In the past, self-care may have been joining a sports team or taking a walk in the park.
It then evolved into a day at the spa.
In 2021, when self-care, in general, has been challenged, how do we define it? Can we even make time for it to exist while being asked to stay home, isolate, and multitask more than ever before? Has our alone time and self-care gone by the wayside?
I can hear you saying, “I don’t have time for one more thing!” Or, maybe, “What can I do about my self-care?”
Well, first, let’s discuss what can actually be classified as healthy self-care.
I am a mentor for teaching tools and techniques on self-care. I’m going to share with you the same tools and techniques I discuss with my clients when they are trying to incorporate self-care back into their lives.
Self-care isn’t just a manicure, a facial, or a spa day. It can be, but there is more to self-care than the physical or outside body. Keep in mind one of the most important things: if you make time for something that brings you joy, that is non-harming, intimidating, or interrogating to you or others, then it is helping you to refuel and restore your energy.
That is the definition of healthy self-care.
We are all made up of energy, fields, and layers of different frequencies and vibrations. These layers and fields are referred to as the subtle body. They are coded with the memories of your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Therefore, healthy self-care is also about healing our unconsciously stored past energies in the subtle body.
Next, why do we need self-care?
Joy and healing require self-care. Those memories in the subtle body we thought were forgotten and buried are replicating negative energy in our cells. Cells impact other cells and manifest into things we can’t see or translate unless we are empathically awake. When we can release the negative energy from our cells, we make room for more positive energy to reside. In Shamanic terms, it’s called “the process of illumination.” Basically, it’s restoration: dark energy out and light energy in. Healthy self-care is all about the restoration—the ability to make room for healing. Our human body is in constant energetic motion processing energy. It’s being released, absorbed, or integrated within the body.
Let’s imagine your body is like a battery. The negative energy is depleting your energy fields, and the positive is restoring it. So, when you notice that you’re feeling depleted, then it’s time to restore.
Speaking of time, if you are concerned about how much time to devote to self-care, there is no limit, and you have total discretion. Any amount of self-care is beneficial. As an example, if your cell phone was running out of juice (power) and you can plug it in for just two minutes, that’s two minutes of juice that your battery now has, and you can use. Your body is the same way. Self-care can constitute any amount of time spent toward stimulating and restoring one’s own subtle energy. As mentioned above, anything that brings you joy stimulates the energy or your body positively, helping you restore.
Another aspect as to why you need self-care involves the environment around you. Maybe, you release more energy than you’re receiving. Do you ever notice that when you give more energy and effort to someone who depletes you emotionally, you’re exhausted when you are ready to devote time to yourself? This is why it’s important at any time of the day but especially at the end of the day to note how you physically feel. If you feel depleted, drained, heavy, or imbalanced, this could be a sign that you are releasing or giving a lot more energy than you’re receiving.
This is when we can start to realize that there is disharmony going on. Our physical, mental, and emotional bodies begin to suffer because the subtle body is depleted. If you do not bring in some healthy self-care time, these bodies or layers will begin to manifest signals that show that they are imbalanced. Examples of those signals might be mood swings, brain fog, trouble sleeping, discomfort, lethargy, pain.
This leads us to the “how”:
How can you incorporate self-care into an already packed schedule?
As promised earlier, below are a few examples that I discuss with my clients when they are trying to incorporate self-care back into their lives. Some are quick and simple, and some are lengthy and motivating.
Just remember: “self-love is not selfish.” This is a quote by Avesha Parker in another Elephant Journal article called “The Self-Love Checklist.”
As I mentioned before, you are working with etheric energy. Your body is brilliant and will understand how to utilize all of these techniques to your highest potential. (A quick reminder, try not to multitask when you are experimenting with these self-care areas. For example, if you’re in a salt bath, turn the phone off so you aren’t distracted.)
Here are some examples:
1. Yoga
2. Meditation
3. Salt baths
4. Reading an inspirational book (especially one that you keep seeing or hearing about)
5. Sitting quietly in the presence of an animal
6. A massage
7. A spa day
8. Exposure to nature
Speaking of nature, the trees, mountains, water, and land are vital and extremely beneficial at restoring the energy of your subtle body. Anytime you can connect in your mind or in-person with these types of nature, your body is fully capable of bringing and restoring from it.
Utilizing the elements of our Earth to clear your energy field is another wonderful technique. Fire is fantastic at dissolving energy that is not meant for your highest good, also called lower or negative energy. Water purifies and cleanses the energy that’s leftover. Wind will shift energy from negative back to positive, and sunshine restores and revitalizes your energy.
Cold water is amazing at cutting energy ties and removing negative energy that we may have picked up during the day. You place your hands, wrists, and feet in cold water and mentally declare that all energy that is not yours—not meant for you or your highest good—is cut.
I utilize the shower for doing these next few cleansing techniques: mentally say that everything negative your hands touched and feet walked through that day be disconnected. Another one, as you’re standing underneath the showerhead, imagine that the water can flow not only around the outside of your body but using your imagination to see it flow down through the inside of your body and actually clear thoughts, feelings, and emotions that are not serving your highest good and allowing them to move through you, out of you, and down the drain.
The idea is to spend time removing the negative, stagnant, dense energy that is weighing you down. That’s self-care.
When you do this, your body can be filled with more light. And light is love.
Light energy is what fuels you. Light is pure and divine. It’s the air that you breathe.
So, when you spend any amount of time allowing yourself to let go of the things that are harming you, your body begins the healing process. This can heal the energy that you experienced in one day, or it could be energy that you still sense from five years ago, 20 years ago, lifetimes ago. And your effort to heal it is exactly the same intention that your body has. Self-care brings the balance between the mind, body, and soul for this healing to come together.
Here is a short testimonial from one of my clients:
“I’m usually quick to get up and going in the mornings. But yesterday, I decided to do seven half sun salutations before getting dressed. It didn’t take long at all, but I felt so empowered after that…empowered as in I took control of those few minutes to make a change for the rest of the day. It really feels good! I even found time for a real workout while waiting on the dryer. I can truly say that there is something empowering about self-care!”
I hope these what, why, and how insights have brought a fresh perspective that resonates with you.
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