Self-Care Is Health Care

Friends,

True confessions: for years, I thought that I was practicing self-care by getting a mani/pedi. And while I do love these things, and there is merit in carving out that time to pamper yourself, it is not the profound practice of true care of the senses and the Self.

I was involved in the Urban Zen Integrative Therapy Program for over a decade. Urban Zen was started by Donna Karan, along with Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman, after she lost her husband to cancer. It was his dying wish that she helped take care of the nurses who took such excellent care of him.

A tagline of the Urban Zen Program is,“There is no health care without self-care.” Honestly, I didn’t even understand it when I first heard it. How were these two even related? However, decades of learning later, perhaps a bit wiser, and seeing life through the lens of Ayurveda, I understand wholly what she meant.

Self-care is not selfish. Care of the Self means caring for every part of us. Our sense organs are the doors from our inner world to the outer world, and vice versa. It is how we bring prana into the body, so we best pay attention to what we see, hear, taste, and smell.

The more I take care of the microcosm and the world within, the more I contribute to the macrocosm. When we care for ourselves, we cultivate the energy (prana) and capacity to be better equipped to meet the needs of those we love and contribute to communal well-being. Because I am a part of the whole and because I am better able to tend to those in my care, 2-legged and 4-legged alike. 

Personal well-being AND communal well-being. 

One person, one community, one planet. 

I am thrilled to partner with Larissa this Thursday for a unique Valentine’s Week workshop:  

Ayurvedic Self Care for the Senses

Thursday, February 16th, 3-5pm.

Practices to love and care for YOUR WHOLE SELF

Join us live or get the recording.

with so much V-day love,

Kari