Farmers First: Got WATER?

Hello, farm family!

After a tumultuous winter, spring is finally here, even though the weather seems to be having a hard time getting the message.

Farmers are not fooled by unseasonable chills, however. If you’re anything like the farmers I know, you’re already moving full speed ahead: filling up greenhouses, prepping fields and managing livestock.

The Spring Stress Paradox

As you physically and mentally address an ever-expanding list of to-dos, you may find yourself experiencing some predictable side effects that I call spring stress. Some common symptoms might include tweaky muscles, fluctuating emotions and periodic overwhelm.

Ironically, many farmers find spring stress invigorating. I know I did. Movement – any movement – carries with it a sense of opportunity and new beginnings, and nowhere do we feel the power of movement as much as after a winter of relative sedentariness.

When I started moving again in the spring, I felt invincible.

The aching in my back and legs seemed like proof that I was alive.

The sweat and the dirt caking my body made me feel as if I were growing right along with plants I was tending.

The simple repetition of efficiently pruning, clipping and weeding assured me that I was succeeding at something both elemental and meaningful.

Unfortunately, springtime vigor didn’t last forever. Each year, I experienced a familiar cycle of spring enthusiasm, summer grit, autumn perseverance and winter collapse.

What I now realize is that the time when I feel most invulnerable to physical and mental fatigue is actually the time I most need to be creating habits that will sustain me – not for a day or a week or a month, but for the entire season.

WATER Yourself This Spring

Over the years, I have come to believe that the single greatest thing we can do for our farms and our families is to take good care of ourselves.

I see you out there, scoffing, rolling your eyes and calling me delusional. Stick with me, though, because my approach to “taking care of ourselves” is designed especially for busy farmers and can be implemented in as little as five minutes a day (often without taking any time away from your farm chores!).

I divide farmer self-care into five main areas, which I represent with the acronym WATER:

• Wonder

• Awareness

• Tilth

• Essentials

• Rejuvenation Let’s take a minute to define each area and identify some easy actions you can take to strengthen them in your life.

Wonder

Wonder is the connection with something bigger than ourselves.

For some people, that is a divine being such as God. For others, it’s the universe, energy or nature. Some get a sense of wonder from the arts or principles such as kindness, justice or love.

You can connect with your sense of wonder by spending a few minutes in prayer, meditation or mindfulness. You can listen to a song that makes you feel peaceful, happy or joyful; paint a quick picture; or read a poem. (Bonus points for creating a playlist or memorizing a poem and reciting it throughout the day!).

Awareness

Awareness is the growing understanding of yourself, others and the world at large.

The key to awareness is curiosity. As you go through your days, ask yourself what is going on, why it might be happening and how you and others influence or are affected by it.

Some quick ways to become aware is through mindfulness activities, journaling about your day, imagining a situation from someone else’s perspective, listening to a new podcast or simply asking questions to sincerely hear what someone else thinks.

If you are asking honest questions of yourself, others or the world, you are strengthening your awareness.

Tilth

Tilth refers to your physical health and wellbeing.

You support your Tilth when you eat healthy foods, visit the doctor (or other holistic practitioners) for routine checkups as well as acute ailments and engage in appropriate levels of physical activity. Caring for our tilth is critical for being able to do what we love as easily as possible for as long as possible.

Quick actions to support your tilth might be stretching at the beginning or end of the day, swapping out one cup of coffee for a glass of water or scheduling that breast or prostate exam. (Yes, the exam takes more than five minutes, but the call doesn’t!)

Essentials

Essentials are the things we need to survive. All humans share the same basic essential needs for love, companionship, safety, food and shelter. Interestingly, these essentials are often the first things I put off when life gets busy. If you’ve ever delayed recordkeeping until the busy season is over, you’ve done it too!

You can support your essentials by spending five minutes filing or sorting mail, paying a bill, calling/texting a friend, replacing a leaky showerhead or putting air in a tire.

Rejuvenation

Rejuvenation is anything that makes you feel rested, inspired or energized.

One way of supporting rejuvenation is sleep, but it is not the only way. “Rest” might look like spending time with people you love or going out on the town in your best threads. If you feel more energetic at the end than you did at the beginning, you’ve been rejuvenated.

Consider rejuvenating yourself by laying in the grass and cloud-watching, playing catch with your kid, dancing in the garden, going to a family party or having coffee break with the crew.

Self-care shouldn’t be burdensome. Spend five minutes on one action in one area each day and you’re done. If that feels like too much, take the weekends off. Five days are better than no days!

Want some support? Send me an email at kcastrataro@pen-light.org and we’ll create a plan just for you and your farm life.

It’s your time to grow!