Are You Feeding Your Soul?

You feed your body every day…

… to sustain optimal performance.

… to enjoy the taste of foods you love.

… to maintain physical health.

… to provide yourself comfort and support.

Feeding our bodies is crucial to healthy living, but why do we not put the same importance on feeding our mental and spiritual selves?

It’s not selfish to love yourself, take care of yourself, and to make your happiness a priority. It’s necessary.

Mandy Hale

Soul Food: A Definition

Just like our physical bodies, our minds also need care to sustain optimal performance and maintain our mental health. Our mind needs for us to provide it with “food” that is laced with pleasure, full of comfort, or meant to offer up a bit of support.

Our minds need to be fed, too. Both mentally and spiritually.

We need to give ourselves soul food.

Soul Food (noun): the food that nourishes our mental and spiritual selves; the acts or things that ignite pleasure, bring us peace, or reduce our suffering; the ways we care for our mental health

Jackie Vermaat, LPC

How to Feed Your Soul

A common misconception is that self care or our soul food needs to be this extravagant, luxurious event that costs more than most of us can afford.

While it certainly can include luxury and extravagance, soul food may be just savoring the little things or making space for “me time” during the day.

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25 Soul Food Ideas to Kick-Start your Self-Care Practice:

• Take a 10-15 minute walk to break up your workday or unwind after your day.
• Grab coffee or lunch with a friend this week.
• Reserve an hour of your time to read a book or watch an episode of your latest TV show.
• Commit to sleeping a solid 7 hours a night (or the amount that works best for you).
• Reward yourself for completing small tasks. This may be a treat (hello, Starbucks!), something small you would like (maybe a new book), or even allowing yourself a couple moments of “free time” (yes, you can give yourself 15 minutes of mindless social media scrolling).
• Try a new exercise class or routine. Yoga, crossfit, kickboxing, pilates, HIIT, cycling… The health and fitness industry is saturated with all types of styles of exercise to fit your needs! Don’t want to spend money on a class? Try Youtubing a routine!
• Find a podcast that captures your attention. Listen to it when you are driving, doing household chores, or need a minute to decompress!
• Embrace your spiritual self (i.e., go to church, find a spiritual group, pray, meditate). Whatever spirituality means to you, find space to nurture that part of you.
• Make a Spotify or Apple Music playlist based on your current mood. You can refer back to it later for some bonus soul food!
• Spend time with the people you love. If you aren’t close enough to visit, call them!
• Create a journal. Not into carrying a paper journal around with you? Check out apps like DayOne, Journey, and Life Journal.
• Identify THREE goals that you would like to accomplish every day. No more, no less. Keep it manageable, but also hold yourself accountable.
• Tap into your creativity. Create something, paint, use an adult coloring book, decorate (or redecorate) your space, or start a DIY project.
• Write your favorite quotes and inspirational messages on sticky notes. Stick them all over your space! 
• Take a bath. Don’t have time for a bath? Take an extended shower. Enjoy the heat of the water as it soothes your body.
• Find a new hobby… or pick up an old one!
• Walk somewhere you can sit and watch the sunset.
• Take a 20 – 30 minute nap to recharge your batteries.
• Choose a safe time to give yourself an emotional outlet. Need to sing? Belt out those notes. Need to dance? Move your body. Need to cry? Let the tears flow. Need to scream? That’s okay, too. Let all those bottled up emotions be FREE.
• Challenge yourself.
• Spend 5 – 10 minutes caught up in your daydreams or fantasies.
• Join a new club or find a class that interests you in town. Apps like MeetUp and Facebook can be used specifically for finding local clubs, classes, and social events!
• Put a little extra time into your morning routine to make yourself feel good and ready to tackle the day!
• Take a minute to catch up on the latest from your favorite blogger, artist, youtuber, or streamer.
• HUGS. Whether they are from your pets, a human that you love, or person you just met, sometimes a little bit of contact can make a huge difference in our day.

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Share Your Soul Food

The 25 listed above just scratch the surface of the soul food possibilities. In the upcoming weeks, I will be sharing more ideas, tips, and tricks to help you find what feeds your soul and build your self-care practice.

Do you have any suggestions or your own soul food that you would like to share? Comment or message me – Let me know what feeds your soul!