MINDFUL SELF-CARE

baths are ultimate self-care, but it doesn’t stop there

SELF-CARE—what a loaded-term these days. It’s an interesting concept to define for ourselves. You still have to create boundaries and you have to dedicate time to the act. More importantly, you have to be available for self-care and also have the sense to know what to do with the benefits. Yeah, we want to feel better but what are the long-term goals and what’s the bigger purpose of it all?

If practicing Ayurveda has taught me anything, it’s to better take care of myself from the inside out. You really get to know yourself as you curate consistent routines. And the best part is, your nervous system gets nourished and slowly but surely life gets a little brighter. Western, modern culture has only taught us the superficial bare-minimum about self-care and trust me, it goes way deeper and spreads far wider than just the ‘self’.

WHAT IS SELF-CARE?

Self care is caring for the self, obviously. That means the machine that is the body and the vastness that is the mind. Just like a car, we want to maintain the engine and all the inner-workings of the parts. When we give ourselves routine maintenance we can run like a well-oiled machine. Sure we’re taught to wash our hair and bodies and brush our teeth. We might go to the dentist every 6 months because someone told us to and we might put moisturizer on our skin because the products are sold to us, but what about the mindfulness part of it all? Do we know why we’re doing these acts? Do we know what they’re accomplishing? 

SELF-CARE WITH A PURPOSE

I never thought to cleanse my nasal passages for thought clarity. Or to dry brush my skin to encourage lymphatic drainage. I never considered the ingredients in my products and how over time they could burden my endocrine system. Or to scrape my tongue first thing in the morning to rid my body of the toxins it worked so hard to push out as I slept the night before. For the old me, self-care was a trip to the nail salon, a day off when I could forego all my daily routines and maybe some indulgent food. I thought it was a break from life. But really, self-care is mind-body maintenance for happiness, joy and well-being. In all honesty, it’s work and it has a way bigger purpose than just feeling good. It’s not always about inciting happiness. More so, it’s about promoting growth which can be uncomfortable. I hate to break it to you but self-care is uncomfortable. But once we can sit with that and move through it, self-care is newfound freedom.

Once you get into the habit of self-care, you somehow free up space to care about things outside of you. This means you’re healing, you’re moving forward, you’re growing and you’re finding ways to be a part of a collective solution. You start to love yourself more deeply and in turn, you begin to love ALL equally. 

WHERE TO START

The best place I can tell you to start from is a place of ease. Start nourishing the physical so you can relax the mental and emotional spaces. Ayurveda is all about self-care routines to keep the body machine running in a natural way so we can experience our lives more deeply. It takes time to cultivate our individual routines but here are a few of my own self-care tips:

~ Tongue scraping—my very first act of the day. This rids my body of accumulated overnight toxins. 

~ A cup of warm water upon waking. This stokes my digestive fire and ensures a bowel movement. A daily bowel movement is a self-care priority. Get with it!

~ Neti-pot (3x a week for my dosha) to clear my nasal passages of environmental toxins, especially from living in a big city. This paves way for more thought clarity.

~ Dry-body brushing to nourish the lymphatic system so my body can efficiently rid itself of toxins and waste

~ Self-oil massage (Abhyanga) to assist in moving lymph and to nourish the nervous system

~ MOVEMENT for physical activity, mental clarity and creative expression 

~ Self-pleasure for hormonal health

~ A seasonal and local diet for digestive health

I accommodate my routines to my Ayurvedic dosha and I change them up with the seasons. I also just experiment with different things, taking what I like and leaving what doesn’t serve me. If I fall out of routine, life shifts pretty quickly and not for the better. It still happens from time to time because I’m human, but now having experienced the benefits of mindful self-care, it doesn’t take much for me to get back on track. What can I say, I like feeling good. Not just for myself, but for the COLLECTIVE. I want that for you too!