What does action have to do with self-care?

“What does showing up have to do with self-care?”

Do you ever wonder why you need self-care in the first place?

I’ll tell you why…

Have you noticed that every time you go after your next big goal… it stretches you? That’s because going after what we want requires internal growth to create outer growth, which means you’re on your growth edge a lot!

I don’t care what the goal is, nor do I care whether you’re just starting out or have been at this for years… there is always tension in the growth! You’re expanding, and that means your mental and emotional fortitude is going to be tested and pushed.

It’s just a part of the process, so:
Expect the tension that comes along with it.

This is a reflection of the dissonance between who you’ve been (how you’ve been showing up and behaving on both the inside and outside) and who you’ve stepped into becoming the moment you claimed your goal or desire.

Let me explain…

The moment you say you want something that you’ve yet to have or experience–the moment you have the desire clearly as a thought–it is now a part of you.

Yet, in order to actualize that desire, you need to become the person who’s capable of having it.

Here’s the rub… you’re still over here, being the “old you.”

You’re not yet that person who has it.

You haven’t yet fully become her.

There’s a huge gap and you need to transverse it. It’s this gap that’s painful.

So what do you do?

Most people have a ton of self-care tools at their disposal. Use them, definitely.

But the best self-care tool? Showing up.

Every time you grow you have to show up on a new level. Start doing that. Now. It’ll make things so much easier in the long run, but it’ll feel hard in the moment. Don’t let that fool you.

The longer you delay this, the longer you stay in the patterns and behaviors of the “old you,” the longer the tension lasts (i.e. frustration, pain, emotional upheaval, spinout, etc).

The best self-care is recognizing who you need to be to have what you want and to begin showing up as this women RIGHT NOW.

You step into being her, by taking action as her.

This closes the gap between the “old you” and who you need to step into being in order to have what you desire. And when that happens, not only will you actualize what you want, but the tension will dissipate. (Until your next growth phase!)

Showing up for yourself then becomes a form of self-care, because it effectively recalibrates who you are, closes the gap, and dissipates the tension…

And this then allows you the ENERGY, spirit, and wherewithal to go for more, which means you CAN and WILL break through your income barrier.