When we think of self care, it’s easy to picture bubble baths, candles, or a cozy night in. But how self-care helps mental health goes far beyond surface-level comfort. Real self-care is about creating a life that feels safe, steady, and nourishing.
Supporting the Nervous System Through Self-Care
If you have experienced trauma, you might find yourself stuck in patterns of hypervigilance or emotional shutdown. This is where consistent and intentional self-care becomes powerful. Practices like getting enough sleep, following a gentle routine, journaling, or moving your body mindfully help your nervous system settle. This is one way self-care helps mental health from the inside out. It creates a sense of internal safety, even when the outside world feels overwhelming.
Emotional Self-Care and Boundaries
Self-care also includes emotional well-being. This means saying no when you need to, taking breaks without guilt, and letting yourself feel without judgment. Emotional self care helps you create boundaries, choose supportive relationships, and show yourself compassion on the hard days. These are all key ways that self-care supports your mental health.
What Self-Care Looks Like for You
There is no single version of self-care. It might be mindfully doing the dishes, canceling plans, going to therapy, making time for deep breaths throughout your day, or unfollowing harmful content online. The most important part is whether it nourishes your mental health. How self-care helps mental health will look different for everyone, but the purpose remains the same: to help you feel safe, grounded, and supported.
Your needs are valid. And the small steps you take to meet them matter deeply. They are signs of healing, strength, and self respect.
A journey of honoring heart, mind, body & soul. Boundaries are hard. This course will help you recognize what you need and how to move through the obstacles keeping you from implementing it.
There are so many tools for emotional healing, but one that often gets an eye roll? Meditation. I get it—it’s not always the easiest to embrace. But I want to talk about why it’s so powerful. Let’s talk about how meditation helps with healing.
For most people, meditation brings up a vision of someone sitting cross-legged and chanting. That can be one way to meditate.
But, meditation is so much more than that. At it’s core, it’s about being present, whether through guided meditations, breath work, or even mindful movement. Our minds tend to jump from one thought to the next, often reinforcing fears or self-doubt. Meditation helps quiet that noise, grounding us in the here and now.
And it’s a practice—meaning there’s no “failing” at it. If your mind wanders, you just bring it back. Whether through focused breathing, walking in nature, or a guided meditation, the goal is the same: presence. And the consistent practice of presence changes everything.
For more on meditation and healing, check out these videos:
A journey of honoring heart, mind, body & soul. Boundaries are hard. This course will help you recognize what you need and how to move through the obstacles keeping you from implementing it.
Have you ever felt scattered, pulled in multiple directions, struggling to focus on what truly matters? The ability to cultivate focus and intent is a powerful practice that can bring clarity and purpose into your life. When we consciously direct our energy toward what we desire, we open ourselves to opportunities, growth, and transformation. But what does that really mean, and how can we embrace it without falling into the trap of toxic positivity?
Understanding the Tracker Mindset
This week, I pulled the “Tracker” card from the Native Spirit deck by Denise Linn. The message behind this card is simple yet profound: focus your energy on one thing instead of scattering it in different directions. When you track the unseen but real stream of energy toward your desires, you align yourself with your goals and intentions.
Trackers have the ability to concentrate so intensely that everything else fades away. What you focus on grows—when you direct your thoughts toward positivity, you naturally attract opportunities and experiences that support your journey. However, it’s also essential to acknowledge that life is complex, and shifting focus isn’t always easy, especially for those navigating trauma, anxiety, or neurodivergence.
The Pitfalls of Simplistic Thinking
One of the common narratives around focus and intent is the idea that “thinking positively” will always attract positive experiences. While there’s truth to the concept that our mindset influences our reality, it’s not as simple as flipping a mental switch. Life is nuanced, and telling ourselves to “just think positive” can sometimes lead to feelings of shame or self-blame when challenges arise.
