What is Soul Care?
We’re all familiar with the concept of self-care right? Usually entails a day of M’s: masks, massages, manicures and mastur…These are all great ways of checking in with yourself after days, weeks, and in some cases even years dedicating yourself to others, be it your family, work, and/or other obligations. Essentially, taking care of yourself like this doesn’t mean “me first,” it means “me, too.” However, much of this practice only reaches the surface level of our overall wellness, which as we know involves the interconnection of our body, mind, and usually forgotten or misunderstood – our spirit. Caring for your soul can be referred to as “we time” because it is a deep level of understanding that how we care for ourselves affects how we interact with the world. Soul care and self-care are both acts of replenishing one’s state of being, but how can we even improve our soul-care? Let’s explore how these types of self-care activities can become a spiritual form of soul care.
What’s the Difference Between Self-Care and Soul Care?
Self-care means taking measures to ensure your emotional, mental, and physical health. Soul care means believing you are worthy and deserving of those measures for your spiritual health, well-being, and evolution.
Self-care is taking time specifically for yourself to do whatever you do to fill your cup. This is taking actions to improve your wellness such as finally getting to finish reading that book, painting your nails, or binge-watching Love Island. The whole point is to carve out the time to make yourself happy. Soul care is the mentality shift from half-glass empty to half-glass full in everything you do. It’s the feeling you get when doing those things mentioned earlier: joy, freedom, peace, or fulfilment.
Self-care is about embracing our physicality in human form while we are here on this earth and engaging our bodies with all of our senses (sight, smell, taste, sound, and touch). Soul care is allowing our spirit to guide us to enriching life experiences that feel good, exciting, and nourishing. Therefore, the more we create experiences in our own lives that make us feel happy, loved, and content, the more of that same good energy we emit into the ethers to be shared by all.
Here Are Ways to Practise Soul Care:
Listing ways to self-care is definitely an easier task as it is made up of tangibles – things you can physically feel the impact of like creams, a gua sha massage, bath bomb fizzles, and the scent of candles. While soul care is made up of intangibles – things we can’t quite put a finger on like love, peace, and gratitude. Here are some examples of when self-care meets soul care.
1. Laugh Hard
Having a sense of humour and telling a joke is self-care. Laughing uncontrollably from the core of your essence is caring for your soul.
2. Savour Food
Cooking a meal or dining out is self-care. Savouring every bite and being consumed by the love that went into preparation is literally food for your soul.
3. Release Energy
Writing in a journal is self-care. Releasing stagnant energy and negative thought patterns is soul medicine.
4. Chase Your Dreams
Sleeping is self-care. Understanding that you create your reality and you can make your dreams come true is soul care.
5. Honour Your Boundaries
Saying “no thank you” to invites you don’t want to partake in is self-care. Trusting your instinct and honouring your boundaries is soul care.
6. Surrender Control
Meditation is self-care. Being receptive to insight gained from your meditation practice and surrendering control is soul nurturing.
7. Connect
Going outside in nature is self-care. Believing in your true nature as a limitless, infinite being who is connected to everyone and everything is soul care.
8. Grow
Reading a book is self-care. Changing a belief as a result of words that resonated with you on that page or applying the knowledge you consumed in a way that’s going to help you grow is soul care.
9. Embody Strength
Exercising your body is self-care. Embodying strength is soul care.
10. Flow
Drinking water is self-care. Flowing with the natural current of life without resistance is food for your soul.