You Need This: 3 Truths About Self-Care

Our lives changed by an invisible virus. I cancelled my gym membership six months ago. I still miss in-person fellowship at weekly Bible study. And I stay up into morning hours working from home.

How has your life changed since March 2020?

In all the craziness, our energy and inner peace might lack replenishment. We hear about the importance of self-care and we need wholeness now more than ever.

But how can we practice self-care in a world gone mad?

Here are a few suggestions of what I’m learning in this season, so I don’t actually run down the street screaming, never to be heard from again.

Three Truths about Self-Care:

1. Self-Care is Body Care

Who has time for workouts when we can barely squeeze in working from home? But if we neglect our bodies, they rebel.

We feel tired or achy. We feel depressed. Our brain fogs.

It’s like depending on our car engines to turn on and operate at top speed—but never changing the oil. At some point our engine burns.

Scripture refers to the human body in several ways, but one of my favorites is the image of the temple. In the Old Testament, the temple housed the presence of God—his glory. And in the New Testament, the bodies of believers in Christ are described as “the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). No longer is God present in one place; now he is present in/with/through his people.

So, let’s take care of the temple of the Lord.

Here are a few general tips for body self-care care:

Eat as healthfully as possible. And by healthfully, I mean generally. We want to minimize stress. Make sure to drink lots of water, eat a variety of fruits and vegetables and take in a steady dose of protein at every meal, if possible.
Exercise daily. (And let’s be honest. This one I need help with). My goal is to raise my heart rate for at least 30 minutes a day. Whether we get help from a You Tube video, jog around the neighborhood, or chasing kids in a tickle war, we need to take care of our heart health.
Get enough sleep. (Okay, okay. I need help with this one too.)
Keep clean. At home for days on end? A regular routine of showering and grooming can help our physical and mental health.

2. Self-care is Life Rhythm

Are you feeling like life is a bit out-of-whack? Then maybe establishing a life rhythm can help.

We all have daily rhythms. Wake up. Roll out of bed. Brush teeth. Brew coffee. We live in rhythms that form us and help us flourish in our days (or unhealthy rhythms, but that’s another topic ).

Our life rhythm (some call it a Rule of Life) is a plan of how we spend our time to live in a way that fosters spiritual growth, faithfulness, and meaningful relationships. It also helps us establish priorities and know what to say “yes” to—or “no” to.

A Biblical Model

When God created the world (Genesis 1), he set into motion rhythms. The sun rises and sets. The seasons flow into one another. Spring grows and winter rests. God even rested on the seventh day after creating the world.

Rhythm is so important that God made the weekly sabbath—a day of rest and worship—one of the ten most important ways to follow him (taking a day off is one of the 10 commandments).

We even see this rhythm in the gospels. Jesus worked and he rested. He celebrated the Jewish festivals. He spent time in solitude. If the God of the universe, made flesh, modeled the value and necessity of rhythm (daily, weekly, yearly), we know we probably need such rhythm too.

Establishing a Life Rhythm

When I feel out-of-whack, I sit down and ask myself general questions to discern how I need to structure my life.

For example, recently I felt irritated almost all the time. After lots of tears (I feel before I know why)—I evaluated my daily/weekly life rhythm. I discerned that I needed more time of solitude. So, instead of placing my solitude time in the mornings, when my kids constantly interrupt because they love their mama, I scheduled my solitude time for after the kids to go bed.

When we listen to our frustrations and aches, we can discern what needs to be prioritized and placed in our weekly rhythm.
Seana Scott

Helpful Questions:

Do I have daily solitude with God and in the Word?
Do I have enough or too much time allocated to work (income-producing and/or life management).
Do I have a day of rest (no “work” that drains, a slower pace, and worship).
Body care: Do I get enough sleep? What do I eat? Do I exercise?
Spiritual community: Do I gather with other believers for worship and mutual encouragement?
Do I make reasonable time for what I enjoy? (Creating? Watching sports? Reading? Going out?)
Do I make time for other relationships beyond family and church community?
How are the relationships in my home? Any schedule adjustments I need to make?
Do I have unmet desires? If so, what are they? Are they legitimate? If so, how can I take one step toward fulfilling them?
What are my top three priorities in this season? Does my rhythm reflect that?

What might your weekly life rhythm look like?

Walking with Jesus is not a schedule. But the life rhythm gently guides us to include self-care so that we—and all those around us—can flourish.

3. Self-care is Soul Care.

We can spend a month in a spa getting rubbed, infused, and peeled—but still ache. We can binge on Netflix and still feel depressed, grieved, and angry.

Genuine self-care includes soul care.

What is soul-care?

Soul-care is tending to the health and wholeness of the soul.

What does soul-care look like?

Soul-care starts with forgiveness of sin by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8–9, Romans 3:23, John 3:16).

Sin is anything that does not please God. And it works like rocks weighing down our souls.

Is there anything in our hearts or actions that needs resolution and reconciliation? If so, we ask God for forgiveness and receive his grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

This is a great place to start in soul-care: receiving God’s grace.

If this seems wonky or foreign to you—and you would like guidance in how to begin or renew a relationship with God, please talk to a trusted Christian that you know or send me a message.

Next, soul-care looks like practicing spiritual habits.

For the Christian, basic soul-care, includes time thinking about scripture (Psalm 1:2), prayer (1 Thes. 5:17), and silence (Psalm 46:10).

There is no perfection in this. There are days, okay—weeks—when I am inconsistent with my spiritual habits—and, guess what? The Lord still loves me.

But often when I feel overwhelmed or overly emotional—I can see a link to neglect of my spiritual health.

The first habit I return to when my soul is unwell, is daily time focused on the Lord in solitude and taking in scripture—wherever, whenever I can make this happen. Sometimes I can make the time by arriving early to an appointment. Or opening my Bible right after I tuck the kids in bed. Or I wake up early—okay, that rarely happens any more. But you get the picture.

We can have perfectly timed, balanced schedules, but if we are not practicing a deep soul-care relationship with God, we will never find soul-level rest and renewal.

I can 100 percent trace my most sinful and broken times to a lack of daily solitude with God and failure to renew my mind with the truth of scripture.

And finally, healthy soul-care includes living in authentic community with other committed Christ-followers.

This is the deep life-on-life fellowship where we confess our sins to each other, pray for one another, talk about the hard stuff, wrestle with scripture, and encourage one another to follow Jesus.

It is wonderful to worship in service and listen to biblically rooted sermons, but the church is to gather, not only for input—but also for community. And when we do, our souls receive the care they need to thrive.

In times of pandemic, soul-care can take creative forms. Back porch, socially-distanced fellowship, tail-gaiting parking-lot dinners—whatever! Form is less than function.

We all have gifts to offer one another in ways that spur each other on to growing toward God. We are one body with many members, as the scriptures say, and we need one another (1 Corinthians 12:12–27).

Soul-care includes:

Receiving God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Practicing Spiritual Habits.
Living in fellowship with other Christ-followers.

In a world gone mad, self-care is so important.

Remember: Self-care is not selfish. Self-care helps us to be able to care for others better because when we are healthy, we can be healthy for others.