Rather than forcing positivity, consider cultivating self-compassion. If you’re struggling to focus on the good, ask yourself: What feels safe for me right now?How can I gently open myself to possibility? Instead of berating yourself for negative thoughts, try shifting your self-talk to something like, It’s okay for me to take small steps toward what I want. My worth isn’t tied to how positive my thoughts are.
Finding Balance: Intentional Focus vs. Pressure to Perform
The idea of focusing intently on one thing can be empowering, but for many, it may feel unrealistic. Life is full of responsibilities, and for those with anxiety or neurodivergence, single-minded focus can be particularly challenging. If that resonates with you, give yourself grace. Rather than striving for perfection, carve out small moments in your day to intentionally direct your energy toward what matters most. Even five minutes of mindful focus on a passion, goal, or relationship can create momentum over time.
It’s not about forcing yourself into an unnatural state of focus—it’s about honoring your capacity and working within it. Let go of judgment and recognize that your journey is valid, no matter how long it takes.
Embracing Your Path with Compassion
Ultimately, focus and intent are about creating space for what truly matters in your life. If you feel scattered, take a deep breath. Acknowledge where you are, release the pressure of needing to “get it right,” and trust that even small steps count. You deserve to invest your energy in what fulfills you.
What came up for you as you read this? Did anything resonate? Let’s connect in the comments—I’d love to hear your thoughts!
A journey of honoring heart, mind, body & soul. Boundaries are hard. This course will help you recognize what you need and how to move through the obstacles keeping you from implementing it.
The following is a direct transcript of the video.
Thank you for joining me for this week’s card reading. It comes from the Kuan Yin Oracle deck and this week it’s Blossoms of the Sky Dancer.
Okay, so as always, just try to allow yourself to be in this moment. Letting yourself tune out the things that are external, whether it’s a to-do list or the noise around you. Just allow yourself to take these few moments to be present, to be with your breath, be in your body and to take in the message…the part of the message that resonates with you.
Blossoms of the Sky Dancer
Kuan Yin dances creative energy and light across the sky, causing blossoms to descend. In the same way, when we tap into our spiritual power of creation, we cause our life and all of life around us, to bloom. Creation is a natural spiritual power within you, beloved. Force can slow down the process. It is time to stop striving and to allow your manifestation to occur. Trust, let go, allow your creation to flow.
Kuan Yin is a being of divine feminine power. She dances with the sky, the heavenly powers of inspiration, and as a result, life blooms around her. Kuan Yin brings you guidance that you are creating something important right now, something that is aligned with heavenly forces and light, that is significant for the path of spiritual awakening on this planet. Whether you are fully conscious of it or not, it IS happening. Your spiritual light is flowing into the physical plane with the intention to manifest certain life situations and circumstances.These manifestations are in accordance with your spiritual path, and Kuan Yin will support you in their manifestation with her sky dance, which calls the divine light of inspiration and support into earthly creation so that we can experience the divine in form here on Earth.
The way of the Sky Dancer Kuan Yin is the Yin Way or the way of Divine Magnetism. Yin power is the consciousness and ‘beingness’ that allows us to draw into our lives that which we desire. We become attractive to it – wealth, wellbeing, peace, passion, purpose, friendship, support, success and so on. Rather than going out and striving for it, as though we do not have it within us already, we can grow in our ability to simply be and become simultaneously, until we experience it physically into our lives. It is only a matter of time until it happens.
To cultivate Yin Power to allow creation to manifest in your physical reality, you can focus more on allowing, flowing, surrendering and participating in the greater flow, rather than the usual ways in Western culture of doing, making things happen, forcing, intending and holding. Kuan Yin guides you now to balance doing with being. Beingness is presence, it is appreciation, it is joyful stillness and wonder, it is the realization within that you are a spiritual magnet, and whatever you want to attract you can, simply by cultivating the qualities you seek to experience externally within you. She guides you to Sky Dance with her now, to become receptive to heavenly energies and to allow the manifestations to blossom, like flowers falling from her divine feet.
