Holistic Self-Care

Self-care is such a buzz word lately and I have such a love-hate relationship with that. I love it in part because I love that we’re having conversations about how we need to care for ourselves as human beings, but I also kind of hate the fact that nine times out of 10 it’s a list of things someone is trying to sell you and most of them are useful only in the bathtub. 

Self-care is not just baths. I feel like I want to put that on a sticker sometimes.

But despite my love-hate relationship with the term, I do want to enter the conversation about self-care because I think that there’s a perspective we're missing. 

I think self-care in its best iteration is something that allows us to really accept and meet our needs as a human being – body, mind, and spirit. 

I’ve always found that when I approach self-care with this three-pronged ideology the self-care in question becomes an opportunity to really rest and be refreshed.

I can’t count how many times I have taken a bubble bath and eaten some chocolate and felt awful afterwards. It did nothing for me and that’s because my issues were deeper. My physical body wasn’t the issue (although the bath felt nice while it was happening), but my mind or spirit was neglected. No real rejuvenation happened.

That’s why this week I want you to start thinking about how you can practice self-care that nurtures all three parts of yourself: body, mind, and spirit.

Pro tip: In my opinion if self-care doesn’t ever overlap with your relationship with God you are doing it wrong.

To get the ball rolling I have created a free printable package for you called real self-care: body, mind, and spirit. In the package you will find more information about holistic self-care, a list of ideas for how to care for each part of yourself, and a blank and lovely printable list you can fill in with your own ideas, as well as a fun little packet of coloring sheets in case worship music/podcasts and coloring make it on your self care list. 

I want to note here that it might seem totally silly to make a list of ways to refresh your body, mind, and spirit specifically for you, but I made my list at the beginning of the year and I have come to treasure that list in a way I never would’ve expected. When I know that I need to rest but feel too restless to do it I’m able to go to that list, pick some thing off of it that I know historically works well for me and do that thing. Oftentimes that helps me get refocused/re-centered enough to pursue other means of restfully caring for myself that I would not have been able to undertake if I had simply stayed stuck.