It’s cliché but also most true that doctors make the worst patients, mechanics drive broken down cars, and those that clean house usually come home to a mess.  What we do for others we rarely do for ourselves.  I’m one of those.  Don’t do as I do, do as I say, so the saying goes.  It’s easy for me to see what needs to get done next and to make the plan, set it in action, and get the job done.  But when the job is to not do, I fail miserably.

Somewhere along the line I integrated into my being the notion that relaxing is lazy, taking it easy is just preparation for going full-out, and doing what I like is the reward for doing all the other stuff, of which there is a prodigious amount to do.  However, recently I have found that doing prodigious amounts of things over a long period of time not only leads to achievement, but also to physical detriment and the need for healing.  And healing requires that I focus on….well, healing…which means not doing some of the things that I would normally do.  Now as a healer, if I were working with a client I would help them see that healing is what they need most for quality of life and that they need to reevaluate what got them to this pass and what they can do to make a less damaging life for themselves going forward.  Of course, for myself, I fret and fuss and get prickly when my friends tell me how relaxed I look (Finally!!!) or that the day I had sounds relaxing.  What???  How dare they?  I was power healing, damn it.  There was purpose to what I did.  I was powering through this phase….*sigh*  Yep, relaxing.  I can do this.  I know I can.

Sometimes slowing down  can be just as much of a challenge as pushing the boundaries and reaching out for the next challenge.  Recharging the batteries is necessary, believe me.  So healer, heal thyself.  Or put down all those crafting materials.  Or stop making that ‘to do’ list.  Nothing needs to get done today that you haven’t already done.  Except for the healing.  That will need to be number 1.