Healing with a Sky Dancer
Perceive yourself in a vast, peaceful, dark space that feels simultaneously full and empty. This space holds you and yet does not confine you in any way. As you imagine this dark space supporting you, like a cosmic cradle, gently say aloud, “I now call upon the Yin Potency of Kuan Yin to help me let go of the need to force, to struggle and to believe that I must make things happen of my own accord, that I must be in control for my creation to manifest! Help me trust the Universe, trust my own Soul, trust in the inherent goodness of life and the responsiveness of the Cosmos and my own value. Please help me, Beloved, that my creation may occur swiftly and gracefully, with beauty and divine perfection.”
Imagine that within this darkness, you sense a light weaving gracefully, endless blossoms of light following in its trail. Allow yourself to join with that light, becoming aware that it is the beautiful Sky Dancer Kuan Yin. If you wish, join her in the dance, feeling the heavenly light of creation flowing all around you both now, as a beautiful, open blue sky streaming with sunlight. Feel the joy as blossoms flow from Kuan Yin’s aura and swirl around you both in spirals.
Be in your heart and when you are ready, just open your eyes.
And I would encourage you to take a moment, even if you’ve already opened your eyes, maybe just allow yourself to sit with that visual, that energy. And again, notice what resonates…where you might be feeling any sort of sensation in your body.
This was a lot today. So maybe even listen to this again or read the transcript and just really see where there might be opportunities for you today and maybe more generally to allow…to recognize that you do have within you what you need.
The creation and authenticity and even ultimately healing doesn’t come from the striving and the need. It comes from the flow and the allowing.
And I know that’s easier said than done, but it’s a practice, an important practice. And the more you give yourself space to be in that, the more beneficial it becomes, whether we’re talking about taking a message from the universe or even thinking about your own desires.
Allowing yourself to have desires, to dream, to imagine, all of that is a creative process. And creativity flows naturally, organically, when we create space to allow it to move.
When we constrain ourselves, we constrain the ability to think outside of what our fear, what our beliefs, what our self-doubt will allow us to consider.
I know that I’m going to sit with this a little bit more because there were a couple of things that really kind of hit me, and I’m kind of in a little bit of a creative space right now and finding myself getting caught up a little bit.
So I’m going to sit with this and see where I might be able to apply it a little bit more significantly.
I’d love to hear from you. What came up for you? Share in the comments.
Thank you for joining me. Wishing you a beautiful week.
The following is a direct transcript of the video.
Welcome to this week’s card reading. This week, we’re using the deck The Keepers of the Light from Kyle Gray. And this week’s card is Isis, Magic Manifesting – Your dreams, visions, and goals are becoming reality. Stay focused.
I don’t know about you but staying focused on dreams, ideals, and visions…it’s feeling a little harder. It’s a little bit more challenging with all the realities of what is going on in the world and certainly—I’m in the U.S.—what is happening here in the U.S. So whether you’re in a place where things are feeling really kind of uncertain and the idea of holding on to some dream seems impossible or maybe you’re in a place where this is an opportunity to allow yourself to dream bigger and you’re feeling really excited about that.
Let’s take this time together today to just be together. To notice what feels present and allow the message to resonate in the ways that you feel it. So there might be some resistance. There might be something that just hits in a way that brings up some sort of emotion. You may find your mind wandering. There is no right or wrong. Just notice. Don’t analyze. Don’t try to figure it out. You can journal afterward and process but for now just try to listen, be present, and notice what’s happening within as you listen to this message.
So I just want to give a little reminder again. I’ve said this before but in various different decks there are things that are talked about in terms of—sometimes it will mention God, it will mention Spirit or different kinds of things like that. And I want to be clear that for my purpose here and my own personal experience in using card decks, I am not a religious person, and I don’t think of any of this in regard to any sort of religion or anything related to that. I just think of it in terms of the universe, Mother Nature, the earth, and good and bad in whatever way that could mean at any given time. So not good and bad in terms of heaven or hell, not certainly in terms of religion—none of that. So I just wanna be clear. So as you listen, if you are a religious person, then you can take it however you want to take it. If you’re not, just know that this is not my intention for that to be the case.
