The Daily G.I.F.T. from The GratiDude

Self care is self-love. Safety is self-love. Risking your life for no reason is NOT self-love.

www.grateful4.org

Gratitude

Intention

First

Things

The G.I.F.T. Today

Grateful: to feel so much gratitude and positivity in the community right now

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Things-get GYH preso to web Bro

Morning Meditation from The GratiDude

More of this, please!

More of reframing decisions that we make in our life as being rooted in self-love.

When we make helpful decisions that are beneficial for our human body, both short term and long-term, we are exercising a form of self-love.

In another respect, conversely, I’ve been meditating on the fact that some of my friends with resources that are not impoverished, and that could evacuate to be safe for the hurricane instead chose to stay.  

They made a conscious decision to choose a lower probability for personal safety in exchange for something that has to do with ego, or fear, or control, denial, and a bit of the need to be right. I’m not sure.  

What I know is that it’s not self-love to receive valid information that there is danger eminent and choose not to get out of harm’s way.

One might say that it could even be self-loathing.  The desire or the willingness to sacrifice your life when you don’t have to for no reason is fucking crazy.

In this case, everyone got off unscathed, however, one friend was out on Siesta Key for some reason watching all his vehicles get totaled his first floor flooded his entire property submerged while he panicked and freaked out in the human aquarium up on the second floor. Why?

Water shut off, “mandatory evacuations” with no ability to use bridges, no first responders coming.

Why?

My friend that did that should be asking himself: “why would I put myself through this when I love myself?”

Yes, practicing personal safety can be an act of self-love: 

·         Setting boundaries

Learning to set and feel safe within your own boundaries, evacuating during natural disasters,  can help you establish a sense of self-worth and self-love. 

·         Protecting your mental health

Self-preservation can include taking care of your mental health and emotional well-being. That includes leaving when a Hurricane is coming to your Neighborhood and specifically your HOUSE.  This can involve avoiding toxic people and situations and taking breaks. From Disasters.

·         Taking care of yourself

Self-love can encourage you to take care of yourself both physically and emotionally. This can help you feel good about yourself and make healthier decisions, like leaving when a Hurricane is coming.

·         Being kind to yourself

You can show yourself love by doing for yourself that you would do for a friend or loved one. This could include taking yourself on a date, buying yourself a treat, or going for a walk.  Would you tell your daughter to stay during a Hurricane? No.  So why did You?

Other ways to practice self-care include:

Getting sunlight exposure, especially at sunrise and sunset

Spending time with others and laughing.

Practicing meditation or mindfulness

Listening to music with a rhythm between 80 and 100 bpm(NO Techno Bro, ha ha ha!!!).

I distinctly remember going rock climbing in college with my good brother Hunter at a place near Monterey Bay called Castle Rock State Park.  A super cool bouldering spot very accessible and a lot of fun, and Hunter was a very experienced climber who had climbed all over the world, including New Zealand, the northeast, and the  Pacific Northwest.  

What I remember from that rock climbing experience the most was biting off more than I could chew and being paralyzed in fear on the side of a rock for about 20 minutes or so that felt like five days.  I was halfway up a 50-foot face belay and roped in and I simply couldn’t see a move and I froze. I froze for a long time.

I remember myself having a conversation with myself telling myself that if I got myself out of this predicament that I would never allow myself to go rock climbing again. Ever. That I was up here voluntarily was a terrible idea, and I needed to agree that we were all in agreement that we would never do this again.

All of us shook on it. I made some crazy move that popped my hip. I barely remember scampering to the top of the mountain and all I recall was Hunter laughing on his back and he couldn’t even talk for about five minutes. He was laughing so hard.

He told me it looked like somebody hit me with a cattle prod up my ass because I made one move and then just shot up the side of the mountain like a goat.  

I have not climbed since, and I have no intentions to do it again.

That’s my small little act of self-love: no rock climbing. 

I hope my friends that rode out the hurricane made some solemn promises to themselves as well that they won’t ride out hurricanes or storms like that again.

I was joking with friends that a hurricane, compared to an earthquake, is like a beginner natural disaster.  Hurricanes give you a few days’ warning and an earthquake doesn’t even give you a few seconds warning before the earth swallows you up on a perfect sunny day.

I know firsthand as I was only twenty miles from the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 in northern California, so I’ve experienced a 7.1 earthquake from the epicenter.  Easily the most terrifying experience of my life.

Anthony Hopkins reframes quitting drinking 47 years ago as his biggest and most profound active self-love and self-care.