January: Show Up 2019

Top of the year to you!

Towards the end of last year, in 2018, I felt as if though my best and most optimal self (we all have access to our best and optimal selves), the one that always knows the deal, had been trying to tell me something that my autopilot, fast-moving, NYC pavement stomping, always-a-step-ahead self wouldn’t lend an ear to. It felt like tension in my head and pressure on my chest. I figured that meant I had to show up for myself in a way I hadn't before.

I celebrated the New Year with a four-day silent self-retreat*. No social media (including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Whatsapp), no calls, no text, no TV, and Safari only for research. I stayed in, wrote, slept, cooked for myself, meditated, did jigsaw puzzles, made a vision board, took baths, read, stretched, and fantasied in silence for about 80 hours and into the 1st day of the year.

*I did listen to Bon Iver and Coldplay for 30 minutes and left the home base for food and acupuncture in the little hours.

Sure that was an extreme way of working through my persistent internal uneasiness but relax, this is not a how-to or a social media detox guide, this merely is an encouragement for us all this month to SHOW UP.

Show up for yourself. Show up on time. Show up well dressed. Show up with interest. Show up for the kids. Show up and listen. Show up for your friends before they call in distress.

Weather showing up for yourself to you means spending more time with your family,

sleeping more,

saying what you mean more often,

fucking more,

listening to your body,

positioning yourself to earn more money,

saying ‘no,’

eating more consciously,

loving who you love with no stops,

shooting your shot,

accepting that you take up space and that you are worth it.

Whatever it is, honor yourself and show up for what you know deep down you need. Forget what you want for now.

The work is hard, but it is rich, and the good news is that in the end, we all show up for our most divine selves. Some folks show up for themselves years later, long after they’ve filled a house with a family they’ve created, and after they’ve emptied it again. Some show up for themselves in the wake of desperation, when self-neglect no longer works. Most fall victim to their own lack of showing up.

Take this message out for a test drive for January and if you like it, it for the rest of the 364 days of this year.

Show up. I dare you.