As I’m writing this, it’s raining. Perfect! Thank you, March, for making my point. To me, March is all about the ups and downs of the thermostat, the rains that come and go, and the winds that can blow. Remember that saying, “In like a lion, out like a lamb?”
.
March’s weather changes, and quite frankly, current events, prompt me to think deeply on weathering the storms of life. In addition to the regular ups and downs of living life as a human, I’m feeling more and more like our baseline is now set to high alert, and that being on edge is a state we’re destined to be dealing with for the time being.
.
This is exactly why I spent the month of February talking about self-care, and how important it is to take care of ourselves. We simply can not depend on outside forces — media, culture, the news, even our loved ones — to help us. We have to help ourselves get ourselves grounded in both big and small ways. It’s more important now than ever. Right now we have to pay attention to taking care of ourselves like it’s an emergency, because it is. We can’t successfully ride the ever-present ups and downs that come our way without doing so.
.
You can read more on how to make refilling your well on the regular work for you here and here, and what the heck, even here. These posts explain what self-care is all about and why it matters so much. Taking care of ourselves is a key ingredient in setting ourselves up to weather life’s storms. 
.
This post was originally going to be about sending you a list of tips and actions to go further with taking better care of yourself*, but instead I’m going to stick with simply referring you back to the most important first step: YOU making a serious commitment to YOU. Here’s how to get started: Identify what area of your life is MOST out of balance & needs attention. Is it something physical you need? Emotional? Social? Spiritual? Write it down — start a running list. Brainstorm ideas, both big and small, what might satisfy the need. Learning how to better weather the storms of life is about first identifying, and then meeting your human needs..
.
Things feel really wild right now, and having a go-to list of what works for and soothes you is a basic essential in my view.
.
*Don’t worry, tips for weathering the storms are coming in the next post!