Magical Self-Care for Everyday Life E-Book

Leah Vanderveldt

• Herausgeber: CICO Books
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 186

Beschreibung

Magic meets self-care in a feel-good guide that's both practical and mystical, exploring the different ways we can honour our body, mind and spirit to create personal wellness. Join well-being and nutrition expert Leah Vandervelt in a wellness practice that integrates centuries-old traditions and concepts into everyday modern living. With herbal infusions for calming and mood boosting, tarot cards to tune into intuition, moon rituals for setting aligned intentions and breath work for releasing stuck energy, Leah weaves together spirituality, high vibe meals, astrology, meditation, movement and more. Inspiring photographs accompany Leah's selection of magical tools as she shares her experience with them, including the benefits, and a few simple actions, rituals and recipes to do on your own. Setting up supportive routines is key for feeling good every day. This is wellness for the witchy – people craving a more playful, receptive and healthy approach for tangible transformation. Celebrate the power to make your life more amazing. It's where the magic's at!

Leseprobe

magical self-carefor everyday life

magical self-carefor everyday life

Create your own personal wellness rituals using theTarot, space-clearing, breathwork, high-viberecipes, and more

Leah Vanderveldt

Dedication: For Maeve & Fabian

Published in 2020 by CICO Books

An imprint of Ryland Peters & Small Ltd

20–21 Jockey’s Fields, London WC1R 4BW

341 E 116th St, New York, NY 10029

www.rylandpeters.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Text © Leah Vanderveldt 2020

Design and photography © CICO Books 2020

The author’s moral rights have been asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress and the British Library

eISBN: 978-1-78249-917-6ISBN: 978-1-78249-851-3

Printed in China

Photographer: Belle Daughtry

Designers: Eliana Holder and Alison Fenton

Editor: Dawn Bates

Commissioning editor: Kristine Pidkameny

Art director: Sally Powell

Production controller: David Hearn

Publishing manager: Penny Craig

Publisher: Cindy Richards

Safety note: Please note that while the use of essential oils, herbs, incense, and particular practices refer to healing benefits, they are not intended to replace diagnosis of illness or ailments, or healing or medicine. Always consult your doctor or other health professional in the case of illness, pregnancy, and personal sensitivities and conditions. Neither the author nor the publisher can be held responsible for any claim arising out of the general information, recipes, and practices provided in the book.

For additional picture credits, see page 144.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1: Embracing the Feminine

Chapter 2: Mirroring Nature & the Seasons

Chapter 3: Creating a Magical Home

Chapter 4: Lunar Living

Chapter 5: Self-awareness with Astrology

Chapter 6: Connect to Your Wisdom with Tarot

Chapter 7: Herbs & Plant Medicine for Wellbeing

Chapter 8: Healing with Energy Flow & Movement

Chapter 9: Manifesting & Honoring Your Shadow

HELPFUL REMINDERS

RESOURCES

INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS/PICTURE CREDITS

Introduction

To believe in magic is to choose to see the world around you in a certain light—one that helps, encourages, and supports you. If I have the choice between a daily grind with no common thread, bigger impact, or glimmer of mystery, or a life that feels synchronistic, connected, and playful, I will always choose the latter.

Magic invites us to entertain a change in perception and thought. Changing the way we talk to ourselves, the way we approach our needs, or how we interpret events can create shifts in our lives that sizzle with possibility—for our internal life and our communities. Magical living gives us an opportunity to claim our power, make the changes we seek, and create a life that lights us up. And the best part is, we already have everything we need within us at this very moment.

Self-care is the practice of treating yourself well. It can look different for everyone, but the heart of true self-care is knowing who you are and what you need, and honoring that while being kind to yourself. Magical self-care is the practice of using rituals and tools that might be considered mystical, witchy, or esoteric to identify and address your needs. It requires being inquisitive, diving deep, and trusting yourself and your instincts. It’s a process of self-care that combines the earthy and the spiritual for personal evolution and healing.

This book compiles all the practices and tools that I’ve tried, studied, and grown to love over the past decade of my life. These tools are the pillars of my self-care routines and rituals, but it’s vital to remember that the most important and hardest aspect of self-care is how we treat and speak to ourselves. I’m still nowhere near perfect at this, but these practices help me ground my thoughts and come back to kindness. Hopefully this book can help you along your healing adventure and add a little more fun, kindness, and magic to the process.

Self-care

The phrase self-care actually makes me a little uncomfortable. There’s a certain air of privilege or woo-woo around the concept that a lot of people roll their eyes at. Some think they’re too busy, tired, or low on funds to take part in it, but self-care belongs to everyone—and it’s especially important if you feel stretched thin. Self-care is typically portrayed as the surface-level stuff that you can spend money on. There’s nothing wrong with serums, massages, green smoothies, or whatever else you buy when you want a pick-me-up, but a lot of these things don’t help us feel the way we want to feel at our core.

