What does ‘self-care’ mean to you? What activities come to mind? I think the fact that we are paying self-care a little more attention than we used to is great, but it’s important that we understand what self-care truly means.
Many self-care tips that I’ve seen floating around are great, but a bit shallow. Sure a bath and a face mask will make me feel relaxed and chill for a few hours, but what does it do for my wellbeing long term. It’s the long game we need to be focusing on when it comes to taking care of our wellbeing, as that is how we see amazing and life changing results.
Consistency is key
Creating a routine with your self-care is the key to making it effective and actually worth your time and energy. The more consistent we can be, the better.
This is one of the benefits of being Wiccan and paying close attention to the lunar cycle, it’s like a built in schedule for self-care.
For example, every full-moon I will do a ritual or some spell work, every new moon I’ll do intention setting, during the waning moon I’ll focus on releasing rituals and meditation. There’s always a moon phase to help me schedule in some one on one time, so it becomes a little easier to keep up with.
What are the long term effects of good self-care?
We’re going to be on this planet for many many years (hopefully!) so why wouldn’t we want to take steps to make it the most fun time possible? This does take a bit of dedication and discipline though. I know, I hate discipline as well.
It has been proven that consistent self-care, particularly therapy and meditation, can help to actually change brain function, but it takes time and persistence. Rome wasn’t built in a day and improving the health of your mind can’t be done in such a short time frame either.
This is true self-care. Understanding that it will take time and be dedicated to it anyway. It should never be a quick fix to a temporary problem, it should be something that you take seriously and actually plan out in order to help you for the rest of your life.