So if it feels comfortable, just allow yourself to relax into whatever surface you’re on. So really just trying to allow your body to melt, allow your jaw to release, your shoulders, your hips, and just allow your body weight to sink into whatever surface you’re on. And maybe close your eyes, maybe put a hand over your heart or over your belly. Whatever feels like you’re being called to do right now, whatever you might need.
ISIS
Magic Manifesting – Your dreams, visions and goals are becoming reality. Stay focused.
Isis is a strong, smart and focused Egyptian winged goddess. According to legend, she was able to move from darkness to light and between the underworld, heaven and earth. For that reason, whenever she comes to us she will help us move from the hell of own fear into the heaven of our own love. She was also able to revive her lover Osiris- not sure if I’m saying that right- from the dead, and this powerful allegorical story shows how she can help us revive an aspect of our life or a dream that we may have ‘killed off’ with fear or lack of self-belief. With her magical abilities, Isis will guide us to bring our dreams into reality.
Extended message
You are moving into a space where your dream reality is becoming your outward reality. This is an extremely powerful time, and it’s vital to keep focused on the highest good of all. You no longer want to relive your own history and/or feel unsupported. Acknowledging where you once were and how you have changed that situation around is a powerful focus of gratitude that will align you with universal abundance. Discipline and commitment are important now. Consider that you are moving between worlds when you daydream or create visions and bring life-enhancing ideas into reality. Magic is manifesting all around you – this is exciting!
So just take a deep breath, let that energy move through.
So I actually didn’t read this before reading it to you. And reading just the initial aspect—that your dreams, visions, and goals are becoming reality—knowing what’s happening in the world and with so many people in terms of struggle right now, I was curious and also quite hesitant about trying to just put that idea out there, that your dreams are manifesting and to stay focused. Because I think, for so many people, that’s kind of hard to do. But I have to say, as I read this, I thought, “Okay, I definitely can feel some resonance here.”
And I think this part here—the idea of reviving an aspect of our life or a dream that we may have killed off with fear or lack of self-belief—I have no doubt that anybody watching this right now can relate. Probably about so many things in your life because of a lack of fear, because of a lack of self-belief…kind of allowing those dreams to fade away or maybe even forcing those dreams to the side. And I think, you know, this could happen for a lot of reasons, but I think right now, because we are just kind of trying to get through day to day, we do feel like any dream is something that has to be put aside or maybe will be unachievable at all. So that really resonated, and I know that I’m going to sit with that idea for a little bit and just notice what comes up. I might even get my journal out and journal a little bit about it.
You no longer want to relive your own history and/or feel unsupported. It’s all about connection, right? I think this is always important—the idea of allowing ourselves to be supported. It’s such an important part of healing, and I think when there are difficult things going on in our own personal lives or certainly in the broader community and sociocultural experience, being able to recognize and connect to the shared experiences of fear, grief, and struggle so that we know that we’re not alone, so that we can feel the truth of that reality. It is so important.
So whatever may have resonated or not, I hope that you do allow yourself to consider the dreams that maybe you have put off, pushed to the side, not allowed yourself maybe to dream, and consider the possibility of opening to allowing opportunity and space. For maybe even just parts of those dreams, those hopes even to come to life.
I’d love to hear what came up for you. Share in the comments.
The following is a direct transcript of the video.
Welcome to this week’s message. It comes from the Rumi Oracle, Alanna Fairchild. And the message this week is “The Courage of Your Love”. This really is such a beautiful deck and it’s not getting into focus very well there. But it is a beautiful deck and just let yourself take it in. What do you notice as you look at this?
