Self-Care

~~As you enter into another New Year, do you find yourself thinking about New Year resolutions? One of the things that you should make sure you do is to take care of yourself both physically and mentally.

When you think about it, working and taking care of your everyday activities can also be stressful but you know it is important to take care of your own physical needs as well as your family needs. In reality, though, these activities do not begin to address your deeper emotional issues.

Most of us carry within us a great deal of “unfinished business” in our emotional relationships.  We do this, for the most part, because no one ever taught us how to deal with the emotional matters we face on a daily basis.  This unfinished business is not just related to those relationships that have ended, due to death or divorce, although those feelings of loss can be overwhelming!  It can also be related to ongoing relationships of family and friends, and even those with whom we deal with on our jobs.

“Unfinished business,” from an emotional standpoint involves those things we wish might be, or have been, different, better or more in any relationship.  It might be unmet hopes and dreams that never came to be.  Sometimes it is about wanting something, on an emotional level, from someone who was never able to provide that type of support.   This may be because that person died or because they simply could not or would not provide it.

Whatever the reason, that sense of being emotionally incomplete, will leave you feeling that something is missing in your life.  In a very real sense, it leaves you feeling a sense of grief!

Most of us grew up thinking that grief was the emotion that we experienced after the death of someone who touched our life.  Grief is actually something we feel whenever we are forced to deal with any unexpected or unwanted change in our daily living.  When we have anything that impacts us emotionally, in a less than positive way, feelings of grief can be generated.
Sadly, most of us have been taught to suppress our feelings of sadness.  That does not make them go away!  Instead, we hold them deep inside, never realizing how they impact us.  Instead of dealing with these feelings, we continue to hold them inside and they accumulate over our lifetime.  The more we accumulate these painful feelings in our hearts, the more drained we will feel and the less room we have for true happiness!

Take time to take care of that emotional pain. You will find more joy and peace in your life if you do.