Take care, everyone has told us so. Like all other things they keep telling, without meanings which we could understand or follow its practice without questioning.

The “Good Bye, Take Care” phrase has been another indication towards this larger idea- an idea which indicates that all that you seek for, rests within you. So have you wondered, what does it mean when someone says to you take care.

Who are they asking us to take care of?

You. Yes, dear. It is you, whom you need to take care of.

Self-love has become a popular phenomenon in today`s world. However, how many of us have truly taken those minutes and hours of our lives to find about ourselves, to know ourselves and more importantly to take care of ourselves. The process of taking care ourselves works in a cyclic manner and to take care of ourselves, it is very important that we know ourselves. After knowing ourselves, comes the acceptance chapter, after which comes the action which involves taking care of ourselves.

Know Yourself – Accept Yourself – Take Care of Yourself

These three chapters of our life might sound easy but for some, it might take years to walk through these, in the beautiful journey of our lives.

#1 KNOW YOURSELF

The beginning of developing insights about yourselves, about your mind-body-spirit begins from a very simple act of observation. Observe.

The activity of observing is given much emphasis in Osho`s teachings.

Bring awareness to each act. Walking on the road, walk fully alert; eating, eat with awareness. Whatsoever you are doing, don’t let the past and the future interfere. Be in the present. That’s what awareness is all about.   – OSHO

Self- Awareness is observing you, observing your thoughts, your body, your reflexes, your reactions, your anger and your love, observing the smell around, observing the leaves moving with the wind around you- observing everything, passively without judgment. Observing without any biased.

Observing, just simply observing and that will enable you to know yourself better. It will help you know how wonderful you are.

#2 ACCEPTANCE

With the daily commitment to yourself, you will be able to make observing a habit- a natural habit, where your mind will become still and your energies will synchronize the music of nature.

Perhaps, that is what enlightenment should feel like. Although, during the process of regular observation, you will come across the grey shades of yourself- shades which have socially and morally condemned by our environment. Hence, they have learned to exist in the shadows of our personalities.

Dear, please do not consider yourself evil, bad, unworthy or unhappy for possessing these traits, these feelings which have strokes of grey with them.

These grey things might just be simple habits like you biting your nails or sometimes feelings of jealousy. Please do not beat yourself down because of your grey shades. First, just observe. Keep observing, without judgment. Allow yourself to feel, the way you feel.

Even science tells you, according to the First Law of Thermodynamics- “The law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system is constant; energy can be transformed from one form to another, but can be neither created nor destroyed.”

If we allow ourselves to correlate the two schools- Ancient Ayurveda and Modern Science, It can be said that our emotions are nothing but energy.

Hence, we cannot, by no means destroy these grey shades of ourselves. We can only feel them because only by letting yourself feel these emotions you can let these pass by. You can let go of these. It is important to accept these grey shades of ourselves, to let go of them.

#3 TAKE CARE

To take care of yourself it is very important, that you accept yourself- just the way you are (Just the way Bruno Mars sings it). In the book of self-love, the chapter of self-acceptance is very important. And if life is an Indian School Teacher, they would “A lot of important questions would come from this chapter.”

Accepting yourself does not mean that you become arrogant to have a “This is Who I Am” attitude; it means you know your qualities, your strengths, and weaknesses. You are self-aware. If you are, then you will be able to help yourself. You will be able to take care of yourself.

Have a wonderful week ahead and take care of yourself!