Please Don't Do This in 2025
Part 1: What Self-Care is Not
Greetings friend,
Blessed holy-days! Today I’m beginning a six-part series on true self-care for 2025 (true self-care is not what you think, most likely). All subscribers will receive the full writings; paid subscribers receive additional bonus material and a zoom session on Sunday, February 9th, plus a copy of the PDF version of the self-care writings in one pretty digital package.
Note: if you could use a love note mailed to you: see below : )
Let’s dive in! I’d love to hear your comments and shares throughout the series.
Would you rather listen than read? Here you go!
Self-care is a circle, not a line.
Self-care is not about just bubble baths, vacations, or even about creating more ease in your life, though that is definitely a part of self care.
Self-care is not selfishness, or avoidance.
Self-care is not a destination.
What is self-care?
Self-care is self-intimacy.
Self-care is a sacred container.
Self-care is clarity, coziness, care, and courage.
Self-care is a circle of self-love.
Start with yourself in the middle of this circle. All of you. Not the you you wish you were, or the you of yesterday. The you of right now.
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Say to yourself:
Hi sweetheart. I am here.
Put your hands on your heart. Breathe. Say it again:
Hi, sweetheart.
I. Am. Here.
Claim this center space, this moment, this being.
Right here, right now.
Let your self-care be informed by you, as you are now.
Self-care doesn't have an end, or a beginning. It is, like you are.
Self-care is how you embrace who you are, and how you bring forward the best in this being, action by action, day by day.
Self-care opens the way for inspiration, delight, bravery, and sustainable caring for others.
Self-care opens the way for authentic giving and gracious recieving.
Self-care is a verb that when done fully, includes the entire world.
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Self-care is a circle.
Over the next four weeks I'll share the four elements of self-care that anchor a new way of being.
Come into the circle, and let's deepen into self-care together.
The four aspects of true self-care are:
Air: Clear vision, clarity, and structures
Fire: Cozy nourishment, rest, and renewal
Water: Creative flow, maintenance, and commitment
Earth: Courageous boundaries, doing challenging things
Air: Clear vision, clarity, and structures
Self-care requires having a clear vision and the discipline and structures to focus on what you really want
Fire: Cozy nourishment, rest, and renewal
Without the warmth of good rest and receiving beauty we can burn out and become brittle.
Water: Creative flow, maintenance, and commitment
So much of our days are really about maintaining things over time; here our self-care becomes a ceremony rather than drudgery.
Earth: Courageous boundaries, doing challenging things
This is one of the most important parts of true self-care: moving past resistance, procrastination, and fear to COMPLETE HARD THINGS!
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Self-Care Exercise #1
On a piece of a paper or in your journal draw a heart or a sun or a spiral in the center of the page. a symbol that represents you
Then draw a circle around the outside.
In the four cardinal points around the circle write:
Courage
Care Clear
Cozy
Ask yourself these four questions and write the answers on your paper:
Clear: What would you do if you had more time?
Cozy: What truly nourishes you?
Care: Name a task you do every single day
Courage: Name one challenging thing you want to do
Pick one of these to do, or to start, today. Be mindful that your action is a form of self-care. Notice how that awareness changes how you take the action.
Over the next week do, or start, the rest of your self-care actions
Share in the comments below what action(s) you are committing to take this week : )
Want a postcard of the sun and moon cycles for 2025?
For those of you in the United States: I’m happy to send this postcard and a love note to you; just hit reply and share your snail mail address with me. (Not in the States or want a digital version? See below! Including a new black & white option.)
A pretty one-page download of the Equinoxes, Solstices, and Cross-Quarter days, and New Moons.Â
When we shift out of the limitations of linear thinking, which is often based in judgment and force, we open into compassionate discernment and flow. Aligning with the cycles helps us release either / or thinking and embrace contradictions and chaos as invitations for change and deeper clarity.
Download your one page 2025 Seasons & Cycles calendar (color or black & white versions below)
If you’d like to know where and what I’ll be teaching in 2025, here is my schedule
Hi there! For those of you who are new here: I'm HeatherAsh Amara, author of nine books including the bestselling Warrior Goddess Training series.
I used to believe that self-care was making everyone else around me happy. If others were happy, I was safe, a "good girl."
I also used to believe that there was not time for caring for my self: there was work to do, the world to save.
As you can imagine, I was exhausted, frustrated, and judgmental.
In the early 2000’s the crack in my life of self-harm, self-judgment, and self-denial kept widening, no matter how much I tried to scotch tape, and later duct tape, it together.
I realized that my beautiful, heart-centered, visionary business was fraught with tension, stress, and fear.
And I was at the center of it.
Damn.
I wanted to make it everyone else's fault. But when I got quiet and told myself the truth, I recognized that my way of relating to myself and others was hurting myself and others.
I needed to change.
The ironic thing about this time of my life is that I had just self-published my first book, which was called The Four Elements of Change. (Now published through Hierophant Publishing as A Little Book of Big Freedom: Discover the Four Elements of Transformation)
So I leaned into my own writing,
I lived on the road for a year searching for new ways of doing work and life.
I ended up writing a book called Sacred Time Management (now published through Hierophant Publishing as Awaken Your Inner Fire: Ignite Your Passion, Find Your Purpose, and Create the Life That You Love)
Both of these early books of mine have morphed and deepened, and are the basis for this series of self-care.
Along with a lot more living.
Today, I'm centered in self-love, rather than self-judgment. I laugh at myself regularly. I know how to redirect, guide, support myself. My self-care is not about trying to control other people or avoid conflict at all cost. My self-care is not about being perfect or shaming others for doing it wrong. It’s about dancing between being cozy and challenging myself, between honing more clear structures and learning to flow.
I’m so happy to share this new vision of self-care with you.
Next week: Clear: Structures and Visioning
Blessings,
HeatherAsh
