I saw a video on Instagram of a celebrity esthetician giving a woman a life-changing facial that almost caused me to force my husband to start slapping and slathering oils from our kitchen on my face. I am doing what I can to continue looking like a woman in her late twenties, I'm 31, so that’s not asking for too much. If you click on the popular self-care hashtag what you will see is people from all around the world doing things to care for themselves, like facials, body scrubs, and avocado mask, laser treatments, and face rolling.
The indulgence in caring for ourselves is at its peak.
In all of this self-care, are we participating in activities that care for the soul? It is a common belief in Christianity that we are mind, body, and soul. From the looks of it, we most often care for our bodies through exercise and yoga, we read, debate, and view art to care for our minds, but what about our souls? Why is the soul the last, if at all, to be cared for?
When I was a little girl, my mother used to wake my sisters and me up before she went to work and us off to school with her own rendition of “Bible Study.” One of us would read from the Bible, another lead worship, and whoever did not have a job was left to pray at the end. Thinking back over my childhood morning routine time spent first thing in the morning in prayer and song was a great way to start the day.
Today, my daily soul-care regimen includes an hour and a half of morning meditation, which includes reading passages from the Bible and a period of worship, where I give myself permission to dance around the dark house singing Hillsong worship music. This soul-care process centers me in gratitude, my faith, and gives me the opportunity to see possibilities throughout the day. I have a firm belief not to beg, plead, push, or pull the day, allowing what is to come, to be.
If you are considering a soul-care routine, here are a few my favorites:
1. Hillsong Worship station on Youtube
2. Journaling -- The “Previous Day” Exercise
• high points and low points of the day
• people you met
• conversations you had
• special things that may have happened
• what you thought or felt
• Excitement, frustration
• decisions you made
• Analyze the day, did you make good decisions? bad ones? List the decisions.
• Did you use your time wisely? Should you have done anything differently?
(adapted from Honest to God? by Bill Hybels)
3. Prayer of gratitude
The best way I’ve found to do this is to state, with your eye closed, three things you are grateful for. It could be the very breath flowing in and out of your body as you read this or as simple as a warm bed.
A little bit after 6:30 AM, I am ready for the gym and to take on the day.
Deep Dive? I welcome your questions and comments. You can leave them below or email me at earlina.green [at] gmail.com.