Take Up Space
The Heartfelt 'Anti-Challenge' challenge that's here to remind you to make time and space for yourself each day
‘Self care’ makes me roll my eyes a bit, at least on the inside.
I think it’s because it feels like the luxurious and far-out-of-reach pinnacle of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and in my day-to-day life right now, that’s just not a height I’m likely to reach.
But, in thinking recently about how:
This motherhood caper is long, slow and unrelenting;
‘Scraping By’ is not going to serve anyone, or anything I value (see, for example, my relationships);
Maybe, just maybe, it’s the reputation of self-care itself that’s the problem. Dominant ideas of it being about pampering, external appearance related, elitist/high value and/or diet-culture related things (pedicures, juice cleanses, girls weekends away at wineries), rather than what I choose it to mean for myself (deep breaths, reasonable expectations, honesty, slowing down)…
… I was inspired to create a week of movement and mindfulness we could do together than would support us, separated as we often are in all the day to day challenges of the trying to leave the house and rapid antigen testing and face wiping and snack deploying.
I wanted to call it ‘Take Up Space’ because that’s what we’re practising doing. Taking Up Space in our own lives, in the minutes each day we manage to prioritise ourselves at a deeper level than, say, scrolling (or whatever default habits you know don’t really serve you but feel like me-time)… Also that name has the added spunk of being the opposite of what so many wellness and fitness challenges are trying to sell themselves as doing for us - Shrink yourself! Get smaller and more toned!
Nup, not over here.
Take Up Space will run from 10th - 17th January and will be absolutely FREE and 100% online and on-demand. It will include a brief daily email and suggested practice each day. No practice will be longer than 15 minutes and some will be shorter. If you aren’t feeling the suggested practice, pick another one from the library instead.
If you are a Heartfelt Member, consider it a focus week, where you can use the community vibe and momentum to prioritise using the membership resources regularly for one week.
If you are not a Heartfelt Member, and haven’t yet had a free 7 day trial, you can simply sign up to the membership and access the Take Up Space anti-challenge for free using the 7 day trial available to all new HF members. (If you’ve already used your trial and want to come back, get in touch and I’m sure we can work something out.)
On top of accessing the suggested practice of the day as well as the entire library of over 130 practices, during this week I will be sharing three Q&A webinars with experts in areas that align beautifully with Heartfelt:
A GP and lactation consultant who is a meditation teacher and mindfulness expert, Dr. Emily Amos
A weight inclusive, intuitive eating dietician who will dispel wellness myths like your toddler dispels to the floor anything you put any time into cooking, Kelsey Weight; and
A self-kindness and somatic yoga teacher and mum of tweens who is full of the self-care truth bombs, Erica Webb
The conversations will be available to watch or listen to only for HF members or those doing the ‘Take Up Space’ week.
Lastly, there are PRIZES! That’s how much I believe in motivating you to take time for yourself to move and meditate for just a few minutes a day.
I am passionate about what HF offers but would love to reach more mums. If you join the week’s anti-challenge, and do three simple things, you go into the running to win 1 set of lavender Bala wrist weights (you’ve probably seen me use these if you’ve practised with me - they’re weighted bands that amplify the benefits of just about any routine and provided feedback for the bod and an added challenge to build strength); an original framed print by my fave illustrator atm, @thisisaliceskinner (see above); AND a 3 month HF membership to either use yourself or gift to a mate. Two ‘runners up’ will win a one month HF membership.
What do you have to do to win?
Share my Take Up Space Instagram post to your stories with a sentence saying why you’re doing it (or talk about it with a mate if you’re not on social media)
Tag 2 mum friends in a comment on the Take Up Space post who might be interested in yoga/pilates pre or postnatally (or talk about it with a mate if you’re not on social media)
Send me an email or DM at the end of the week letting me know how you went, what you liked, what was tricky or got in the way (really this is another gift to you of building in some accountability and reflection)
That’s it!
Complete as many of the week’s offered practices as you like: I’m not tracking your completion of each day’s practice - it’s an anti-challenge, the last thing we need is more external pressure. If you do NONE OF THE PRACTICE, guess what, you still win because you win at life just for trying every bloody day and being here and signing up in the first place.
So, WHO’S IN?! Don’t miss it. What a rad way to kick off the new year - by prioritising yourself, by practicing all that good stuff like embodiment, movement, loving kindness, self-acceptance, connection (to yourself and others) and mindfulness. Not to mention oh-so-doable in only less than 15 minutes a day. You are guaranteed to be eleventy billion times calmer, stronger and more at ease - as you, and as a mum.
See you on the mat/couch/in the car/in the dark in the nursery.