Is Self-Care Healthcare?

What if self-care wasn’t optional? What if there was a health requirement to know your body so intimately that you knew the exact preventative measures needed to feel your best?

An article posted in the Harvard Business Review does a beautifully heartbreaking job of explaining how self-care has turned into a pursuit of reaching “perfection”. It addresses the question asking if we are actually committed to being healthier or happier or more committed to achievement and accomplishment?

When I work 1-on-1 with my coaching clients we look deep into their motivations in life. We explore what the ego thinks it needs to be happy and compare that to what the essence (heart) is calling for. I want to share with you the entry point into self-reflection and self-care.

Noticing where you are.

Being able to tell the truth about where you are in any given moment is harder than it sounds, it's self-care at its core, and it’s the place I start with every single client.

Why?

1. IT UNCOVERS YOUR HURT.
Telling the truth about what you are experiencing takes practice. I know.. I know.. you think I’m crazy - but it can be a lot harder than it seems when we are dealing with a psyche that is designed to repress and deny things that are painful.

Let me share an experience from hosting my first international retreat. I had paid a lot of money to book a beautiful location in Tulum, Mexico and I had put the word out on my Facebook page and sent a few personal invites. I had 2 people signed up at the time and I wasn’t sure what else to do to promote the retreat. I was starting to feel panicky as the retreat dates got closer. I kept trying to keep my spirits up by thinking positively and smiling my way through it but inside I was tense and uneasy. Then one day I sat on the edge of my bed and, in an act of surrender, I let this huge wave of doubt wash over me. I stopped trying to convince myself that it would all work out and let myself feel the fear of it not going how I’d hoped.

The truth was, I felt afraid. I was filled with self-doubt that it wouldn’t work and I’d lose a lot of money and be embarrassed as a result.

A snapshot from the retreat in Tulum!

2. IT'S EMPOWERING.
When you know where you stand you can OWN it. When you can acknowledge where you are, without judgment or resistance, you have the opportunity to deal powerfully with the reality of the moment.

As soon as I noticed and told the truth about being fearful and insecure, I felt relieved. Like all the energy I’d been using to keep those feelings at bay was liberated and available to me. I could stop pretending to be positive and actually look at the situation in a clear way. I began to consider what would happen if no other people signed up for the retreat and just 2 people came. Acknowledging my fear gave me the opportunity to tap into true confidence. Even if things didn’t go exactly how I might have wanted them to, I would be proud of having gone for it.

3. IT IS ULTIMATE SELF-CARE.
Instantly my energy was renewed. I had reclaimed for myself what is of most value - the richness of my own human experience. Being able to own and open to life is like tasting something delicious for the first time. It allows for the fullness that makes our lives so very sweet.


This exercise can be tricky to do on your own (because of that self-protecting psyche I mentioned earlier). I would love to support you in walking through it. You can book a consult for this exercise here.

From the beginning, I held an intention in my heart with every Wildhearted retreat for people to have a real and undeniable experience of who they are at their true nature. I wanted people to experience tapping into the sacred place within themselves that would change everything. More than that, I wanted them to leave with tools that would allow them to return to that place over and over again.
 
As an unexpected side effect to the retreat experience, people have gotten really clear about what they want and give themselves permission to have it. They’ve had a taste of their true nature and they get that they are worthy and deserving. They realize it’s okay to let their heart want what it wants and to let their heart lead. So, they start doing that and, the next thing you know, they are ready to MOVE on a long-held passion or dream!
 
That’s how WildFire was born…it is a product of the natural progression of the wild heart expressed in the world. It is a dream made viable.
 
People leave the retreat with this clarity and desire, BUT what they don’t have is the wherewithal to make it come alive.
 
It takes something to move an idea from conception to birth.
 
If you are just starting out and getting ready to move, there is a LOT of stuff to shed and new stuff to put in place. You have to develop new capacities, build new muscles and put structures in place.
 
 
I am not the same girl that I was when I first had the vision of leading retreats. My capacities have far exceeded what they were then.
But I didn’t do it on my own. 
I did it with support.
Someone who had gone where I wanted to go and was willing to reach back and hold my hand, encourage me, teach me very specific things--and it made all the difference for me.
 
We all need that…someone who can show us the way.
 
That is what WildFire gives you.
 
The purpose of WildFire is to get up under your passion or dream and provide you with:

• mental and emotional shifts

• clarity

• structural foundation

• support

All of which are necessary to bring your dream to life.
 
If you’re holding on to a dream that you are ready to birth into the world…then c’mon, c’mon, let’s play!
 
If not now, then…when? What are you waiting for?

You are a Powerful Creator and 2019 is calling you NOW.

The hustle of the holidays are calming down. Perhaps you are traveling home, or plugging back into the flow of life this week. Often we begin to get a flood of emotions as the close of a year approaches and the creation of one is calling. 

I invite you to acknowledge 2018 and manifest 2019 in a playfully collaborative way. I have created a 10 minute video and a journal exercise to help guide you in accessing your hearts desires for a powerful 2019. I am here for you. I want to hear what you create in this exercise and allow yourself to reach out. Embrace the support and send what you design with this practice to me directly at ashlie@ashliewoods.com. 

Grab your Journal and follow these steps to bring into 2019 who you most want to be, Wild One. 

Download: Reflect on 2018 to Manifest 2019

Your Heart is Able to be Trusted

Breakaway from old patterns and step into the life that is calling you forward.