I’m in West Cork. I came down six days ago after I shut my clinic, rescheduled my clients and did a big supermarket shop. Since then I haven’t seen anyone. I have my virtual connection with the world at 8.30 am on Facebook live as I share my morning chi gong energy movement and of course I have my partner and kids here with me. But apart from that, everything is quiet. Lots of looking out of the window at mountains and sheep, listening to peaceful music and watching the clouds.
Social distancing however I have noticed is having an unexpected effect. My partner and I are both a bit smellier than normal. Nothing to get dressed for. No shower in the morning before the day begins. No outside contact has meant never-ending duvet days where I wear only comfortable clothes and elasticated waists. I wonder if I will ever want to wear jeans plus belt again and wonder why I ever did.
My shower was part of the structure of the day. It went like this; Morning chi gong, a 2k run, shower, clients. That was my morning routine before meeting clients. Communicating to them that I am clean and fresh and that the Shiatsu treatment is a blank Hygenic canvas where they could lay their emotional and physical body with aches, pains, hurts and heartache to be cleansed and refreshed.
But now with the outside world receding, I’m talking to myself, asking myself, what do I need? How do I want to spend my time today now that the structure has disappeared? Who do I want to be? My answer so far is that I need a shower. I have noticed that without washing, I hug and touch my family less. With soft cozy socks and sweatshirts, I am dissolving, into a warm safe fug of my own microcosmic isolation.
Isolation can become pleasurable as we escape the world around us. We make believe that we are safe and untouchable by the virus that is infecting the world, separate from each other, responsible only for ourselves. But that is never true. The food that I eat is grown and transported by others. The coal on my fire is mined by others. The electricity powering my computer is generated and managed by other people. We are a world, an ecosystem, connected by need and support. We give and receive to ensure that we remain whole.
So what have I to give now that my business is closed and my identity recedes into soft complacency? Everything, I still have everything to give. This time is what my morning routine, cooking of soups, guided meditations, journaling, courses given, teachings received, intermittent fasting, yoga, massages, eating seaweed and giving shiatsu has been for.
Even though I’m not on the front line, stacking the shelves or in the hospitals administering the oxygen. I have everything to give. I have a responsibility to show up, showered with my best possible sparkly self, ready for the day ahead. To lead, in the way I think the human race can respond to this COVID19 virus, stay calm, stay at safe distance, not buy all the toilet roll, to love, to be kind to one another and that includes myself. At a very practical level, this means crying when I need, laughing when necessary and not losing the plot when my son thinks water balloon fights and Harry Potter on audio all day is homeschooling.
So today I will shower, wash my hair, put on clean leggings, and do what I do in my Shiatsu practice. I will connect. My self-care is at the root of your care.
I will share my chi gong routine at 8.30 am every morning and every evening I will send love and attention to any part of the human race that is unwell and suffering from disease.
I will keep my faith that what we think creates the world and that we will come out of this with many positive changes. I will practice what I have preached for years. Now is the time to make beliefs real. There are tears to shed and I grieve for what we have lost but there are some amazing stories and creative funny videos out there at the moment that remind me how much I love being human and how fantastic we all are when we care for each other.
We have a responsibility to be the best possible we can be for each other. Mine includes a shower, what’s yours?
I will share this post on my Facebook – please share what you are doing during this time to keep spirits up and your crazy down. It may help or inspire someone who is struggling today.
Many people have been so wonderful offering to pay for Shiatsu treatments without receiving them or even to give donations for the Facebook live. All absolutely real heart-warming gestures but at the moment I’m doing ok despite having sunk my savings into the self-publishing and launch of the new book.
So, if you have been meaning to buy the new book but just haven’t got around to it – NOW would be a good time 🙂 sent straight to your door, what could be better. CLICK HERE
Or book your first of two Online Consultations with me as part of the Good Food: Better Health Online Course. To find out more CLICK HERE
The course includes: 2 Online Consultations
Copy of the new book sent straight to your door
30 Days / 30 Videos of bitesize cookery programs and self-shiatsu in your own home
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