Real self-care is about what we do little by little every day to nourish our bodies, minds, and spirits so we can show up as the best version of ourselves. It’s the practices, activities, and habits aimed at making us feel good at our core and bringing us back into balance. My foundational habits for self-care are: Hydration, eating well, getting enough sleep, practicing meditation daily, and connecting with others in-person. Boring, I know, but without these things, none of the other magical practices in this book will be as potent.

Magical self-care

Magical self-care is about creating a better relationship with yourself through curiosity, awareness, and intention. It requires deep trust in yourself and discovering what’s best for you on a holistic (physical + mental + emotional + spiritual) level. It’s about unlocking your own personal brand of intuition and magic by getting you in touch with yourself, your worth, and your power. Before we get started, let’s jump into some terms used throughout this book.

WITCHY

Witchy is a term for all things mystical, spiritual, and magical. While Wiccan and Pagan religions are very influential in many witchy rituals, you don’t need to be a part of them to consider yourself a witch. Conversely, you can be a witch and adhere to any religious beliefs you want. Having a witchy and magical self-care practice is deeply individual and all about finding what resonates for you.

A witch is someone who recognizes their abilities and magic and uses them to create change in their life. They trust their own power and wisdom—especially if it’s contrary to convention and the patriarchy—and they act on their intuition from a place of self-trust and trust in the universe.

THE UNIVERSE

When I say the universe in this book, I’m referring to a higher power that connects us to something bigger than ourselves. You can substitute it for Goddess, Love, Mother Earth, God, Divine, Spirit, Creator, Nature, or whatever strikes a chord with you.

CORE SELF

I refer to the core self throughout this book. It can also be called the true self, authentic self, highest self, or soul self. I like to think of it as the essence of who we are and who we were brought on this earth to be. It’s like a pearl within the oyster—something beautiful and unique contained by our outer shell. Our outer shell protects the core, but this tough exterior is built up over time by outside influences and societal conditioning. The shell has a purpose but often prevents us from showing who we truly are to the world.

The more we can see glimpses of the core version of ourselves through intuitive and witchy practices, the more we can access it to share its wisdom, open-heartedness, and magic.

INTUITION

This is the “just feels right”/niggling sensation you get. Intuition is much quieter than your typical brain/ego voice that’s loud, fear-based, and worried about what others might think. The ego isn’t bad, but it’s often misguided and programmed by things outside of us, so it doesn’t always align with our core self. We want the two to work together with intuition in the management role, leading the way. The most important part is starting the conversation with our intuition.

Magical self-care encourages us to start asking, listening to, and following our intuition, and every modality—from Tarot to manifestation—is a different way to approach this wisdom within us. Let your intuition guide you throughout these pages, helping you choose and create the right rituals for you.

RITUAL

Rituals are activities with meaning and intention behind them. Different than a routine, these can be things we do regularly or once in a while for the purpose of leading us into a more present awareness. Through a small series of actions that make up a ritual, we can ground ourselves in the moment and connect to ourselves in a way that’s enjoyable and purposeful.

I suggest plenty of rituals throughout each chapter, but I also walk you through creating your own ritual for each of the self-care tools. A ritual you conceive for yourself using your instincts is the most powerful because it comes from your wisdom and gifts (aka your magic). Building your own ritual is one of the best ways you can practice working with your creative magical energy, and it will help shape the unique way you’ll work with these tools for your own self-care.

CULTURAL SENSITIVITY

An important aspect of using magical tools is awareness. I aim to be conscious when buying and using magical tools. If I use something outside of my cultural heritage, I research it and make sure I’m as respectful as possible. If you choose to use tools like Palo Santo from South America or white sage from North America, be aware and respectful of the cultural backgrounds that these things come from and make sure they are responsibly sourced. We all deserve healing, but it’s important not to take something from a heritage that isn’t your own without honoring and acknowledging the history and significance that precedes you—especially if you’re of white European descent. Be thoughtful about your choices and seek out tools that belong to your personal heritage, too.

SETTING INTENTIONS

Intention is everything. For the practices within these pages, as well as many things in life, having an intention or purpose behind what you’re doing can help you get the most out of your experience. The point of an intention is to get to the heart of what you want and why.

A few questions to guide you to your intention could be: Why do I want to do x? How do I want to feel? What would help me feel that way? What am I trying to heal?

