We live in a fast-paced world and as a mom, wife, or businesswoman it can be easy to care for the needs of others and forget about ourselves. We can only continue like this for so long before we start feeling depleted. There are several areas or reasons to practice self-care. I’d like to focus on caring for your soul, or what I like to call “soul-care.”
I didn’t always understand the importance of this practice until I started down my journey to motherhood. If you’re new here and don’t know my story, I’ve experienced multiple miscarriages at various stages of pregnancy. It was during those hard times that my soul became weary and I longed for something more. That something more was seeking the Lord and finding comfort and rest in Him. It wasn’t always easy to do, but something I deliberately sought and ended up finding great joy in.
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What is the difference between Self-Care and Soul-Care?
Soul care is a form of self-care that focuses on uplifting your soul. I have found this helps bring a person to a better mental state and able to walk through any season of life.
It’s not getting your hair or nails done, eating a dish of your favorite food, or exercising. All those things can be fun, important, and have their place but they don’t fill your soul.
How to Practice Soul-Care
I have compiled a shortlist of ways to help you practice soul-care. You don’t have to put all of these to practice every day. With the demands of life, I know it’s hard to fit everything in. Be easy on yourself. I do want to encourage you to do one of these at least once a day.
Make a playlist of songs that are refreshing to your soul and listen to them regularly.
Having a whole list of songs to get you through different seasons of life I believe is critical. Music has a way of touching your soul. If you find yourself bottling your emotions it does the heart good to get alone somewhere, turn the music on, and let it all out. You will feel so much better.
My favorite places to listen to this kind of music is in the car, while I’m doing the dishes, or cleaning around my house.
Read your Bible.
Not going to lie- I’m thinking you probably just rolled your eyes and thought, “If one more person tells me to ‘read my Bible’ I’m going to lose it.” It sounds so cliche and seems to be said so nonchalantly like it’s an easy thing to do. I hear ya. I know it’s not always the easiest thing to do… and the looming thought, “where would I even begin?”
Specific stories I recommend diving into:
- Hannah in the book of 1 Samuel (who longed to have a child of her own)
- Job from the book of Job (a man who had everything, lost it all, yet he still was faithful to God)
- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3 (Three men who walked through the firey-furnace and did not burn. Jesus even appeared with them in the flames)
- David in 2 Samuel 12 (fasting for his ill son’s life)
If you aren’t familiar or up to reading straight from the Bible, you may like a devotional or Bible study. Here’s one that helped teach me about different mothers in the Bible. Though they lived a long time ago, their stories were still relatable for me in today’s times.
Journal your thoughts.
Similar to reading your Bible I know journaling your thoughts can be daunting to think about, but this act of getting your thoughts out is really freeing and has a way of lifting the weight off your shoulders. When I was dealing with my miscarriages I wrote my thoughts out often- though I didn’t consider myself a writer then. It always helped me feel better.
Some ways you can journal your thoughts:
- Regular pen and paper- write until your heart’s content.
- Voice record as your thoughts come to you- your phone probably has this feature built-in
- Video record- though not everyone feels comfortable in front of a camera.
- Use a gratitude journal or something similar that has writing prompts to aid in getting your thoughts out of your head.
Do something creative.
I know not everyone is like me, but there are a lot of people who are. I get these creative itches from time to time. If I don’t “scratch it”, I tend to get irritable and snappy to those around me. Find something you enjoy creating and do that.
Some creative ideas to try:
- drawing- or take up Bible journaling. No worries, there are all kinds of templates {like these} you can use to trace or color if you don’t have a creative gene to make your own design.
- crocheting- ah! The beauty of the internet… with the help of videos, you can teach yourself this beautiful skill.
- cooking- for some, this can be a creative outlet!
- sewing- This isn’t your grandma’s hobby anymore. The sewing community is HUGE with support. There are also lots of videos and tutorials on the web to teach you this skill too.
- painting- this is such a fun outlet. There is a company I stumbled upon that you may enjoy checking out. It’s called Let’s Make Art. They have all kinds of watercolor kits you can buy to recreate different paintings. They also have a whole library of tutorials on their youtube channel. If you already have the supplies, you can just follow along for free!
Pray
The most important thing you can do is pray. You don’t have to be still and quiet to do this. You can be driving, getting ready in the morning, before you eat, etc. It doesn’t have to be a fancy, well-thought-out prayer either. It can be something simple like, “Lord help me,” or “God I need you, I want to feel your peace and presence.”
If all you can get out is a simple prayer at the moment, that’s okay. I still want to encourage you to make time to fit one of the things I mentioned above. I believe practicing soul-care is the most important area of your life to practice self-care, yet it is the easiest for us to overlook.
The Last Thing You Need to Know about Soul-Care
Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed thinking you have to do every actionable thing I mentioned. If all you can get out is a simple prayer at the moment, that’s okay. I want to encourage you to make time to fit at least one of the other things I mentioned above in your schedule too. I believe practicing soul-care is the most important area of your life to practice self-care, yet it is the easiest for us to overlook. Give it a try- you will feel so much better!
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