Wellness
A Psychic Gave Me The Self-Care Secrets I Never Knew I Needed
Let me start off by making something clear: I am not and have never been a spiritual person. I rarely, if ever, dabble with things that I don’t understand. I’m also a Virgo, which means I’m a natural-born skeptic and the official judger of all things that can be judged.
But I was raised by a mother who is very deeply tethered to her spirituality. And after unexpectedly losing a close relative this year, something shifted for me. I really wanted to focus more attention on strengthening the bond between my mother and me. Because spirituality was something that is so significant to her, I gave myself a challenge to open myself up a bit more to her world.
It seemed wise to start with something that felt accessible and low stakes. I have been on a deeply fulfilling journey to revolutionize my self-care over the past year, so when I discovered the concept of ‘spiritual wellness,’ I was intrigued. Then, when I was offered an opportunity to meet with a psychic advisor from Keen — an online platform that provides services like psychic readings, tarot, and even career guidance — I saw it as the perfect opportunity to learn how I can infuse spirituality into my evolving self-care routine.
Fast-forward to last week, when I sat down with Keen’s Alison Shine for an enlightening — not to mention educational — session. It was a truly eye-opening experience to explore a side of my self-care that I hadn’t yet discovered. Keep scrolling for what I learned about incorporating spiritual wellness into my self-care routine.
And if you find yourself curious about spiritual self-care, you can look through Keen’s extensive list of advisors to find your best match.
1. Start Small
As I said before, I am a Virgo, which means I love to plan. I have since I was a kid. And my advisor picked up on that right away: “Ever since you were little you have had big dreams and big goals,” she told me. “You stepped into this world feeling like ‘I have a mission. Let's get started.’” And guess what? She was right.
This ambition can be spiritually debilitating, often leaving people so committed to a goal that they forget to take a breath and assess how they’re actually feeling. Alison suggested that I start checking in with myself daily. This, she said, will prevent me from getting to a place where I’am panicking and on edge because I’ve neglected my self-care for long periods of time in pursuit of my goals.
“When it comes to spiritual self care, it’s really important to be doing something every day — small, but consistent — because the key with our energetic wellness is creating a sense of momentum,” Alison explained.
For me, this can mean giving myself a period of 30 minutes when I wake up to relax with a cup of tea and my phone on Do Not Disturb, or even taking a break during my work day to lay down with my eyes closed and just decompress.
2. Follow What Feels Good
I’ve always relied on the opinions of friends and family, and as a result, it’s been a struggle for me to trust my intuition. So it makes sense that during my reading, my spirit guides were telling my advisor that I need to “follow what feels good and not just listen to what people tell you.”
This was really powerful to hear, especially after the year I’ve had. In the past 12 months, I’ve switched jobs three times. I wasn’t ever sure if I was making the right decision, but it felt good to follow my gut. Allowing myself to really listen to and embrace my emotions, Alison said, would be freeing. She sensed I had a strong connection to writing and suggested I start a journal where I could document what I’m grateful for, with no added expectation.
“When people think of journaling, oftentimes they want to write down the perfect thing in the right way,” she said. “I always say, just let the pen flow. Maybe that day you want to write about your feelings, maybe you want to write about gratitude, but be natural with it and just know that if you're doing something every day, it's going to make you feel afloat. It's going to make you feel more connected to your inner being.”
3. Learn To Say No
In the past, you could say I was a bit of a ‘yes woman.’ With an interest in supporting as many people as I could and wanting to be perceived as a nice person, I was always prone to say yes without really thinking about the repercussions of my actions.
“Sometimes one of the biggest forms of self-care is saying no,” Alison told me during my reading. “It doesn't have to be a mean thing. It's just putting a limit on what you know is bringing you down because you can't share your light and gifts with other people if you're drained and depleted.” This was the most important lesson that I took from my reading. I say yes to things all the time without even realizing it, often at the expense of my mental and spiritual wellbeing. Alison reminded me that there’s nothing wrong with putting myself and my wellness first.
Now, I feel a lot more comfortable telling my friends that I’m not in the mood to grab a few drinks after a long day of work or spend a full Saturday at the beach because TBH, I just want to stay home and relax on the couch.
As our session came to an end, I felt an enormous weight lifted from my shoulders. It was empowering to have someone say a lot of the things I’ve been scared to say myself out loud. Hopefully, as I continue to explore my practice of spiritual self-care, I’ll be less afraid to speak up and more inclined to lean into what feels right.
