Save the fancy stuff for holidays, when memory making, not habit building, is the goal.

If we can use our motivation to build a strong foundation, day by day, when the motivation fades, what we’ll have are behaviors that don’t require willpower.

Because if you do it my way, you get seedlings that grow a few inches and then wither because there is no soil nutrition, or bad drainage, or too much drainage.

Why, why was it so hard to just put my pants on and get out of the house?

The constant drumbeat from inside and outside my head is that I am taking too much and not doing enough.  How can I make sure I’m not taking this self-care thing too far?

Each step taken replenishes our debt. Each choice made helps us reconnect to ourselves.

Spiritual self-care gets even trickier because the goal is to transcend – to feel connected not just with yourself or other people but with God, nature, or the larger human experience. What helps you arrive at that place

The break I mean can be a physical or mental time of relaxation, but the most important part of self-care is the break from feeling guilty about it.

I think it means that I have to fail at a few obligations in order to build up the space, however small, for the break my brain and body so desperately need.

I talk a lot about filling my bucket since, as Forrest likes to say, I am highly sensitive to my internal state. I think he means I’m a real bitch when I am cold, hungry, tired, or stressed, but his way sounds better.

Apparently, in our house, the “and then” ends in me throwing a major tantrum which results in me throwing out all the delicious frozen berries. (It made sense at the time.)