Sacred Self-Care

If something is sacred it is worthy of honor and reverence. It is worthy of spiritual respect and devotion. If something is sacred it can have power and have a transformative effect on one’s life. I don’t care for the word religious, I prefer relationship. What if you considered the relationship you have with yourself as sacred?

You were created by the God of the Universe and can be in relationship with this Divine Love. Experiencing your worth in this light, and learning to love yourself in a healthy way is so important to how you take care of yourself. In the Christian tradition, the Bible says that our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do you hold yourself with such worth? You are that worthy.
The emotional abuse has shaken you to your core and caused tremendous self-doubt. Your responsibility is to begin restoration.

Do you take care of you body that way? As a spiritual psychotherapist, I believe the work one does in therapy is sacred soul work. Sacredness is a frame to really honor one’s healing work or one’s body and health. I like to get the point across about how vitally important self-care is!

After emotional abuse specifically, it is a matter of healing your body, mind and spirit in your recovery. You may feel unworthy and not know where to begin. You may feel completely depleted and may even have lost yourself temporarily.

Begin to take baby steps to recover and experience the sacredness of life again. Maybe you have some great self-care practices in place. Let’s look at self-care practices in a holistic way,

Your Mind

• Consider how you speak to yourself
• Be conscious of the thoughts you think to change the self-destructive ones
• use affirmations
• Have self-compassion for what you have been through
• Be aware of obsessive thoughts of the past or trying to figure it all out. ( we don’t get closure with a narcissist)
• therapy or coaching for recovery
• seek education on emotional abuse, trauma, recovery
• learn about abuse and neuroscience to understand how the abuse has affected your brain and body
• seek support groups

Your Body

• how are you nourishing your body with healthy, clean food and water
• exercise
• sleep
• supplements and vitamins
• massage, acupuncture, Reiki
• detox baths

Your Spirit

• nurture your connection with your higher power
• seek this connection if you don’t have it
• prayer, meditation
• creating stillness
• receive grace
• spiritual reading and devotions
• connection/fellowship with believers in a community
• burning candles, smudging
• forgive yourself
• spend time in nature
• heal your wounds

Your Heart and Emotions

• healthy grieving to release
• learn healthy boundaries to protect your heart and emotional self
• maintain no contact from your abuser as much as possible
• find groups and healers who are knowledgeable about emotional abuse
• give yourself something special to look forward to
• learn to love yourself
• take time to recover and heal your broken heart

Treat yourself with gentle self-respect. Practice identifying what you are feeling and honor and feel those feelings — even the difficult ones. Practice all the things that bring you back to yourself and help you feel grounded, more hopeful, and give you energy. Your sacred self-care helps you create the inner stability you need to move forward with confidence.