The Witch's Book of Self-Care: Magical Ways to Pamper, Soothe, and Care for Your Body and Spirit - Arin Murphy-Hiscock 2018

Identifying Your Self-Care Goals
Mental and Emotional Self-Care

This chapter focuses on the general self-care of your personal energy to help stay in good shape mentally and emotionally. It looks at attitudes, relationships, and how to maintain a broad balance in all the areas of your life. Each of these spheres (and the physical and spiritual areas of your life as well; see Chapters 3 and 4) can and do influence one another. If you work on improving self-care in one area, that will automatically support other spheres as well. Self-care has a cascading benefit.

Identifying Your Self-Care Goals

How do you begin your self-care? First think: What do you live for? What is your bliss? What makes you feel good?

Being able to pin this down is valuable, because without goals you can end up flailing around, trying to make yourself feel better in general, without addressing the source(s) of your imbalances. Identifying your self-care goals means a more efficient and effective application of your time and energy into your self-care. Knowing these goals informs the quality of your self-care and also facilitates your commitment to living authentically.

Making a Self-Care Vision Board (see the following) is one way to work through the process of identifying your self-care goals.

Self-Care Vision Board

A vision board is a themed collection of images, quotations, and objects mounted on a flat surface. When you create a vision board and place it in a space where you see it often, you essentially end up doing short visualization exercises throughout the day every time you see it. Consciously or unconsciously, seeing it sends cues to your spirit and reactivates the energy you have tied into those goals. Visualization is a powerful tool in self-care.

When designing a vision board, the focus should be on how you want things to be. Choose things to include that elicit the emotions you want to feel, that remind you of the life you want to have. Focus more on the less-tangible aspects of the life you want to have; it’s nice to wish for material things, but that’s not what this is really about. Your vision board should motivate and inspire you to work toward the quality of life you want to be living.

Creating your vision board is going to be a unique and personal process. What you use as a foundation for your board will depend on your budget, the space you have to display it, and your creative choices. You could use a corkboard or poster board from a craft store or repurpose a frame that you already have by replacing the contents with blank card stock. You could even cut a piece of poster board into a specific shape.

Spend some time ahead of this activity to think about what kind of themes you want to represent. You might want to spend time searching for specific images or artwork. Also give some thought to whether you want this board to be permanent or an ongoing evolution that reflects how your needs for self-care change. You might want to make a new one annually and keep past ones to look back on, or you might decide that the evolution itself is what’s important.

What You Need:

♦ A foundation for your board (corkboard, poster board, and so on)

♦ Blank card stock

♦ Pens or markers

♦ Photos, souvenirs, and trinkets that support or evoke your goals

♦ Glue, tape, or pushpins (depending on your foundation board)

♦ Washi tape, stickers, and so on (optional; see instructions)

What to Do:

1. Gather your supplies.

2. If you like, use the Journaling Framework Ritual in Chapter 1 to prepare for the activity, including the candle and incense, if you use them. Otherwise, create a pleasant ambience to work in: adjust the lighting, put on relaxing or motivational music, and so forth.

3. Design your board. Do you want space between the objects on your board or do you want them to overlap? Also decide if you want to fill the board completely or leave space for new things as they come into importance in your life.

4. Write an affirmation or a short list of self-care goals on the piece of card stock and position it on the board.

5. Arrange the items around the affirmation or list as you like without attaching them. When you have decided on your layout, fasten your items to the board with pins, glue, or tape. Use the washi tape and stickers, if you like, to further decorate the vision board.

6. Display the Self-Care Vision Board in your chosen location.