Category: – Self Care | Self Love

Bringing Self-care to Dentistry: 7 Steps to Returning to Love

by Dr Rachel Mascord BDS, Sydney 

As a student dentist I geared myself up with hope that upon final graduation I would become confident and secure within myself. I believed that success and ease would be the natural outcomes of all the hard work I’d done. I had achieved great success as a student by pushing and driving myself: what I did not grasp was that my developed patterns of self-neglect and anxious drive had become an entrenched and normal way of operating.

The picture of ‘perfection’ I had formulated was so narrow it would hurt me for many years to come. I made life about getting everything ‘right’. Without that, I did not feel like a worthy member of the profession, or indeed a worthy human being.

My picture of a ‘life of success’ did not eventuate, and every day at work was in the dullness of just getting by and coping with the fear that I never felt ‘good enough’. I existed in this state for 17 years… Continue reading “Bringing Self-care to Dentistry: 7 Steps to Returning to Love” →

The Fragile Man

by Frank Tybislawski, Brisbane, Australia

A NEW EXPERIENCE

Recently my wife and I visited Vietnam to attend a Universal Medicine Retreat and also to explore the country a little. The first location we stayed was Hanoi in the northern part of the country. We made a few trips from our hotel into the main center of town to experience the Vietnamese shopping culture, and of course noticed the chaotic (by our standards) road traffic. Most roads are filled with bicycles, motorcycles, cars, taxis, buses and trucks, with the bicycles and motorcycles making up the majority. There was also a lot of horn beeping, not as an indication of aggression, but it seems more of a courtesy to say ‘beware, I am passing beside you’.

On our last day in Hanoi our hotel booked a taxi to convey us to the airport. About halfway to the airport we were looking out the window from the back seat of the taxi as we crossed over a large bridge. The next moment I heard a loud crashing sound followed instantly by a sudden jolt across my lap, shoulder, and through my neck. After a moment or two I looked forward and realised the taxi had been in a car accident. Continue reading “The Fragile Man” →

Choosing the Best Medicine for Me: Bringing Self-Care into Health-Care

by Jenny James, McLeans Ridges, NSW

Is life really just about the luck of the draw? When I was very young I remember being told that a friend of the family had become extremely ill. It was as if they had been struck out of the blue. Without any forewarning this disease had descended upon them. To me this seemed quite mysterious – as if there were a sort of random hit that could descend at any moment – and you escaped merely by the luck of the draw. There seemed to be no concept of health, self-care, nurturing or wellbeing – only shock and sadness at the disaster that had fallen.

I realised that over time this had developed into a way of thinking, a way of living where I could be more reckless with my health as it didn’t matter anyway – it will happen if it is destined to. There was also a feeling of fear and a sense of foreboding around this as I felt I had no say in what might happen to me. But why was I accepting this as the way it was? Didn’t I have any say in the matter? With this way of thinking, self-responsibility in any real terms was pretty much out the window.

Continue reading “Choosing the Best Medicine for Me: Bringing Self-Care into Health-Care” →

From Superwoman & Supermum to Super Amazing Me

by R.B, Northern NSW

I used to feel that to be an amazing woman, I had to be like SUPERWOMAN, and Supermum. The definition included being a good mum, keeping the house clean, doing the homework with my daughter, cooking meals, doing the laundry, keeping the car clean – and as you can imagine that list goes on forever because as soon as you have ticked those boxes, there always seem to be more that appear out of nowhere… and this is along with being a friend, full-time worker and business owner.

In the past when things got hard, I got tough. I would knuckle down and push on through.

I would feel like a failure if I couldn’t accomplish everything on my own… and felt like I was great because I didn’t need anyone’s help. Continue reading “From Superwoman & Supermum to Super Amazing Me” →

From Ideals and Beliefs to Making Loving Work Choices

by Victoria Lister, Brisbane, Australia

In the last couple of months I’ve been exploring the option of setting aside my role as a self-employed consultant to return to regular employment, and have been looking at various jobs. My work had slowed down over the last six months and I was starting to feel the next step would need to be a practical one, to bring in more income.

I’ve changed jobs – and careers – many times before, but I’ve never brought to the process the kind of honesty I’m bringing to it now. In fact I’ve used this time to reflect on my working life as a whole, a chapter of which I’ve already written about in Celebrity Chef or Self-loving Chef:Where is the Love in the Work that We Do?. Continue reading “From Ideals and Beliefs to Making Loving Work Choices” →

Alcohol & My Kind of Friday Night

by Harry White, Gold Coast, Australia

My kind of Friday night is one that Saturday will thank me for.

There is a saying that, “The best nights are the ones that you don’t remember”. Well I have had one of those nights before, and if I didn’t remember it, my body certainly made sure that I did with the constant vomiting, headaches, stomach cramps and un-easiness.

Are those big party nights really worth it?

I mean, alcohol is expensive and it makes you do things that you will regret doing, like: Continue reading “Alcohol & My Kind of Friday Night” →