5 Things I Changed When I Started Taking Care of Myself
The path to personal fulfillment and spiritual tranquility is difficult and sometimes extremely distressing. I experience and process so much that sometimes being at peace with myself and my surroundings seems like an almost impossible mission.
Sometimes painful situations help us overcome personal and emotional stagnation, and only by going through the turmoil can we reach the tranquility on the other side.
Whoever has struggled to become a better person has noticed that one of the best ways of reaching well-being is to simply take care of yourself. And that requires is a series of wise decisions, which will balance what we want and what we don’t want in our lives.
Listening to myself, instead of just listening to what others are saying about me
There is nothing worse than subordinating your life and personality to the constant approval of others. It’s very easy to become a broken doll if you follow everything society says is best for you.
Your personality will never be fully integrated. It will be a construction of old ideas imposed on you, without you even asking yourself the true meaning these qualities have to your soul.
Knowing how to listen to yourself, following your intuition, getting lost on a road that others say you have no business being on, and finding at the end of this road one of the most authentic parts of you, keeping it and deciding to carry it always with you. That’s an accomplishment.
Staying away from anything not beautiful, useful or fun
Yes, I chose to be a bit of a hedonist, and the end result was better than I expected. Following this premise has only brought me happiness and has helped me avoid most of the bad vibes around me.
“Pleasure is the very good. It’s the start of every preference and every aversion. It’s the absence of pain within the body and restlessness within the soul.”
-Epicure-
If you’re not capable of giving in to the pleasures of life, you should really ask yourself what life means to you. And who has made you think this way.
I don’t have to sacrifice myself for anything or anyone.
Fighting for what I want and for the people I love is a pleasure and a privilege.
Our society has imposed on us the idea that everything worthwhile in life implies sacrifice. But that word causes me a great amount of anguish. I have substituted it with passion, perseverance or tenacity. The best things I have learned in my life have been endowed with a relaxed environment, a pleasant concentration in what I was doing because it was interesting. Working for something that we don’t like is called stress. Working for something we do like is called passion.
In fact, I have observed that people that have opted for continuous sacrifice, for the assumption of social dogmas, for leaving behind everything unknown because it might be dangerous, they have become people with gray dim auras, furrowed brows and forked tongues. I have begun to understand that my insanity is more sane than the rigid sanity of others.
In love, you sometimes have to let go of your pride, but never your dignity
When I lived by the book and not by my feelings, my heart and mind were harmed, and my soul found itself within a prison. I started to grow weary of that mediocre way of loving and feeling, and I decided to plunge into a pool, though it was empty. Sometimes I have received some great blows, but other times I have sailed away.
There is nothing worse in life than being afraid to experience a feeling as passionate as love. Thanks to those blows I sustained, I still fling myself into empty pools, but with a technique that keeps me from suffering severe contusions or wounds. Though I might sustain a scratch or bump or two, which I forgive myself for, because there’s no worse wound than one that makes you feel the emptiness of not daring to do anything at all.
I have to take care of my loved ones, and eliminate from my life anyone that has caused me intentional harm
Life gives us a limited amount of time to enjoy ourselves, so I won’t waste one more second of my thoughts and my time on trying to understand why some people have hurt me with their indifference, tried to humiliate, betrayed or judged me.
“Honesty is a very costly gift, don’t expect it from cheap people.”
-Warren Buffet-
From the moment I decided it, the part of my life that was dedicated to those useless and absurd tasks has been emptied of resentment and is available to be filled with everything that makes me happy. Filled with all of the people that, though they also have setbacks on their journeys, never harmed me.
Everything I know now is a privilege I didn’t buy it with money. It simply came to me when I started taking care of myself, and it’s truly a gift.
