With living in a world that offers us stimulation at every turn, we are becoming less able to simply be with ourselves. With multiple devices available to us at any one time, we are often here but not present.
Part of self care is being able to sit with your thoughts, your questions, emotions-being curious and compassionate about your internal world.
Getting to know our inner world is essential for self care
Being engaged with everything from our value system, our sense of deservability and just being with the sensations in our body strengthens our self of autonomy, helps regulate emotions when the inevitable ups and downs of life happen.
Default mode processing when your mind is free to simply have the freedom of wandering. A series of studies from 2015 discovered just how challenging people found it to sit with our own mind and body. Adult men and women were asked to sit in a room in silence with nothing but their own thoughts. However there was also a button in the room that they were told they could press if they wanted to leave before the 15 minutes were up, but that pressing it would give them a painful electric shock.
Would you press the button?
You would be forgiven by guessing that none of them would and instead sit out just 15 minutes…..but 25% of women actually pressed the button and 67% of men pressed it too!
Practice regular self care of sitting with yourself
So whether you immerse yourself in a book, just sit in silence or meditate, talk a walk in nature…..take time out to be with yourself in a way that helps you value and get to know the most important person in your life-YOU!
