In today’s fast-paced world, where demands seem endless and time feels fleeting, prioritizing self-care has become more crucial than ever. Amidst the hustle and bustle of daily life, it’s easy to neglect our own well-being, allowing stress to accumulate and overshadow our happiness. Yet, self-care isn’t just a luxury; it’s a necessity for maintaining balance and achieving a sense of inner peace. As we navigate the complexities of modern living, holistic healing practices offer invaluable insights and tools for fostering self-care routines that promote both physical and emotional wellness.
MysticMag has reached out to seven esteemed holistic healers, each with their unique perspectives and expertise, to share their invaluable tips and routines for reducing stress and cultivating a happier, calmer lifestyle. Through their wisdom and guidance, we embark on a journey towards holistic self-care, where nurturing the mind, body, and spirit becomes not just a habit, but a profound act of self-love and empowerment.
Techniques for reducing stress and promoting calmness
Parita Shah, reiki master teacher and intuitive energy healer, recommends specific techniques for reducing stress and promoting calmness:
“In order to cultivate calm and ease, I practice Usui Reiki, an energy healing practice that’s rooted in hands-on healing, meditation, and mindfulness. The system is about balancing the life force within us. Anyone can receive initiations or attunements to this practice. The attunements clear our energy field and increase our sensitivity to universal healing intelligence. Afterward, you may channel Reiki through your hands for yourself, family, friends, and pets.”
Emotional Healing and resilience
Emma Hands, energy alchemist, and PHM, explains how her modality supports emotional healing and resilience:
“The three main modalities I work with are creating the conditions where the client heals themselves from the inside, the real healing. I am a space holder, a conduit for the energy healing, but the client is the magician working through the rebirthing of themselves, manifesting the capacity to continue healing outside of the sessions. It is super important to empower clients, I assist their journey but they are healing themselves, at every twist and turn. Emotional healing is at the core of achieving ultimate healing results; Intuitive Coaching aids the relearning of negative thought patterns, that can affect the health and well-being of the mind, body, and soul. Quantum Healing works with the energy centers (chakras) within and outside of the body, removing the stored, stuck, negative emotions within the physical form. Inner dance works with the nervous system to facilitate a literal resetting of the brain functionality, providing a powerful resilience to deal with life’s chaos with ease and grace. The life-improving playlists and energy transmissions synchronize the neurons of the brain, generating renewed perspectives, facing and clearing the old stuff, and bringing the client into full coherence. A form of conscious meditation, healing their core being and providing greater abilities to manage themselves and the world around them.
At this time, all my services are offered at a distance or via Zoom, meaning I can help souls no matter where they are placed in the world, I am super grateful. Please know how capable you all are to transform your world from this moment forward, thought is so powerful.”
Simple Self-Care Ritual
Hannah Bourke, multidimensional artist, healer, and musician, shares a simple self-care ritual that anyone can easily integrate into their daily lives:
“A simple spiritual self-care ritual I practice daily upon awakening is surrounding myself with a column of Golden Christ Light. I then ground this column of light into the center of the planet, and send it up to connect with the light of Source, so the light is fully connected above and below around me. I then say the words “I now command all foreign energies and emotions to leave my column of Christ light and return to their source. And I welcome the light of my Higher Self to anchor fully into my body, mind, and Spirit and guide me through this day.” I imagine this Higher self-energy as a waterfall of light and allow it to gently flow into my awareness through my crown chakra until I feel full of my own spiritual energy. This brings a sense of peace, calm, and soft clarity to my whole being. Then I say “I welcome the full presence of my spiritual team to surround me and guide me in alignment with my Higher Self and Divine Will.”
This is a practice I’ve had for about three years now, and I deeply sense the connection between this morning routine and accessing more ease, flow, and creative energy in my daily life. By calling on the support of my “Spiritual Team” and asking to live in connection with the aligned guidance of my Higher Self, I’ve begun to create a fulfilling life. Anyone can adopt this spiritual self-care practice. Whether you’re comfortable using the word “Christ” or not, you could say “Divine Light” or “Source Light” instead if that feels more aligned for you. I hope in sharing this practice, you find comfort knowing you are never alone, and your guides and angels await your request to harmoniously support you for your highest good.”
Struggling to find time for self-care
Heather Watne, craniosacral bodywork and divine energy healing specialist, reveals five tips for a self-care lifestyle, especially for those people who are struggling to find time for self-care:
- Why do I need Self-Care? Establish self-care as a priority. Do you feel great all the time? Sleep well? Maintain ideal body health, weight and form. If so, you are likely already practicing self-care; these are some of the benefits. If not, you need it!
- Start small, and be realistic. Begin with an easy commitment, that’s hard to talk yourself out of. Five minutes a day is enough, and grow your self-care time from there! Be easy on yourself, and congratulate yourself for starting. Keep at it…it becomes part of your daily routine, like brushing your teeth or bathing.
- Put Self-Care on your schedule first, and fill in other things around that. We schedule appointments, work, school, events…why not self-care? This is crucial once you start growing your self-care time. I like to schedule my exercise, bodywork appointments and cooking, so I make sure I get them in each week.
- Reward yourself with things that ACTUALLY feel good and are good for you. Instead of celebrating with alcohol, or sugary foods, try something new: soaking in a bubble bath/hot springs, reading an interesting book, doing arts/crafts, having a “mocktail”, eating at a vegetarian restaurant, walking in nature, listening to live music.
