**This is a sponsored post for Self Care Catalysts. I have been compensated through the Chronic Illness Bloggers network. All opinions remain my own and I was in no way influenced by the company.
I’m a huge proponent of self-care. I’ve already written about self-care in various posts and you can click the button at the top of the blog if you’d like to read them.
I’ve also been using this great app called Health Storylines that’s free in Google Play or Apple App Stores. It has areas where you can track your mood, vitals, medication times, a food diary, and more. It also has a handy journal section that you can use to record questions you want to remember to talk to your doctor about at your next appointment. I love that! I may forget to grab a notebook as I head to an appointment but I never forget my phone! You’re going to want to check it out – so you can click here to find out more.
But before you click over there I wanted to take a minute to talk to you about spiritual self-care. Our chronic illness may have forced us to exercise physical and emotional self-care but feeding our soul doesn’t seem to hit the top of the list like the others.
I’ve been reading a number of articles addressing the self-care movement and I’ve been a little disheartened when the topic is painted as a bad thing, self-ish or anti-God. We all have a responsibility to decipher the good sources of information from the bad but you don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater, as the old saying goes.
I love this quote by Marshall Segal:
The power of effective habits is not in the seclusion, or the silence, or the journal, but in Whom you find in the habit. If you only find yourself, then your weaknesses, failures, and stresses can only be amplified and perpetuated. But if you find more of God, you have found resources far beyond yourself to address your deepest, most desperate needs.
As a Christian, I don’t see the self-care movement as an attack on my faith. I believe my Lord is very concerned with my mental and physical well-being but He’s more concerned with the spiritual. So spiritual self-care needs to be our foundation.
It may be the “self” part of self-care that trips people up and makes them feel it’s something we’re fulfilling for ourselves. I look at the “self” part as being the work I can actually do to care for those areas of my life – not that I’m taking God out of the equation at all. Just as an example – God has met my need for food each day, now it’s up to me to eat my veggies instead of nosh on three Milky Ways and a Kit Kat and call it dinner. See what I mean, we do have a responsibility when it comes to our own care and when it comes to the spiritual side, we have the responsibility and privilege of drawing from an inexhaustible resource.
I wouldn’t be able to navigate life with chronic illness without my faith. Knowing I’m not alone or forgotten in my struggle can make a huge impact on my day and be the very thing that gives me the strength I need to continue.
In Matthew 11:28-30 Christ, Himself calls for those who are weary and heavy-hearted to come to Him for rest. He understood our need for spiritual self-care and took it upon Himself to be our source of re-charging.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
I know on the darkest days when your illness flares and your mind won’t focus it’s hard to take the time to feed your soul. Let me share with you a few ways you’re able to exercise spiritual self-care on those hard days.
- Take time to search for the beauty in God’s creation. When Christ was teaching how to pray He started with praise toward His Heavenly Father. When you’re having a hard day and you can’t even focus to read the Bible or pray, just open your eyes to the world around you and praise God’s creativity and power in nature.
- Pull out a journal and list something you’re thankful for. If you need some ideas you can always click over to Ann Voskamp’s website where she offers a daily list of ideas you can start with.
- Serve the needs of another. When you’re chronically ill you can feel like there isn’t anything you can do for others. Reach out to someone to see how they’re doing and offer to pray with or for them. Perhaps write out a prayer as you pray for them and send it to them in an encouraging card.
- Turn to uplifting music. Turn on a Christian CD or radio station and enjoy the way music can speak to your soul.
- Let go of things that are holding your heart and mind hostage. Forgive someone who has wronged or hurt you. Remember, we forgive others because Christ has forgiven us. We may never be able to reconcile the relationship but forgiveness will be the catalyst to release the anger and bitterness you may be holding.
- Develop a journal of verses that speak to your soul. Here are a few to start…
- Are you anxious or fearful? Philippians 4:6-7 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
- Need to be reminded that your sins have been forgiven as soon as you accept Christ’s sacrifice? I John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
- Do you feel like you’re about to buckle under the weight of your illness and life circumstances? Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you;I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
