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Originally written + posted on September 4, 2019
{Links are always at the end to reduce distractions.}
Each year in September is National Self-Care Awareness Month.
Let's face it, nurturers need nurturing, too. We are on a journey to give TO ourselves as much as we give OF ourselves. And there are many ingredients that go into providing nourishing sustainability for wherever life finds us.
It's not just about being a generous giver, it's equally about being a generous receiver.
But it requires us to reframe the way we approach self-care (soul care, too). They are inextricable, they overlap, and they are complimentary to one another, they are beautifully intertwined.
Self-care is the holy priority + initiative of welcoming the self into guilt-free, audacious nurture. Authentic, outer care begins with and flows from decolonizing inner care. Simply put, self-care is your resolve to give TO yourself as much as you give OF yourself.
Soul Care is holy process + practice of noticing, nurturing, and embodying the all-encompassing care of the soul (nephesh, in Hebrew)—you are a soul—the soul is the whole of the person, the unity of the body, organs, and breath. It is not some immaterial spiritual entity, it is you, all of you, your whole being or self.
Self-Care Has Various Aspects and Accesses
I've discovered in my personal life and in my research that there are nurturing aspects and accesses of self-care that we must acknowledge and consider.
Some women do not have the same nurturing access to healing INFORMATION.
Some women do not have the same nurturing access to healing COMMUNITY.
Some women do not have the same nurturing access to healing RESOURCES.
Some women do not have the same nurturing access to healing ENVIRONMENTS.
Self-Care Is Not Just About A Mindset - It's About Inequitable Systems
Here's what I know, a mindset can and does contribute some to how a woman may view and act upon self-care, but it is an unavoidable reality that every woman will not have the same privileges to access and draw upon self-care in its many expressions (medical healthcare, mental health care, education, economic well-being, healthy environments, etc.).
I know first hand about the inequitable system of the dehumanizing myth that Black women are impervious to pain — the narrative of Black women being portrayed as superwomen, undermines the very real struggles that are faced.
Just to be clear, although every woman will not have the same access to engage in various forms of self-care, every woman does have decolonizing access to their intrinsic value no matter what the marginalized realities are that she faces.
Solidarity in Self-Care
This is where solidarity comes in. When women get a vision of their personal and collective worth, we will open up ourselves to resource each other with a generosity and hospitality that is equitable for women of all walks. This becomes our healing, a healing beneath the surface all the way to the roots.
A healing that tells a story about both triumph and trauma — a story about celebration and grief.
Self-Care Tells A Story
The unfolding story of God's love persuades you to love yourself (like you love God and your neighbor). It's a revelatory narrative powerful enough to comfort and counsel our hearts until we incessantly affirm, "I too am lovable, my humanity matters, and I have intrinsic, undiminishing value."
Download the 5-page Self-Care Awareness Toolkit. Provided are two preview pages: The Weekly Check-in with Myself and My Self-Care Story)
Until next time,
Scribble. Speak. From your soul.
Links For Further Discovery
Subscribe & Listen to my Soul Care Podcasts
See our complete collection of shalom-making stationery in the soul care boutique + be inspired to tend to ya self with some soulful + restful sashayin’!
Discover the SOS (Space of Shalom) quarterly membership
LEAVE A COMMENT: How did this perspective of self-care resonate with you?