So as you listen, if it feels comfortable for you to do so, if it’s available to you, maybe you close your eyes and allow yourself to really get comfortable and relax into whatever surface you’re on. Maybe put one hand over your heart and another hand over your belly or over your thighs letting them rest.
The Courage of Your Love
Love is without reason.
Rationality is like a cane.
Judgment needs a cane because it is blind.
When love arrives, thought dies in its shadow.
Love is the sunrise, while thought is only a flashing light.
-Rumi
So maybe even just let yourself take that in and what does it mean to you? Does it feel like it means anything to you?
The path of freeing the heart from the effects of a fearful mind is an initiation into great power. So many lapses will happen before the heart grows strong enough to overpower old patterns and surrender without condition or equivocation. When it is ready to surrender in such a way, the heart is free and allowed to simply be. Even the mind then, finally freed from shackles and joyfully submitting to love, declares, “Let love be, in whatever way it shall be. I can bear it. I shall take refuge in it. I shall not turn away from it. I am that love!”
You are an ancient one with a heart older than the mountains. You are being asked to free yourself from the too-small loves of the youthful heart and come to understand and accept the wisdom of your mature heart. Your mature heart is not cured with hardness or detachment, but with compassion and tenacious devotion to the cause that is most real and matters most – the quest for life of the human soul.
Your ancient heart loves the soul and will roar like the lion of love at the wolves that would casually devour it. So trust in the courage of your heart. You are not cruel. You are not hard. You are not careless. You are passion personified. You are the lion of love. So allow yourself to be the lion, not the lamb. Stand true in your own heart. Cause trouble, make noise, be proud and be mighty. Then rest, after all after all that savage divinity, rest and restore, for day after day you shall claim your holy lands and refuse to give them up to less noble creatures. Though you survey their manipulations and attempts to claim power with compassion, you do not underestimate them or relax your vigilance. You shall not allow, for even a moment, that falsehood be vigilance. You shall not allow, for even a moment, that falsehood be accepted as truth in your heart.
This oracle comes with particular guidance for you. You are not to give into less than you are worth, or to the shaming stories of others of our culture that would cast your regal lion nature into the falsehood of beliefs that you have no choice or power. You are not to give into the idea that you are victim and cannot free yourself from your suffering, or that you are less than any other. These are lies. These are petty deceptions so unworthy of you. Do not believe them. Roar at them until the weak glue holding them together melts under the fire of your holy breath, and they lie dismembered and powerless at your feet. Then intend that those bits and pieces in decay are lovingly returned to the Earth Mother through whom they can be used to fertilize new life.
This oracle comes with another message for you. You have a challenge before you (or that you are now moving through), but you have what is necessary to succeed and overcome it. No matter how long it has endured, or how big you have built that challenge up to be in your mind, no matter how unsolvable the issue appears to be, there is and shall be a victory beyond it, and it is imminent. This oracle has come to you to let you know you are empowered to succeed, you have what is required within to do it, and that the time for your victory is drawing near.
So do not give up. Instead, do the sacred honouring ritual as needed, and when you feel so inclined, open your mouth and roar love from the very depths of your being. Create a sound of truth for yourself. In that sound you will hear the mightiest one of all roaring along with you, saying, “Yes love, I am with you, and together we claim divine victory! So we roar! how we roar!”
And just let yourself take this in. Let the energy move within, throughout, and just notice what is present. What are you feeling? Where has your mind gone? Do you notice sensations in your body? Was there anything that stood out to you that brought up a feeling, maybe a feeling of resistance or maybe a feeling of emotion?
Let yourself just sit with this for a few moments. Even when this ends, just allow yourself to sit, to let it float through your body and notice where it moves, where it tends to hang out a little bit. And maybe afterward, get your journal out And just write whatever feels present for you.
Thank you so much for joining me. Wishing you a beautiful week ahead filled with courage and love.
