On any given day this is what my life looks like…

It’s beautifully chaotic.

Ok … realistically some days are less beautiful…

There are lots of needs, emotions and different personalities to maneuver through. I’m not even talking about just my family’s – it’s work, it’s the world, it’s my day to day with anyone I interact with.

Minimalism is an intentional and simple way of living which means it also includes self-care. I cannot think of anything more important than self-care especially when your day to day takes up so much emotional space.

Minimalist self-care is about the intentionality of checking our spirit, our energy, and our needs. This is how we ultimately live free – by protecting our emotional and spiritual selves.

I’m bringing up self care in this blog because it’s something I have not been great at lately. This is the first weekend in two months I’ve allowed myself time to rest and heal my body. That for me is not in alignment with my values. When I think about the way I want to live it’s slow, it’s focused on my spiritual needs, it includes time to breathe- read a book, take a hike, be in nature. It includes self care.

I recently read “Live Simply and Be Free” by Yolanda Acree in which the importance of self-care is emphasized. Acree’s writes,

“The basic premise of practicing minimalism as a form of self-care and love is maintaining the belief that you are enough. You accept yourself as you are and understand nothing external to you has power over you. Minimalism cuts out all the distractions like clutter, unhealthy habits, and negative self talk. It encourages you to deal with the one person who controls your existence: YOU. When you understand you are all you need to be free, that’s power!”

Let’s just digest that for a second – we control our own existence.

This means that even when our days take up an incredible amount of emotional space and energy, even when we are experiencing trauma – we are responsible for our healing, and our self-care.

Although we live in a world that systemically oppresses us, and will surely not then turn around and care for us. We are free agents of our healing. The world we live in operates on the idea that we will not care for ourselves, that we will not have the emotional or spiritual energy to fight. But we are free to care for ourselves. Our liberation is dependent on the fact that we do.

Part of caring for ourselves is knowing ourselves. It means knowing what we expect from this life, what we value, what our vulnerabilities are, our boundaries. We need to nourish our souls, and live in alignment with our values. Yet we cannot do any of that without first and foremost, fully understanding ourselves.

Live Simply and Be Free is a rad resource that will walk you through thinking all of this out. So go check out it out – do the work, come back and let’s talk.

We are important. Our emotional, mental, and spiritual selves matter. Do not put off healing your soul.

Love and solidarity fam ✊🏼