Different to goals, which often focus on getting something tangible, intentions are about having things feel a certain way. An intention is something that can anchor your practice or a cycle and help you remember your why. If you can get clear on your intention before creating a ritual, spell, or project of any kind, your experience will be richer and the result more powerful.

HEALING

Healing is a way of coming back to who we are at our core in an emotional and spiritual way. Healing is an ongoing process of learning to love all parts of ourselves and live in alignment with our core self. It can look like letting go of regret, resentment, or past hurt and welcoming in more love and acceptance of ourselves and others. Healing is a difficult process, full of contraction, expansion, heavy emotions, and realizations, but it’s the single most rewarding gift we can give ourselves. We’re all at various states of healing at all times, and may never be fully healed, but learning how to become consciously engaged in your own healing is when magic starts to happen.

How to use this book

Most of us don’t have the time or the means for a complicated 2-hour morning routine that includes every crystal, tonic, and exercise. Instead, I offer these ideas to you in ways that are easy to include in your life and don’t feel forced. They aim to be:

Quick: Most of these exercises and practices will require 30 minutes or less of your time and can be made shorter or longer depending on what you want. The Jump In sections are there to help you take action when you feel inspired to start using a modality in the moment.

Adaptable: If something doesn’t work for you or feel quite right, skip it. The Create Your Own Ritual sections will encourage you to make it your own. Take what you like, and leave the rest. Learn as you go and don’t take on too much at once.

Affordable: There will be some things that you might have to buy if you’re interested in using them, like a Tarot deck, herbs for making infusions, or a candle here and there—but most items used in this book will be relatively inexpensive or free.

Think of the chapters and the practices within them like a menu for you to choose from in different seasons of your life and throughout the year. These methods and tools are intended to help you on your magical self-care journey, not to overwhelm you. There’s no need to work through the book in order or do everything in it. There’s likely one or two things that will really intrigue you—start there and keep an open mind to the rest.

A few other things I’ve included for each chapter:

RECIPES

Our intuition lives in our body, so when we hydrate and feed our bodies well, we nurture our intuition by extension. I’ve included wholesome, nourishing recipes in each chapter to ground magical rituals in something physical and to support our connection to our core self.

Our power is rooted in our sense of worthiness, and one way we can practice self-worth is to lovingly prepare meals for ourselves. Magical food is food made with intention that brings you joy and satisfaction. My hope is that you will cook things you love (whether that’s my recipes or something else) as part of self-care.

TAROT REFLECTIONS

The three-card Tarot spreads included in each chapter serve as a point of reflection that can help us deepen our understanding of a subject or how we can work with it in a more personal way. Simply shuffle your deck and think of each question while you pull a card. Write down your responses and initial reactions to each card and how it relates to your question. Listen to and explore your intuitive responses. If Tarot isn’t your thing, these questions can also be used as journaling prompts.

RESOURCES

This book is a jumping-off point to help you find and dive into the practices that are the most beneficial, healing, and magical for you. The resources section on pages 139–140 is full of teachers that I’ve learned from. It can help you learn more through books, online courses, podcasts, Instagram posts, newsletters, and more.

My intention for this book is that it supports and guides those interested in awakening to their power, cultivating a kinder relationship with themselves, and choosing to see their lives as successive moments of magic.

Chapter 1

Embracing the Feminine

Regardless of our gender, we all possess the feminine and masculine within us. But more often than not, we tend to be rewarded for the more masculine expressions of ourselves and we’ve learned to ignore or override our feminine traits.

For years I tried to suppress my sensitive, introverted, and emotional nature. This manifested in me drinking excessively to calm and quiet my internal world. My emotions bubbled over uncontrollably, and I experienced the ebb and flow of anxiety and depression. I didn’t ask for anything, not wanting to appear needy. As a result, I shut people out, struggled to find fulfilling work, and always felt like I was searching for a missing piece that would make me feel happy. Things only began to turn around for me when I acknowledged the feminine piece that had been a part of me the whole time.

When we finally accept our whole self—especially the parts we’ve rejected—we can show up authentically and start to make magic happen. The strongest way to start this journey to healing through magical self-care is by embracing the feminine—to heal our relationship with it, become whole again, and appreciate and embody the parts of ourselves that are more intuitive, internal, and wild.

Feminine and Masculine

Before we dive deep into the feminine side of life, nature, and healing, let’s get clear on some distinctions and definitions. I use the terms feminine and masculine because I resonate with them, but I understand that this duality isn’t for everyone.

The terms feminine and masculine are beyond gender, but they often bring up polarizations that some people don’t jive with. I include Yin and Yang as maybe not perfect, but closely related and helpful, alternatives.

I think of the feminine as an embodiment of Mother Nature. She nurtures, holds, provides, and accepts, but can show her strength, beauty, and force in powerful and overwhelming ways. She rolls with the seasons and changes with grace, patience, and receptive energy.

