A dear friend asked me recently how I recharge myself. It says something about where my mind was in that moment that I really had to think about the question. In the midst of raising my family, caring for my clients, running a business and running a home I wondered if I was in fact doing enough to care for myself.
I began to list the things that I find recharging. Gardening, but wait, that is also part of running the house and my business, given my therapy room faces the garden. Cooking, but that also nourishes and shows love for my family. Reading, and I read and listen voraciously about all things psychological and therapeutic which is also my work. Playing with my kids, which again has a double purpose. Hmm. There were things on my list that less obviously served two roles, like exercising and meditating, but as I reflected even those are essential to me being able to do my work, without peace of mind and health I can hardly hold my clients’ and my process psychologically!
Where this left me was with a richer appreciation of the interwoven nature of living. In one frame of mind, it would be possible to reduce all these things to being tasks to be fitted in, obligations to be fulfilled, burdens to carry. Believe me, I have my moments when that is where I am. I also know they are the things that make life worth living, that bring richness and stimulation, that enable me to be filled up and to overflow.
Nothing is simple or one-sided, it is all multi-faceted. So thank you to my friend who asked such a seemingly simple question, what a lovely voyage of discovery into the complexity of experience.
How do you recharge, and how can you find energy in the many facets of your life as you live it?
