When you want to rest, but your surroundings don't feel restful.

Finding your way back to yourself when things don't go as planned.

Sometimes we enter a period already longing for rest.

You imagine slow mornings, spacious days, good food, nature, sleep.

And then you arrive… and somehow your body doesn't get the message.

The environment is different than you expected. You don't sleep as well. You feel unsettled. There is more noise, more people, less privacy, or simply something about the space that doesn't allow you to fully exhale.

And suddenly, the thing you thought would bring you rest becomes something you have to navigate first.

That is what happend recently

while travelling with my family.

The accommodation wasn't quite what I had expected, and during the first days I noticed that I wasn't able to settle into the space as easily as I had hoped.

I decided to stay with the experience first.

One of the first things that helped me was allowing myself to admit:

"I don't like this. This isn't what I had hoped for"

I didn't need to convince myself that everything was fine. But I also didn't want to stay stuck in what wasn't working. I realised that acceptance and a positive, solution-oriented mindset can exist at the same time.

I can acknowledge that something feels difficult, and still ask myself:

What can I do from here?

That first night, I noticed something else. Once it became dark, I felt more unsettled than I had expected. I noticed a familiar sense of resistance in my body, that feeling of not quite being able to relax or surrender to the space. Instead of trying to push the feeling away, I let myself acknowledge it. And then I asked myself: How can I create safety for myself right now?

For me, that meant keeping a small light on, using a familiar essential oil, massaging my feet with sesame oil. None of these things needed to have some magical power for them to be useful. They are little ways of communicating to myself: I am here for you, I am listening, and I am taking care of you.

"Safety isn't something we think ourselves into,

instead, we may practice to embody it."

Rhythm

I also noticed how much it helped to stay close to my own rhythm.

Going to bed around the same time. Waking up around the same time.

Eating regularly and focussing on whole meals instead of little snacks in between.

Ayurveda places a lot of value on rhythm for a reason. Our bodies respond well to a certain sense of predictability, especially when everything around us is changing.

One of the days, I was menstruating and noticed that I felt more depleted and had less energy than usual. Until then, I had been planning and arranging some of the activities, but on the first day of my period, I realised that I didn't have the energy to hold that role.

That day, I skipped going grocery shopping and gave myself more space. Later, there was a walk planned, and I knew that was something I actually wanted to keep some energy for. It wasn't about cancelling everything or putting the whole day on pause. It was simply about choosing where my energy was going. And I think that is an important part of self-care too: not always asking “What am I supposed to do today?”, but also asking “What does my body need today?”

Our energy isn't the same every day. Our needs change with the seasons, our environment, our menstrual cycle, our sleep and everything else that is happening in our lives. Supporting yourself means learning to notice those changes, and allowing your routines to move with you.

 And then there was nature.

Because one thing I know about myself by now is that nature brings me back to myself. So the second day of my cycle, my partner and I went out to the forrest on our own for a little while.

I walked barefoot. Sat on a stone. Looked closely at the things around me.

I allowed myself to wander without needing to get anywhere.

And slowly, that familiar feeling of wonder started growing.

I started noticing colours, textures, movement, little details.

This space to experience, is what truly opens my heart.

This is "vacation for me" I said to my partner.

I think sometimes we can put a lot of pressure on ourselves to relax.

We go on holiday and expect ourselves to immediately feel calm. We enter a new season and expect ourselves to adapt. We find ourselves in an uncomfortable situation and think we should simply “let it go”.

But sometimes the first step isn't letting go.

Sometimes it's acknowledging what is there.

And then asking:

What do I need right now?

Maybe it's more rest, movement, nature or a familiar ritual.

You don't always get to choose the environment you're in.

But you can slowly learn to create little moments of safety, rhythm and connection within it. And perhaps that is also part of what it means to take care of yourself.

With love,

Jinte