Yesterday morning I didn’t really feel like this.

I had a bird trapped in my rib cage when I woke. My worry squirrel had been busy storing up concerns in the night. And I woke feeling like I hadn’t slept.

These are all old patterns for me — and for so many of us. And in my dislike of it all, I was also tempted to do what I had done in the past — and suppress it.

But. In this deep practice of self-care comes the art of asking for help. And the joy of this is that we can ask ourselves.

This took me a long time to learn.

So, yesterday morning, as I lay in bed. I asked myself for help. You might call it prayer, or reaching out to the universe, or simply how I’m describing it here and seek your own best counsel — your inner wisdom.

And She stepped in.

She reminded me to place a hand on my heart to calm the bird in my chest. She laid the concerns my worry squirrel had gathered and asked what small step could I take to resolve each one. She prompted me to answer an early call that I would ordinarily have ignored — and that led to me speaking with two friends (pocket dialled by a third).

All this led to this face. A true smile. Still with things to do and stuff to be resolved. But ok.

This learning how to care for ourselves begins with being willing to change. It begins with being willing to move on from the old, known habits of the past — without judgement or rancour — and simply see them for what they were.

Patterns that served us well at one stage in our lives that have now served their time. And this opens us up to some fresh ways of thinking, fresh ways of feeling and fresh ways of being.