10 Ways I Care For My Soul
While the world is going crazy, our souls are in need of healing and restoration just as much as it is in need of food. Whether you’re a busy mom who barely has time to comb her own hair or a working professional who wants nothing to do with civilization after working an 8 hour work day, you can do any and all of these three techniques to care for your soul. Quiet the mind and the soul will speak.
- Yoga
Depending on your context, yoga has had very great reviews and others are skeptical of it’s origin and purpose. I won’t argue either case here but yoga is proven to be very therapeutic not only for your physical body, but for your inner self as well. Yoga is a way to calm your mind and strengthen your inner voice. As you move into different positions, focusing on taking deep breaths, you release oxygen to your brain which calms all of the nerves and anxiety that is built up from a life filled with stress and responsibilities.
Here are three easy movements that will calm you even if you’re just doing yoga for the first time.
- Sitting Post
- Child’s Pose
- Table Top
2. Journaling
Most of us have heard of journaling a time or two in our lives. It’s often considered an elementary concept but it is a very effective one. Ask yourself important questions. And write the responses. How am I feeling? What do I need right now? What is most important to me in this moment of my life?
Asking ourselves questions and writing the response is a sure fire way to let our souls speak and release some of the answers we’ve probably been asking ourselves for a long time.
Journaling is also a great way to express. To release thoughts that have been jammed up. Think of it as your souls way of releasing waste and letting go of things that are no longer needed to make room for new and better thoughts. Or bringing clarity.
(Weird imagery ahead) Think about when you use the restroom. It’s necessary and natural. It’s something that MUST be done for the health of the human body. Writing your thoughts and emotions and questions are the same.
Often times, when you begin to journal, you find yourself saying things that maybe you’ve never thought to say. OR you release something that you’ve been afraid to say. And now once you’ve said it, you feel a million times better.
You are releasing things that need to come out and making room for the new, the better, the necessary. It isn’t just about releasing, it’s also about receiving. Now that you’ve let go, you can receive.
3. Meditation
Meditation is a way for our minds to synchronize with our hearts and spirit. It is yet another way to quiet ourselves so that we are able to hear and think clearly. In the morning before a long day or at night before bed, meditation is a great way to center yourself and find solace in thinking absolutely nothing.
4. Read a book.
Why am I so hostile with this one? Because for many of us, social media has taken over our lives and we’ve forgotten how beneficial it is to just read a book for the sake of it.
Sure read “You are a badass” or any other self help book because you want to genuinely improve yourself. BUT you can also read a story simply because it’s a story. OR simply because you want to.
Read a book that distracts you from life for a second. OR read something that makes you cry. Or makes you smile. Read something about a young wizard that goes to a weird school and gets into trouble. Just read something.
5. Let go of the past
This one seems really simply and it is- but it’s so hard to do at times. We are creatures of habit many of us and letting go of the past often feels like letting go of ourselves. We have a strange habit of gifting the past with the present, which can be a recipe for disaster.
If you’re like me, you replay thoughts and moments over and over again in your mind and that leads to reminiscing so hard in the past that we often lose sight of the future or the present.
Letting go of the past is caring for your soul in a way that is oddly different than the others. Letting go of the past gives your soul room to breath and space to dream. It sounds cheesy i’m sure. But honestly, if you are still holding onto the past, there is very little room for your soul to move forward.
There is very little room for your past to stay in the past and there is even less room for yourself to experience new life because you are telling God, the universe and whatever else you believe that there is no space in your life for the future and you would like to live in the past. DO your soul a favor and let. It. the fuck. Go.
6. Tell the truth, out loud.
If you’re an artist, entrepreneur creative or just a person who has ideas and fails to execute them — you may know what it’s like to be stuck. Writer’s block. Artists block. Life block, it’s happened to the best of us.
I’ve found, that one of the biggest reasons why I am stuck is because there is a truth that I’m holding onto that I need to release — out loud. Releasing the truth out loud can often give you the opportunity to be bold. It can inspired you to keep going or it can release and unlock something that has been trying to be unlocked for a long time.
Holding in our fears can deter us from moving forward because they are blocking our truth. And sometimes, releasing the truth can present the opportunity to love and be loved on by people around us.
Sometimes, others have the answers we seek but we’re too afraid to tell the truth and thus, we never get the response, reprieve or recognition that we need. Do yourself a favor, tell the damn truth and let your soul heal from fear.
7. Find A Community
There is a lot I can say about this one. But the reality is, church is a place of community and faith and healing and camaraderie and honestly- sometimes it’s just a place to be when you need it.
I’ve found myself rolling around in bed with no desire to go to church and then when I pick myself up and go, I Just feel better. Maybe because I’m with other people or maybe because the worship was good to me or maybe because something that the pastor said struck me that day. Either way, church is good for those who just need a little something to get them by on a Sunday (or Saturday or Wednesday or whatever day you go).
It’s a community of people all there for different reasons but the same motivation — to feel something. Be a part of something, give something or acknowledge something. We all have our own issues or opinions about church but the truth is, church can be a place for your soul to be healed, loved or simply just be.
8. Go to the home of someone you trust.
This is a sensitive one because some people don’t have a mothers house to go to. Or some don’t have a mother who they trust to love on them. Or whatever the situation is. And if this is you and this point grieves you, accept my deepest condolences and apologies and skip it.
If you do have a mothers house to go to and you do have a good relationship, this may be a quick and easy way to care for your soul. (Sometimes) moms have a way of a caring for you in a way that gives you solace in times when you need it. I always think back to this time in high school when I found out one of my classmates passed away. I didn’t know how to deal with it. I couldn’t even figure out how I felt but when I sat in my mother’s lap and she held me, i just cried. And cried. And cried. And she was my mom, holding me, consoling me and doing that thing that mothers do. SHe still does it now. She takes care of me in a way that I can’t even describe because she is my mother and that’s what she was created to do — mother me. SOmetimes, just the presence of a mother will soothe your soul like no one and nothing else can’t. And if you don’t have a mothers house to go to but you have a father, go there. And if you have neither, say a prayer that you will not miss out on a mother or fathers love because your parents are physically absent from your life. IF you desire it, i pray that you receive a physical and very real representation of that love — right now.
9. Color somethin!
Coloring books have been around for years. Since like… 1791 or something. Ofcourse we associate coloring books with our youth but they are just as effective now as they were years ago. They give you calm. They give you solace. They give you peace THey give you an opportunity to be constructively creative without having to think too hard about anything. You can be free when you color. You can veg out with music playing or your favorite tv show on or whatever and just color. Just be. Just let your mind wander and take a break from all the complicated shit that life has to offer you. BEing creative is like the number one way to release and unlock some things. ANd if nothing else, you are able to love yourself just a little bit more because you gave yourself one of the greatest gifts of all — to be a kid again.
10. Do something that makes you REALLY REALLY happy.
If none of the above things are your thing, that’s fine. We are all different thus we all need to do different things. I am a dancer — in my home. I will dance in the mirror for hours because it just brings me so much joy. I smile and laugh at myself and i am free. My greatest moments come when I am dancing and I ALWAYS feel so much better. What makes you really happy? A candy bar? Go get one. A certain television show? Go watch it. Singing off key in the mirror with a brush? Get to it. Baking cookies, lemme get one. Like, doing those things that make you really happy are good for the soul. God intends for us to be happy everyday of our lives and doing so brings our soul joy. Which brings clarity and solstice and love to ourselves every single time we do it.
If you find yourself needing help or a safe space to do any of these things. Hit us up. We have a space and time to give you a moment to just be and care for your soul however you need it, whenever you need it.
