{"id":757,"date":"2022-04-22T15:47:12","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T05:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mountainashchapter.com.au\/?p=757"},"modified":"2022-08-03T19:18:58","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T09:18:58","slug":"once-there-was-a-village-now-there-is-selfcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mountainashchapter.com.au\/?p=757","title":{"rendered":"Once There Was a Village – Now There Is Selfcare"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Meet Jane
Jane is struggling to keep things together
Jane reaches out looking for help
The People shake their heads and say I know it\u2019s tough isn\u2019t it?<\/em>
It\u2019s normal,
We\u2019re all struggling.<\/em>
The People say Selfcare is the answer, are you looking after yourself?<\/em>
Jane asks What is selfcare?<\/em>
The People tell her to go away on a weekend alone, go on a date, take up yoga, a hobby,
meet up with friends\u2026 at a day spa
Jane wonders Don\u2019t you get it? If I could do these things, I wouldn\u2019t need help<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Jane feels even worse, her to-do list just got longer,
I see now it\u2019s all my fault<\/em>, she thinks.
She needs to be more responsible!
The jumping in her gut starts again.
The greyness in her head with flashes of red,
Sighing, irregular breathing, panic.
I\u2019m a failure<\/em>, she thinks, I even fail at failing
It\u2019s all my fault<\/em>, she thinks
The People have told me so.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Person says Let me know if I can help.<\/em>
Jane thinks I don\u2019t know what help I need?
I don\u2019t know what help there is,
My mind\u2019s too shattered to make basic decisions
Don\u2019t ask me to make decisions for you too!<\/em>
Jane says, No no that\u2019s ok, I\u2019ll be fine.<\/em>
Well you look after yourself<\/em>, says The Person as they walk away,
feeling good for making the offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day Jane moves away from The People and goes to The Village
Jane reaches out looking for help
The Village says, We will give you authentic support, not advice
We\u2019ll take your kids out for a few hours when you need.
<\/em>The Village says We will bring you fresh food and some cooked meals<\/em>
Jane says No no you don\u2019t need to do that.<\/em>
The Village says Shut up, we are doing it.<\/em>
One day, when Jane is injured
A Villager comes to her house, and quietly cleans it
They didn\u2019t say Let me know if I can help!<\/em>
They said Shut up, I\u2019m coming.<\/em>
Jane feels at home in The Village
She can breathe normally and her head feels a healthy shade of pink
She decides to stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To read more from Amanda Gambas please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For mental health services in Victoria click here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meet JaneJane is struggling to keep things togetherJane reaches out looking for helpThe People shake their heads and say I know it\u2019s tough isn\u2019t it?It\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[9,21,73,11,74,10],"class_list":["post-757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry","tag-amanda-gambas","tag-poetry","tag-selfcare","tag-story","tag-village","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pff1uY-cd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3988,"url":"https:\/\/mountainashchapter.com.au\/?p=3988","url_meta":{"origin":757,"position":0},"title":"And 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