Self-care is the same as self-healing. It’s also the same as manifestation, because if you think about it - the ability to create the life of your dreams starts with a healthy nervous system and self belief.
What exactly is self-care?
Some people will say it’s
going to the gym
drinking matcha every morning
taking time for recreation and drinking
watching movies on repeat
societal distractions
But the fact is, self-care is far more than any of these things. Yes, going to the gym is good and I love my morning matcha (highly recommend).
But this is STILL JUST THE SURFACE.
Because self care is incomplete without a rooting in understanding your karmic patterns, in becoming your own best friend, understanding how to re-pattern your subconscious mind and making daily and consistent efforts to upgrade your life.
And so if you want to start truly caring about yourself, you have to look at your life holistically:
your physical health and nutrition beyond aesthetics
your mental patterns and programmed internal beliefs about yourself and life
your emotional body, freedom of expression and regulation
your spirit
Yes - and that’s why we have something called the Panch Kosha model in Ayurveda which takes you through the various levels of your being.
Your self care will always remain on the surface if you fail to look at the dark and light within yourself. This involves introspection.
Here are some general points about self-care to understand to bring about real change within your life:
Self care first involves self forgiveness. You have to start from there, knowing that society and colonisation has programmed us into so many unhealthy patterns - from the way that we distract ourselves with social media, to tying our happiness to external validation and never taking time to PAUSE AND BREATHE, in our busy lifestyles.
You need to first be honest with the ways that you are screwing over your own well-being. Don’t be overwhelmed, write it all down. What are the ways that you screw over your health and your mind? What thought patterns are unhealthy for you? Where can you repattern health into your life?
And then it requires patience, to take consistent steps towards upgrading your life rather than being confused with the whole range of self-care options, apply the knowledge that you already have now. The Universe always gives you the exact amount of knowledge that you need to achieve your dreams. The Universe tests you to see if you are truly going to commit to your own self or are you going to keep outsourcing your power to people and things outside.
How do you start practicing self care?
First take out a notebook and a pen, and write down ONE small thing that you know you need to do for your self care (either morning or evening) every single day and continue for a period of 7 days. For me, this is oiling my feet at night because this helps me with overthinking, relaxes my nervous system and aids smoother digestion along with MANIFOLD benefit. Even better if you can print out a piece of paper and TICK IT OFF. Yes! This gives you better dopamine hits the more that you commit to your self care.
Write down the areas that you are NEGLECTING the most in your life. That you are struggling to change, such as physical exercise, diet or even your spiritual practice. If we stay stuck in our head, we will never upgrade our life to the levels of abundance and vitality that we know we can achieve. Then write one small action you’ll take every day for seven days (for example just 3 minutes of Qi Gong every morning).
Then comes the understanding of self care or self healing methods. Everything from inner child healing, shadow work, energy work, plant medicines (yes this makes a huuuuuge difference! the indigenous people of the amazon weren’t idiots to worship plants that have existed for thousands of years) -
And then we have Vedic traditions which go to the very root of consciousness, including Jyotish, Vedic rituals and the process of liberating ourselves from our karmas. This is all very deep work.
I’ll be following up with this in another article, if you have any questions on self-care you can drop them here.
Love and blessings,
loved this article thank you Kamya! it was beautiful how you framed the ways we’ve been conditioned societally. great work!
I’m curious about how you consider these different areas of self-care (ie physical, mental beliefs, emotions, spirit) ? do you consider them in a hierarchy or how do they relate to each other in your perspective? :)