Six Invaluable Resources for My Self Care

In this week’s episode of the podcast, I’m talking about self-care and what it means to be resilient. In the last couple of years, I’ve discovered practices that allow me to feel like me, to respond to adversity, to be the person I want to be, and to thrive. Here are a handful of resources that have been invaluable to me that you might want to explore:

• The Myth of Normal, Gabor Maté: This was the most important book I read in 2022 because it was liberating to understand the impact of trauma and chronic stress on the mind and body. For many years, I resisted that I’d experienced trauma as a child, and while I don’t need to adopt a label, I’ve come to illuminating insights about how my personality and coping skills responded to challenging events and situations. If you’re curious about these issues, read this book.  
• EMDR: This therapeutic modality has been incredible. I had heard about EMDR for many years and finally found a skilled practitioner. It’s allowed me to process early childhood stuff on a somatic and nervous system level and to create new neural pathways into new beliefs. I’m just blown away by how impactful it is.
• Daily journaling: I talked about this morning practice on this podcast episode a while back, but now I’ve been doing it for more than a year and a half, and it is a cornerstone of my self-care. (I follow the guidelines in this book, which basically suggests that you write three pages, stream of consciousness without stopping, just after waking up). The more I do it, the more powerful it becomes: it’s like my subconscious is increasingly willing to reveal itself as it learns that I’ll accept whatever it shares. I don’t know how I’d know myself or my daily life without journaling.
• No Bad Parts, Richard Schwartz: This is a way of thinking about who we are and why we do what we do. My therapists use this approach with me (yes, I have more than one therapist), and it’s been enlightening and has helped me cultivate deep self-acceptance.
• Sebene Selassie’s bimonthly newsletter: Every edition contains so much wisdom, humor, and resources. I love Sebene as a human, writer, and leader, and her development has been inspiring. She also inspires me to collage, which is becoming another key component of my self-care.
• Chani Nicolas: I am fascinated by astrology (much to the consternation of my scientist-son), and I love the Chani app for many reasons, including the daily meditations. I’d never found astrology to be useful before I started learning from Chani (interesting, maybe, but not useful). If you’ve ever been curious about astrology, start with Chani.