A Self-Compassion Exercise to Nourish Your Soul

When was the last time you paid attention to the needs of your own soul? Have you stopped to think about the various ways you can enhance the nourishment of your mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being? And what have you discovered? 

One of the most exciting things that I truly enjoy doing is holding 15-minute workshops to help others enhance the richness of their own lives. In the same way that I am learning how to heal on a regular basis, I enjoy extending this knowledge with groups of corporate employees. And where nourishment is concerned, in as much as we try to give our bodies the best and highest quality foods, we often forget that other areas of our lives need nourishment as well; and it all begins when we take the time to be compassionate with ourselves. 

Try this self-compassion exercise on Nourishing Your Life and see where it takes you. Here’s how:

1) Take a pen and a piece of paper

2) At the top of your sheet, write “I am nurtured by”

3) Without thinking too hard, complete the sentence “I am nurtured by” with as many things in your life that you can think of. Your list can be as long or short as you like

ex. 

I am nurtured by…..

- hugging my pet dog

- sleeping 8 hours

- spending quality time with my parents

- laughing with my nieces and nephews

- phone calls from my boyfriend

4) Take a good look at your list and gently re-read each line by re-phrasing it to  “____ nourishes me”

What did you notice?

As you can probably see these are the very aspects of your life that fill up your love tank easily. It matters to us that we nourish these aspects in order to stay alive. More importantly, this list shows you how you have a hand in CHOOSING what will nourish you and how you can cultivate and let it grow. In essence, what we feed our thoughts, the relationships we keep, and the way we spend our time are just some of the things that we can choose. 

We can stay nourished by:

a) Connecting to the people around us

b) Connecting to the very things that give us STRENGTH

c) Coming back to center and connecting with ourselves

d) Practicing yoga and meditation 

Hoping you find your own grounding! 

XoXo