As Self-Care Week 2024 gets underway, Nancy Adams, Trainer and Communications lead at Capacitar Scotland, discusses practices that allow us to support our own self-care and better equip us to also support others.
Are there times during your day that you are so exhausted or stressed that you would do anything to be able to recapture the energy you know you used to have? Are there times when you feel anxious or angry or fearful, or just incredibly sad that there are not enough resources to support people who are in need these days?
Did you know that you have within yourself the means to increase that energy and manage those emotions?
Capacitar (which means ‘to empower’ in Spanish) provides a ‘toolkit’ of simple practices that enable us to attend to our own self-care so that we are better equipped to attend to the needs of those with whom we live and work.
Capacitar practices have been used across 45 countries over the past 35 years to empower people whose lives had been turned upside down by political violence, regional conflict, devastating natural disasters and domestic violence. Capacitar was invited into these places to help address the trauma that had become widespread in the communities. The practices were made easy and accessible so that those who had learned them could return to their communities and teach them to others, thereby enabling the healing effect to be passed to women, men and children in their extended families and communities. The beneficial effects were so encouraging for those communities that the strapline for Capacitar became “healing ourselves, healing our world”.
Now, particularly in the wake of the Covid pandemic, the need for these simple practices has become ever more urgent across the world. To help address this, Capacitar International, in partnership with Clare Cable, former CEO of QNIS, has published a new manual, Holistic Tools for Health and Social Care Professionals: Healing Practices for Ourselves, Our Teams, and Our Communities. With it, we extend our invitation towards others to help meet the ever-increasing need for ways to enhance our own self-care, manage our emotions, and address the debilitating effects of trauma in our society.
The Capacitar wellness energy practices tap into our own body wisdom and our own instinct to heal. They are very accessible, easy to learn, easy to use, and easy to teach others. I invite you to celebrate Self-Care Week by trying out a few of the Capacitar body-mind practices to find out which ones YOU find most helpful in attending to your own self-care. Then, if you feel able, share them with others!
Resource list
The QNIS website has a Wellbeing section (click here to access) where several of the QNIS nurses who have been trained by Capacitar over the past few years, have produced videos of many of the simple practices for you to follow. They will provide you with a sense of how easy they are and how little time it takes to manage your emotions or renew your energy and spirit to continue with your day.
The Scotland page of the Capacitar UK website (click here to access) has a list of all of the regular sessions that happen across Scotland in person and/or on Zoom.
The Capacitar International YouTube channel has a playlist (click here to access) of all of the practices taught by the founder, Dr Pat Cane, or one of the other leaders of the global Capacitar Community.
