Take care is the process of protecting someone or something and providing what that person or thing needs(*).
I believe we are all aware about the risk of taking care too much: when we put too much energy and attention in someone or something and we end up neglecting our own needs. Then we experienced tiredness, exhaustion, demotivation, dissatisfaction, bitterness…
But what are the signs of taking too little care of what is around us?

Some weeks ago, I gave a short speech about consuming: my point was that consuming is good for the economy but not so much for people because is consuming our energy.
Think about the time we invest in shopping and the space our stuff occupied.
Or think about the fact that by giving in to the pleasure of possessing new stuff we produce a lot of waste and we maintain the mechanism of wanting always a bit more, by satisfying short-term pleasures.

We may believe that buying and shopping are activities we do for ourselves or for people we care for.
But its impact is so huge today, that it is difficult to ignore its consequences: how our stuff is leading our life, how we waste the resources of our planet, how important our stuff is over tangible connections with people, Nature and also ourselves.

Though you need to shop to take care of our needs – food, clothes, services – you can also practice this banal action in a “caring way”. That will help you to cultivate your sense of being satisfied. To have a calmer mind. And to waste less.
It means that you will then invest your attention and energy in taking care for what is really important in your life and not to what give quick and superficial satisfactions.

Here you find some practical trainings that you can apply in the next 30 days:

• Buy only what you need, don’t make any reserves.
• Valorize and use what you already have.
• Spend as little time as possible in shops and try to be more in contact with Nature – woods, lake, river – and people.
• Notice your own reaction to advertisement: how much it influences you and what is the outcome.

Possessing stuff give the satisfaction of having. Being more in the body and paying attention to life helps to build the satisfaction of being. And this is the power of taking care: it will provide you a long term satisfaction 🙂

Picture of Michelle Sabatini – Arte Sella
(*) Definition from the Cambridge Dictionary