True Self-Care For Artists And Creatives

Making time for your self care is the key to your self recovery

I’ve talked before about how ‘self-discovery’ is really self recovery. We have been taught by a broken system that the spiritual journey is one of discovery, that we don't know who we are and why we are here, and so we are on a search of some sort, so that we can 'fix' ourselves.

But you are not out there to be discovered. Your truth is already within you, but it’s a process of self-recovery (not self-discovery) that’s needed to help you get back to your truest self.

The journey of self-recovery and getting back to the person you truly are, is rooted in true self care.

In self-recovery we recover from what we bury ourselves under - often from years of conditioning, people pleasing, not feeling worthy enough and 'performing' to convince ourselves that we are enough. 

If the process of unburying ourselves is self recovery, the medicine we use to make that happen is self care.

But true self-care is different to what we see in marketing campaigns that feature bubble baths, healthy eating plans and workouts. 

What is ‘true self care’? 

True self care is when we take responsibility for ourselves and do the work we need to weed out what’s growing in our ‘garden’ that’s no longer serving us. 

True self care requires learning how to cultivate and maintain our ‘garden’, and making this a priority in our days so we can start to cycle through our seasons with more ease, and get back to living our truth. 

What inner narrative is holding you back at the moment?

• The one that is telling you you can't.

• The one that is telling you you need approval.

• The one that is telling you who you should be.

• The one that is telling you that you are not capable.

• The one that is telling you you do not deserve.

• The one that is telling you that you are not worthy.

• The one that is telling you that it has to feel uncomfortable.

• The one that is telling you that it is normal to feel exhausted.

• The one that is telling you you cannot do what you know will bring you ease.

Tending to your garden, weeding out the limiting narratives and layers of conditioning that isn’t serving you, so you can flourish and thrive, is true self-care.

Where to start with true self-care

1: Audit your garden

True self-care work begins in understanding which seeds of doubt, that aren’t serving you, are now dominating your garden. Spend some time figuring out what’s holding you back at the moment and become conscious of the inner narratives that block you from being your truest self. 

2: Make time for your soul gardening work

This is the part that so many of my clients come up against resistance to, and that was me too at the beginning of my soul gardening journey. Overcoming this discomfort and making your self care a priority in your days is essential. And this requires time. It’s not something that happens over night, it’s a gentle one-step-at-a-time process of unfolding and softening.

3: Learn how to cultivate and maintain your garden

True self-care is something you will always need. You don’t ever fully heal yourself and reach a point where you no longer require self-care. So, learning how to care for, and nurture yourself will become an important tool so you can start to cycle through your seasons with more ease, and get back to living our truth.

Why making time for self-care is hard

Learning how to ‘do self care’ isn’t as easy as it sounds. I know you’ve tried a few things and they can leave you feeling even more stressed and annoyed with yourself. Perhaps you wind up feeling guilty or like that time wasn’t spent productively.

Here lies the problem with self care - we have forgotten how to truly care for ourselves.

We are a generation of women who have abandoned ourselves and denied ourselves the pleasure of embracing and nourishing our needs and our divine feminine - and there’s a reason for that.

We are conditioned from early childhood to put other people’s needs before our own - to the point where we forget we have needs. This means we stop hearing our own needs and as a result we abandon ourselves. 

We have become accustomed to ignoring our innate ability to nurture ourselves, and forfeit our gifts of intuition, self healing, creative expression, wisdom and our natural rhythm of patience, rainbow of emotions and our ability to adapt to adversity.

But true self care requires us to make ourselves a priority, be messy in the process of self recovery and acknowledge and tend to our needs. 

Working through that resistance to spend time on ourselves is a vital first step in getting comfortable with true self-care and getting on the path to self-recovery. 

Making time for true self-care 

I used to think that it was a waste of precious time to pause, until I was forced to and made to understand that in not pausing I was actually wasting a lot of precious time. Time in which I could experience life as I was wanting to, but not allowing myself to, because I was too busy filling my days, rushing towards the woman I wanted to become.

You need to make time for your self care, no matter how uncomfortable that may feel

I know that you are uncomfortable where you are, and I know that there are so many things you want do with with your life, on top of the things you have to do.

But you see when you take a moment (it doesn't have to be long) to pause, step back and gain perspective on your life, you get to evaluate where your energy is going, and if that energy is closing the gap between the woman you are today and the woman you are becoming.

~

If you need a helping hand with this, I created my foundation course Back To You. This is where you’ll learn how to trust, believe in and embody the woman you are becoming, so you can live life with more ease and presence.