Well hey there! I hope you’re doing well.
As a coach, I work with clients to pursue and attract. It’s the push/pull, yin yang of forward motion.
As you may know, I’ve written a couple books. My first were traditionally published cookbooks, You Can Trust A Skinny Cook and Lighten Up, America! A few years ago I self-published the Amazon bestseller Personal (R)evolution, and was turned it into a podcast course in partnership with the podcast platform Himalaya. Good, fun work!
Early this year I was approached by a publisher to collaborate on a self-care book. To be perfectly honest, I was all, “No. I’m not a bubble bath, champagne, mani/pedi gal. Self care and affirmations, that ain’t me. I’m more of a work hard / play hard. Thank you, next.”
And before I moved forward with my bias, I took a breath and researched self-care.
The concept was popularized in the 1950s to help people with disabilities take ownership of health basics. By empowering people to put their own physical and mental health needs first, they could be healthier.
In the eighties, Black activist and poet Audra Lorde, considered self care as a political act. She famously wrote, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare,” in A Burst of Light: and Other Essays.
The World Health Organization has an initiative on self care, and considers it an empowering part of physical and mental health care. They have increased the promotion of self-care during Covid when care is needed and health services are stretched.
With that perspective, self-care is something I can get behind. Self-care is real, it makes sense, it is empowering to the individual.
So I said yes to the publisher. The book will come out in August 2021. My goal is to bring self-care back from the materialistic abyss it’s fallen into and return it to the powerful place it belongs.
Here’s where you come in. In this book, I will be offering simple self care prompts, quotes, affirmations (yes, I’ve even been converted to the power of affirmations, blame Louise Hay), and exercises.
Do you have any quotes or activities that you use and love for self-care? Real self care, the empowering kind? If so, I’d love to hear about them. If I use your idea, I will credit you in the acknowledgements and with a free copy of my book.
Catch ya at the crystal store ;-),
Allison
