Bold Journey Magazine’s website states that “Living life boldly means exposing yourself to all sorts of risk – risk of loss, risk of criticism and judgement, risk of mental, emotional, or physical distress. It’s no wonder, so many of us are raised to not live boldly, to not take risks, to not push ourselves to reach our highest potential.”
I wasn’t raised to take risks. When I grew up, children were expected to “be seen and not heard,” especially girl children. This expectation to “behave” kept me out of trouble in grade school and convinced my parents that they could rely on me but it also made me timid and shy. In my later teens and early adulthood, I rebelled. It was the sixties after all. I ditched class to march in an anti-Vietnam protest. I backpacked through Europe alone. I bought a house as a single woman in the late 70’s. Women weren’t even allowed to have credit cards in their own names until 1974. I was single until the ripe old age of 36.
Now as a 71 year old, I’m sharing my words with the entire world which means leaving myself open to criticism, judgment and rejection. Sometimes it feels like one of those dreams where everyone else is wearing clothes except me. Publishing a novel or two can be equally thrilling and distressing. I’ve realized the importance of taking care of myself.
In a recent interview with Bold Journey I got to talk about three of my strategies for self-care: massage, our garage gym, and yoga.
Riley is a big fan of my online yoga class because it means he has another blanket to sit on when I’m in down dog.
Read the interview here. Thanks Bold Journey for including me!
