What’s Your Biggest Self-Care Challenge?

As I was writing my upcoming book, Witchcraft for Healing: Radical Self-Care for Your Mind, Body, and Spirit, I was working through the manuscript in the early months of a global pandemic. For many of us, our social interaction became limited to Saturday night Zoom hangouts, video chatting with friends and family around the country, and eating and drinking way more than was healthy for any of us. I realized pretty early on that under crazy circumstances like 2020 has presented us with, self-care was a lot easier to talk about than it was to actually do.

I learned, once those first couple of months had passed, that for my own sense of well being, I had to deliberately make time for self-care. Sure, I was working from home — but I do that anyway, with my full-time job. I had more free time in the evenings and weekends, because festivals, concerts, workshops, and parties were canceled.

But somehow, it became easier to just wrap up my work day, put on a pair of yoga pants, and lay on the couch eating ice cream and binging all six seasons of Schitt’s Creek. I wasn’t taking time to focus on me. Which was why, as someone who’s normally a huge advocate of self-care, I discovered I had to make a deliberate choice to focus on my own well-being. After all, if I was writing about it, taking two months off to have a mild nervous breakdown (and my first ever experiences with panic attacks and full-blown anxiety) was all I was going to allow myself. So after the first eight weeks or so, I kicked my own ass into high gear.

I started blocking out time each day to do things that made me feel good — no easy feat, since the world was a total dumpster fire. Even if it was something as simple as going outside, walking to the park around the corner, and lying in the grass with my dog for half an hour, I forced myself to take those small steps. Eventually, I was reminded that the better care I took of my own mind, body, and spirit, the better I could help friends who were still really struggling with circumstances that were beyond the control of any of us. Admittedly, once 2020 ends, I don’t know if any of us will ever be the same… but knowing my own limitations and struggles and challenges has made it a little easier for me personally to cope.

What are some of the biggest self-care challenges you’ve faced? Is it a lack of time? Is it anxiety about the state of the world? What’s got you neglecting yourself, when you should be focusing on healing your own mind, body, and spirit?

Don’t forget to pre-order your copy of Witchcraft for Healing: Radical Self-Care for Your Mind, Body, and Spirit, available November 10, over on Amazon!