Sarah, Raised Catholic myself but I think the idea of soul I was taught is limited and inadequate when I think about it.

Darc, not knowing is the first step, eh?

le35, I guess it is about realizing when we are thirsting and what will quench it.

Julie, I think women especially are more in danger of ignoring the warning bells because we feel that we must put ourselves last and the trouble is that we do this not just when it is necessary but all the time.

Daisy, I am a lone runner too. Hate company when running. Ruins the experience and prevents me from thinking and sometimes writing. I plot as a run.

70’steen, See you have the right idea and sense of balance about this.

Gnu, Changing it up is a good idea.

key thing may not be planning it, but listening for when you need it, and having mental catalog of the sorts of things that recharge you…

What do those things all have in common? Uninterrupted thinking and processing time.

I agree with your elastic theory but I guess I think of it more as a cell battery: I can feel it getting low on juice, and I start beeping in some way, warning of impending loss of power.

If I ignore the message (to quote Oprah, sorry), it becomes a problem. If I don’t solve the problem, it becomes a crisis. If I don’t handle the crisis, it becomes a catastrophe.

So I do need to do a little often to prevent that. But like I said, it’s generally alone time.

TBH? I don’t think how I am and how I deal is terribly well tolerated. I’ll stop there because that’s a really long theory LOL.