feeling stress because our calming place is unavailable and finding an alternative that promotes calm in our life.
This week, consider the place that calms you, the place that allows you to focus on your body, mind, and spirit. If it is inaccessible to you right now, how can you adapt your life to find a replacement and the calm that goes with it?
A.N.Carroll 