Q: I want to be more active in social justice work and seeing your posts on social media inspires me to engage and do more but I feel like I am at the end of my rope most days. I literally have no energy and I feel like my nervous system is fried but yet my heart aches at night because I know I am not doing enough. But some days I literally do not have the physical energy to do more! I have heard people ask you this before, but how do you do it all? Raise your children, manage a farm, run a business and show up for social justice work surrounding maternal health? Do you have any tips for increasing my physical stamina?
Signed,
Tired Mama
A: My day, like so many mothers out there, starts early, and if I want some self-care time to myself I have to wake up earlier and lose sleep to do it! I have a close friend who is a single mother of three girls and she consistently wakes up at 4:00 a.m. everyday to have some time to herself. Let me tell you, I cannot! I love and need sleep so much and 4 a.m. is prime sleeping for me and because I teach at night, I often do not get to bed before midnight!
So the way I weave self care in my life is by threading it through the fabric of my day and then if I have an hour here or there, it is like icing on my cake, but my cake has been in the making all day, every day. So the sustenance of my self-care is there and the icing is just bringing some sweetness home!
Thinking of your self-care as sustenance is a game changer and makes it so much more accessible to some with not a lot of extra time and resources. When we are nourished, our bandwidth increases,and we are able to take in more and show up and out in social justice work. Here are some quick hacks for simple resilience building activities and nourishing rituals that you can weave through your everyday.
Go outside in the morning!
Even if it is 20 degrees or just a couple minutes, this is something that I do and I find it makes the world of difference as I start my day. Stepping outside the door and taking a few intentional deep breaths of the morning air is deeply nourishing to our lungs. After a night of sleep, stretching upward to the heavens creates room for my lungs to expand and the intentional few breaths wakes them up and primes them for the work of the day ahead. It is also an intentional way to honor your lungs as you begin your day. This can also be a quick moment where I say thank you out loud for just being alive.
Begin the day by drinking 2-4 cups of water before any other beverage.
Ideally warm water is the easiest on the stomach in the morning but any water is great. Warm to hot water is nourishing to the digestive system and the greatest advantage of drinking warm water is improving blood circulation. Warm/hot water breaks down and moves the built up overnight fat deposits in the nervous system and also flushes out harmful toxins. If you add a squeeze of lemon it helps stimulate the gastrointestinal tract. Lemon juice has citric acid, which helps the digestive enzymes to function better. It also stimulates the liver and aids in detoxification.
Incorporate oats into your daily diet.
Wintertime is a perfect time to begin incorporating oats into your daily life. Oats are rich in dietary fibre and high quality protein. The outer coat of the grain, the bran, contains the B vitamin, inositol, in significant quantities. Inositol metabolizes fats and cholesterol, and combines with choline to form lecithin which is good for the heart. Oats also contain vitamin K, essential in the formation of prothrombin, a blood-clotting agent. They are also a source of selenium, an antioxidant which helps to prevent or slow down aging and hardening of tissues resulting from oxidation.Eating oats also helps your body regulate its iron stores, as it contains the mineral molybdenum, which plays a vital role in iron utilization. Increasing the availability of iron increases daily energy!
Oats are one of the best remedies for “feeding” the nervous system. It is considered specific in cases of nervous stress and exhaustion especially when associated with depression. Besides eating oats daily, you can also make an infusion with the oatstraw or lean into a tincture of the milky oat tops. But start simple! Overnight oats are a great place to start.
Overnight Oats Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- ½ cup nonfat Greek yogurt*
- 1 cup milk of choice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon sweetener of choice (honey or maple syrup)
*Option you can sub out the Greek yogurt for coconut cream or with nothing at all. If you overnight oats are too thick in the morning, add a splash more of milk.
Instructions
- Place all ingredients into a large glass container and mix until combined.
- Put the top on the container and place into the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Nourishing Infusions or Sipping Broths
This is something that I try to do everyday. Nourishing herbal infusions are a slow build to whole body resiliency and are extremely affordable and accessible. But one of my new ways to take in my infusions during the day is to turn them into a nourishing sipping broth.
Super simple: First make an infusion. I tend to do nettles but oatstraw works well for this also. Take ½ cup of dry herb and pour 4 cups of boiling water over and let steep overnight.
In the morning strain into a pot and gently heat. I generally do this while I am making my kids breakfast and lunches. You can add a little chopped seaweed (like kombu) if its easy and then when warm, I stir in a couple tablespoons of miso (white or red is fine), salt and pepper to taste. Once warm, I whisk in one to three teaspoons (to taste) of toasted sesame oil. I pour this into a insulated mug and have it all morning to sip on. It is the simplest way for me to weave nourishment by taking sips here and there throughout the chaos of my morning routine.
As a white person, my privilege can afford me the luxury of not engaging in the harsh realities of this world. But what I keep in mind is that the revolution never stops for a Black person. My cultivating daily self-care is in and of itself an act of revolution. It increases our bandwidth which allows for hope to flourish which in turn builds capacity to show up over and over again.
You are valuable beyond measure and committing to taking care of your physical and emotional health is in and of itself an act of service to the revolution.
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