- Make yourself Accountable! Tell someone, write it down, say it out loud. Like a workout buddy, sharing your intentions not only helps with manifestation but gets another human involved…which is double reinforcement! A buddy can help give you the push and motivation to follow through, even when you don’t feel like it.”
Balance between self-care and supporting others
Carol Look, EFT Master and Creator of The Yes Code explains how to navigate the balance between self-care and supporting others in her professional practice:
“Balancing my self-care with supporting my clients has made the difference between success and failure in my personal and professional life. I learned to follow what they recommend on an airplane – put your oxygen mask on yourself first before helping others.
For too long I ignored this balance, which contributed to my insomnia and chronic health challenges. As I became more committed to the value of this balance, I created a series of self-care practices that became sacred to me. Every day, I go on a gratitude walk, complete a 20-minute meditation, and use EFT/ Tapping for stress relief. I never miss these practices, rain or shine, and they have made me a better clinician, and a calmer and healthier friend, spouse, and colleague.
In addition to honoring these daily practices, what has helped me navigate the balance between my self-care and supporting my clients is setting essential boundaries around my personal time and the hours I spend working. Because I feel so passionate and enthusiastic about helping my clients, it can be easy to slide on these time boundaries and occasionally slip on my self-care. Now, I protect my self-care practices fiercely for three reasons. First of all, if I’m not taking care of myself, I won’t be as emotionally resilient when life throws me curveballs, which it will. Secondly, if I’m not taking care of myself, it will slowly but surely erode my ability to support my clients in a healthy way. And finally, if I don’t balance my self-care with supporting my clients in my practice, I’ll become less effective and less satisfied in all other areas of my life.”
Holistic approaches for promoting resilience
Anne Bentzen, a Jikiden Reiki teacher located in Pleasantville (USA), shares holistic approaches and techniques for promoting resilience and reducing the impact of chronic stress on both the body and mind:
“Our ability to cope with stress is one of the biggest challenges of life. Stress is the body’s physical and psychological response to whatever you perceive as overwhelming. Stress causes 75-90% of known diseases today. Environmental and societal pressures can also lead to imbalanced lifestyles and death. Unmanaged stress is a common characteristic of modern life.
Holistic approaches to stress require a shift in perspective from negative thinking to positive potential, staying in the present moment and rebalancing the energy in the body. We are a product of our thoughts. Universal law states that energy follows thought and with our thoughts, we create our reality.
Directing our consciousness and having discernment of our thoughts is essential for diffusing stress. We have the ability through our thoughts to create our greatest happiness or our worst suffering. No one else can think a thought for you. Your attitude and your perception are your biggest stress busters.
Use breath to move energy out of your head and into the heart. Intentionally connecting your body to the Earth helps release and transmute stress. Create a “Love Place” by choosing a happy memory to be your touchstone to raise your vibrational frequency whenever you find yourself becoming anxious or depressed. Nature is healing. Be observant of all wildlife as you walk. Relax with the beauty of nature and feel stress dissolve as your vibrational frequency rises, your heart rate slows and your mind quiets down.
Learn Reiki to rebalance the body and create inner harmony for health and well-being. This Japanese healing modality facilitates a deep relaxation response allowing the body to heal itself as universal energy is channeled to the body. Everyone can learn to give self-treatments with Reiki to relieve chronic stress.”
Incorporating mindfulness into daily routines
Jennifer Meek, embodiment coach, yoga therapist and somatic dance instructor, explains how individuals incorporate mindfulness into their daily routines for better self-care:
“Every moment provides an opportunity to be mindful. Even if we are familiar with mindfulness and understand the benefits, we often don’t choose to be mindful. Why?
Well, the distractions of life are endless and sometimes unavoidable. Our nervous systems are so overloaded we feel stuck in that overstimulated way of functioning where it doesn’t feel like we have a whole lot of choices to slow down and really be present. We’re stuck on the hamster wheel of life.
We can start with removing distractions wherever possible. Try putting your phone away in a little box turning off the sounds for a period of time or deleting apps from your phone. We can get one step closer if we set good boundaries and eliminate unwanted distractions and stimulation from our day.
Often what our nervous system needs is for us to do LESS, not more. Look for areas in your life where you can cut back, remove stimulation, and take things off the calendar. Create space to just breathe, be present, and feel the sensations in your body.
As an example, even 5 really mindful breaths before a meal can help you enjoy and digest the meal better. A little can go a long way! It doesn’t have to be fancy or time-consuming. Just put your whole self into it! Gather up all of your attention and breathe in those 5 full breaths and notice how you feel. Do you feel a shift? Now imagine if you did that little bit of mindfulness 10 times a day, every day. The benefits add up. You’ll begin to be more present with all of life. Your relationship with yourself and others will become more and more fulfilling and satisfying.”
Conclusion
As we navigate the complexities of modern life, prioritizing self-care becomes not just a choice but a necessity for maintaining overall well-being. The various holistic approaches highlighted in this article demonstrate that self-care is deeply personal and multifaceted. It involves more than occasional relaxation; it requires a commitment to nurturing both our physical and emotional health.
By integrating practices such as mindful breathing, setting boundaries, and embracing holistic healing techniques, we can foster a state of balance and inner peace. These practices help manage stress, enhance resilience, and promote a more fulfilling life. Remember, self-care is an ongoing journey rather than a destination. It is about making conscious choices that honor and support our unique needs. As you incorporate these practices into your daily routine, you’ll find that self-care becomes a natural, empowering part of your life, leading to greater overall happiness and well-being.
