Self Care Both Practical And Mystical: Techniques For Defensive Coping

It should go without saying but taking care of yourself is crucial for anyone in any viable spiritual, mystical, or occult practice. Now more than ever it is crucial, especially if you’ve decided to do your part in ways either practical and/or magical in order to help out with the current state of affairs.

For you, for anyone feeling more stress than usual in general, I have the following tips:

• If you’re actively engaging in magical acts of resistance, this is a marathon, not a sprint. I once wrote about how to take care of yourself when handling curses and hexes of any sort, and similar advice applies. Pace yourself.
• Your physical health is crucial around this time. It’s good to indulge in order to feel good, but on the whole I’d recommend about 80-90% of the time watching how well you’re feeding yourself, how much water you’re taking in, and how well you’re sleeping. If you need to take sleep aids, there are some great pills for melatonin on the market and also some herbal teas that help. Do what you can, and pay attention to how you’re feeling. Check in. If you’re capable of any physical activity that you enjoy and will make you feel better, do it. Go for long walks, take MMA classes, go out dancing. Yes, sex counts as physical activity. Just do something besides being online and/or paying attention to what’s going on in the world.
• Meditation isn’t just good for improving magical skill; it’s also good for stress reduction. See, now you have an excuse to learn how to do that thing.
• Pay attention to your regular practices and work as part of your spiritual and/or magical path. I blogged about some good tips the other day on how to make sure you’re getting the most out of that, so definitely take a look at that and make sure that you’re doing what you can there too.
• Check in on your magical and psychic defenses and self care in regards to your spiritual, mystical, and/or occult life. At this time, it’s vital that you take care of your spiritual and psychic hygiene, but also protective work. When you get stressed and run down, so can your natural barriers. This step is especially important if you’re actively doing engaging and doing work.
• Know your limitations and respect them. Taking a break doesn’t mean you don’t care enough and/or aren’t doing enough, and we can’t afford to burn out now. None of us can. Put on your own oxygen mask before assisting with other people’s.
• Know that taking care of yourself is important and why. In the past I’ve touched upon why self care is so critical for any intensive spiritual and magical practice, and this handy checklist applies too. Now is not the time to underestimate the impact that all you are doing is potentially having on your level on all levels: mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, etc.
• In the end it’s all about finding balance. Maintaining good balance in your life of all things is key to good, long term habits–not to mention results.

Also, don’t forget to manage your time wisely and be patient with yourself. Other people are in the same boat as you, and you are not alone. Just know that if nothing else. Solidarity!