Hi. This is my first post, as I join you from across the ditch in Aotearoa.
What I’m present to at the moment, is what it takes to stay ‘strong’ when the world is demanding so much of us. I like to think of myself as someone that others can lean on, that generally remains grounded and available. However, in the last 10 days we had some extreme weather events (rain) that caused sever slips on the only road onto the peninsular we live on. My partner and I are both part of the local Community Response Group, so we swung into action to help close roads, communicate with residents etc. I didn’t play a key role in this, but I was involved, and I received 100’s of messages from the group as we coordinated the response. Then a few days later a friend had a mental health breakdown, and I was called upon to be her support person.
Fast forward another couple of days, and I’m finally on my long awaited summer get away, camping in paradise on a local island with a group of friends, and I suddenly find myself falling apart. I spent the whole first day hiding away, crying and sleeping. Very uncharacteristic of me. I couldn’t quite figure out what was wrong. And then I got it. My tank was empty.
As we experience more floods, fires, slips etc, and people become more stressed and vulnerable, we will have even more reason to take care of our own nervous systems if we want to be able to be there for others. Resilience is personal - it starts with each and everyone of us looking after our own tanks. And my tank was more depleted, or more easily depleted, than I like to admit.
