Self-care is sold today as the cure for whatever ails us. Stressed? Self-care. Burnt out? Self-care. Tired? Self-care. We are told that a face mask, a bubble bath, a drink, or a pint of ice cream is self-care. In fact, self-care is big business with Americans spending on average $110 a month on it. The witch is no stranger to capitalism and all it entails. Magic and witchcraft has its own problem with commodification, especially with regards to things like crystals, altar decorations, spell components and more. Thus primed to spend money, witches might see the price tag on self-care items and think to themselves, “sounds reasonable.”
However, self-care, in general, and for the witch in particular, doesn’t have to cost anything. In fact, I argue that the kind of self-care that witches should engage in doesn’t require anything more than their bodies, their attention and their will. To that end I’m writing here about the kind of self-care available to witches that costs nothing. The added benefit in engaging in the following practices is that you’ll find your magic benefits from them. In this way you are not only building resilience in yourself but you are strengthening your magical muscles.
The self-care activities that most benefit the witch are:
- grounding
- centering
- cleansing
- protection spellwork
Start with the Self-Care Basics
The following four self-care activities require nothing more than your time and attention. They’re easy to perform and can be mastered in a matter of days. Once you’ve gotten the hang of them, you can do them daily, weekly and monthly as part of your regular self-care routine.
Grounding
When feeling overwhelmed, stressed out, anxious, or otherwise out of sorts, grounding can help you get back to a place of calm and peace. The technique, once you’ve mastered it, can be done in a minute or less. Mastery doesn’t take long, and the more you practice it, the better you become at it.
Grounding at least once a day is like giving yourself a metaphysical and emotional flush. You push all those emotions and feelings that are bothering you into the earth. Then you pull up positive energies to fill you up. If you want to learn more about grounding, you can read my blog post here, “The Witch’s Guide to Grounding.”
Centering
Today’s society has us constantly outside of our heads and bodies. We spend so much time worried about what others think of us, or caught up in the news, or so focused on work that we don’t eat. This keeps us from noticing when our bodies need rest. Centering brings our awareness back to our bodies, and reminds us that we are, in the words of Chuck Wendig, a magical skeleton.
Centering is another one of those self-care practices that don’t take long to master, and can be done in as little as 30 seconds. You can work a body scan into your centering to better understand what your body is telling you. To do the body scan you bring your attention to different parts of your body and just notice what is going on there, without any judgement. If you want to know more about how to center, check out my block post “The Witch’s Guide to Centering.”
Engage in centering on a daily basis for the most benefit. Once you’ve gotten practiced at it, you’ll find that it becomes a habit.
Cleansing
Cleansing, as in energetic and magical cleansing, not washing your physical body, is especially important self-care for the witch. Witches work with all manner of energies, they also attract magic, attention and energies from different entities. Because of this, having a regular cleansing practice helps to keep the witch metaphysically healthy.
You can use any number of methods to cleanse yourself: sound, smoke, water, etc. The point is to find a type of cleansing that works for you and engage in it on a daily basis. At the very least, cleansing when you return to your home from work, school or other extended outing will help to keep you from bringing in unwanted, negative or malicious energies that might have attached to you. It is the magical equivalent to wiping your feet before going in doors.
Play around with different types of cleansing to find one that works for you and then get in the habit of doing it daily.
Protection Spells
This practice goes hand-in-hand with the cleansing self-care above. A regular protection practice is necessary to ward you from those negative or unwanted energies from attaching to you in the first place. Protective amulets, talismans, spell pouches, and more are all used to protect the witch. But you don’t need all that to protect yourself, you can engage in a simple bubble shield.
To create a bubble shield around you, stand with your feet about shoulder width apart, hands at your side. Now visualize a bubble of white light all around you, about six to twelve inches away from your body. See any energies outside of the bubble being unable to get through to you. You can even “program” the bubble with the duty of not allowing anything into it that could harm or negatively affect you. Keep this visualization up for a few seconds.
Once you have a strong sense of the bubble around you, let the visualization fade. Know that the bubble is always there, protecting you. You’ll need to renew this protective bubble regularly, weekly if not daily.
However, you decide to magically protect yourself, make it a regular practice. You can engage in it once a week, as part of your self-care routine. Mix protective herbs into your bath, or charge crystals under the light of the full moon and then place them around your home. If you want more information on how to protect your home, check out my Magical Home Protection course.
Bonus Self-Care Activities
There are two other activities you can engage in to further your self-care routine: getting out into nature and performing an altar tidy.
Touch Grass
There have been all sorts of studies that have shown that getting out into nature is beneficial in multiple ways. Doing so reduces stress, enhances brain function, and increases creativity. While walking in the woods has the greatest effect, even just watching fish swimming in a tank or watering your houseplants gives you a connection to nature.
Make sure you are making time to get in touch with something natural. At least a half an hour a week should be spent outside at a park, in the woods, or just in your own yard. Even walking around the block can give you benefits. If you can’t get outside, talk to your plants while you dust their leaves, or play with your pets. Doing so helps you get out of your head and leave your worries behind, even for a little while.
Tidy Your Altar
This is the part of self-care that I struggle with the most. But as a witch, I know that if my altar is covered in dust, or full of dead plants, then my magic is stymied. Take a couple of minutes to give your altar a dusting, clear out any old offerings, scrape off the candle wax, throw away the incense ash, and refresh the flowers. The rest of your house might be a mess, but at least you have a clean altar, ready for work. The act of cleaning up the altar can help with your mental and emotional health.
Despite our capitalistic society’s penchant for turning everything into a money-making scheme, self-care doesn’t have to cost a cent. And as a witch, the techniques covered above are more beneficial to your overall mental and magical health than all the green smoothies in the world. Don’t let the number of practices overwhelm you. Start with one or two and work them into your day-to-day life. Once you’ve mastered them, you can move on to another. The idea is that they are supposed to work together to help you take better care of yourself.
Breathe. Visualize. And know that you are a magical skeleton that just needs to take care of yourself.