Embracing the feminine is about knowing your unique worth and multifaceted power and working with it in a positive way.

The rise of the feminine

Because we live in a society that values the masculine more than the feminine, we’ve been rewarded and conditioned over time to focus on the masculine qualities of productivity, output, action, and independence. And, as a consequence, we’ve systematically undermined the feminine traits of feeling, receptivity, and interconnectedness. We’ve shut down our channel to the gut feelings and heartfelt emotions that live in our bodies.

Collectively, we’re ready to turn on our feminine wisdom and intuitive powers and let them help us, which is why all things witchy are coming to the fore. We’re shifting out of the masculine-dominated structure to one that incorporates the feminine and seeks a balance and merging of the two.

Why embrace the feminine?

The short answer: to find a better balance in our lives and step into our full power.

While fully embracing the feminine—both within ourselves and out in the world—is a key component of magical self-care, we are ultimately seeking balance between the two. We need both feminine and masculine to be working together in harmony. When we look at the Yin and Yang black-and-white symbol (see opposite), we see the two parts perfectly in balance, a little of the other in each, and meant to fit together.

Forget striving for work/life balance, we should instead seek feminine/masculine balance by finding ways to uncover and work with our feminine side on a daily basis. By nurturing the Yin qualities that we all possess, but which are often underused, we’ll begin to find a harmony between the two. When we wake up to the feminine within ourselves, we will be able to realize our full power and creativity as beings on this planet.

With a balance of feminine and masculine you are in flow with your work and life, and acting out of alignment rather than obligation and living out your purpose. It’s both giving and receiving in equal measure—filling yourself up so that you can help others.

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MASCULINE AND FEMININE

Masculine/Yang

Feminine/Yin

Qualities

Refers to the external—action, productivity, rationality, logic, structure, motivation, expression, output, stability, the hustle, and independence

Refers to the internal—intuition, deep feeling, creativity, interconnectedness, cycles, openness, self-worth, wildness, and receptivity

Elements

Fire and air: communication, mental sharpness, ideas, follow-through, dynamic action

Earth and Water: being grounded, emotions, instinct, feelings, soul purpose, nurturing, embodiment

Body

Solar plexus and throat

Heart and gut

Reaction

Speaking

Listening

Cosmic connection

Sun

Moon

JUMP IN: Embracing the feminine in your everyday life

Embracing the feminine doesn’t have to be all goddess circles, chanting to Kali, or looking at your vulva with a hand mirror (but you totally should if any of those pique your interest). There are plenty of everyday grounded ways to get more in step with our feminine.

   Getting enough rest

   Drinking plenty of water

   Nourishing your body with good food

   Feeling your feelings

   Honoring the cycles of your body

   Having a daily pleasure practice

   Focusing on the five senses

   Asking your intuition questions

   Meditating to quiet the ego and overactive brain

   Breathing intentionally

   Movement, such as hip circles, dance, and stretching

   Sex magic

Honoring your Body

To get in touch with our energy and wisdom, we must honor our body’s needs first and foremost. We must give ourselves enough rest, good food, and water to not only function, but thrive. Nurture yourself by asking your body what it needs and really listen to what it is telling you. It’s often the simplest things that we need the most. When the body feels properly fed, watered, and rested, it’s easier for us to connect to our intuition. That’s why I’ve included recipes in this book—being nourished helps us lay the foundation for hearing our intuition more clearly.

Ask your intuition questions

Your intuition lives in your body, not your rational brain, so your gut or heart are great places to direct your queries. It can be hard to quiet the mind enough to hear an intuitive response, but it can help to start by picturing where your intuition lives.

The main difference between the brain and the intuition is that the intuition is felt. It feels like a knowing and is calmer and quieter than the brain. The brain can often be wrapped up in fear or comparison, so watch out for words and phrases like “should,” “need to,” or “have to”—these are all clear indicators that the response is coming from your brain. Try meditating or moving your body to clear some space for your intuition to come through, and don’t rush or force it.

Intuition answers come quickly and simply, almost like a reflex. Start by training the intuition muscle with simple questions like: “Shall I wear the red or white sweater today?” / “What shall I make for dinner tonight?” / “What route do I want to take to walk home?” Note your first response to these questions and what it feels like when you hear it. Build up to the trickier questions from there.

Feel your feelings

When an emotion arises—good, bad, or neutral—can you just let yourself be with it? Try to avoid finding whys or immediately attempting to fix it. Instead, simply observe it. You can try greeting it if that’s helpful, with something like: “Oh hey frustration, I see you’ve showed up again today—that’s cool.”