A few years ago, when managing my day to day stress felt like a full-time job, I made lists of healthy coping mechanisms I could pick from whenever I needed to self-soothe. I also made a list of activities I most loved to do and called it "Being Me". It's like I identified that there were things I needed to do in order to survive, but I also identified that there were things I wanted to do to really live.
In reviewing these lists now, I see that many of the coping mechanisms have either become built into self-care routines or are activities that I choose to engage in spontaneously when the mood strikes - that I haven't needed to pick from the lists in a long time.
But what is most surprising, and what I'm most grateful for, is that so much of what is on the "Being Me" list are activities I have the opportunity to engage in regularly. I have always wanted to be here in this place in my life, and I have also never quite known that it would happen. I appreciate again and again that building community is hard, but community care is everything 🙏💓