Milk, Cookies, Comics & The Art Of Self-Care

Milk, Cookies, Comics & The Art Of Self-Care
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

Admittedly I have been accused of having a rather delusional and inflated sense of ego over the course of my relatively short lifetime, but, with some maturity (big stress on "some"), I have managed to temper my grandiose sense of self with something more intrinsically valuable and satisfying. This something I talk of as more deeply rewarding is an acceptance my flaws (the ones I am still not in denial about that is) which have given rise to a sense of love for a more realistic perception of the person I really am.

It is common knowledge that I am ultra spiritual. I had the gift of being taught to meditate in my youth, I've dabbled with world religions and of course, most importantly, I studied the arts. My depth is clearly undeniable. What has been even more satisfying than enjoying my elite level spirituality is a growing sense of self- awareness. I am genuinely proud that I have slowly learned to curb, to a degree, some of my more outrageous egotistical fancies. Maturity brings with it a touch of humility. As I've grown older, I've developed an amorous respect for the identity that lies beneath my airs, pretensions and thinly veiled attempts at validation and I have found that it is the simple acts of self-care that really nourish my soul.

When I was but a child, I used to read a comic book called "Buster". This particular comic came in every week from the Motherland (that's how we Kiwi's used to describe England back in the day) and was set aside for me by our local newsagent, a silver-haired dame, and doppelganger of Queen Elizabeth II. Every Thursday afternoon after the pressure cooker that is an elementary school, I would get off the rusty school bus, waltz into the newsagent and pick up a copy of my treasured publication from her majesty. As soon as I got home I would pour myself a tall glass of milk, fix a plate of Shrewsbury biscuits and retire to my room, shut the door and lie down on the weathered carpet to munch, sip and read fluff. It was my time.

The equation for happiness: Milk, cookies, and comics.

The equation for happiness: Milk, cookies, and comics.

Robin Hall

This then could be the equation for happiness: Milk, cookies, and comics. Not specifically those three things in particular but what they add up too and represent, YOU TIME. Self-care is any activity you do to nurture yourself, your true self, not the self you wish others to perceive you as. If I may be a tad New Age, it is about respecting your spirit.

Self-care is about doing something kind for yourself and showing yourself some lurv. As I was prone to saying in a severely annoying phase of my early twenties, "Feel the love and let it flow, let it flow". I had an instinct as a child as I have an instinct now, to care for my essential self. You do too. Trust that instinct and find that me time, your own cookies, milk, a comic book and the gentle feeling of loving who you really are.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot