The graphic appearing with today’s post belongs to the band, “What the Funk!”     
Their website is: https://www.bandmix.cho.uk/what-the-funk/ 
I am not affiliated with the band in any way.

Welcome back, Good Readers. While I have been busy living the Life of Summer behind the scenes, I haven’t been spending much time putting text on the screen here. And, frankly, friends, it’s because I just haven’t felt like it.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy writing, because, as you might know, I just spent the entirety of last week writing (and reading) my brains out at Idyllwild Writers Week.

That was an amazing experience.

It’s just that, for about the last three weeks or so, I’ve been feeling kinda funky. Not in a, “We Want the Funk!” or even an, “Uptown Funk You Up,” kind of way — just off. I’m sure many of you reading this can relate. Part of my funked-up feeling stems from a particularly rough therapy session I engaged in several weeks ago. But that’s for another post.

I don’t know about you, but I often walk the Line of Motivation. It’s a delicate balancing act, knowing when to push on and when to hang back. Sometimes hanging back for moments of self-care can feel like self-indulgence, and so we don’t do the self-care until we reach a breaking point — sometimes, not even then.

Because I am consciously trying to avoid those break-down moments, I am constantly attempting to cultivate a healthy ideal for self-care. It looks different on different days.

Sometimes it’s meeting a friend for a juice and a chat. Sometimes it’s a spontaneous lunch date with my partner. Sometimes it’s permission to do nothing for a few hours.

But mostly, it’s the ability to do these things without constantly feeling like I should be doing something “more productive,” instead — it’s realizing that these things are productive, and important.

It’s reprogramming those voices in my head that have a tendency to should all over me.

The idea of reprogramming or even eliminating those shoulding voices is so powerful for me that I’ve recently asked a good friend, who happens to be an artist (among other talents), to create an ink-and-paper piece for me around the theme “Fuck Off.” When it’s finished, I plan to hang it near my writing desk, which happens to be in our bedroom. It’s going to serve as a vivid, visual, daily reminder that I don’t have to give those shoulding voices the time of day.

Slowly, but surely, I’m kicking the funk to the curb, one, “fuck off” at a time. What about you?

What are some ways you do or could cultivate your self-care?

Many of us, especially women/feminine types, spend a lot of energy taking care of others. What’s one thing you could do to be nice to yourself over the next week? What support would you need to be able to make it happen?