Valentine's Day is typically a day dedicated to celebrating love and affection between intimate partners, but it's important not to forget about the most important love of all - self-love. In today's fast-paced and demanding world, it can be easy to neglect our own needs and desires, but taking time to prioritize self-care and self-love is essential for our overall well-being.

Self-love refers to a positive and caring attitude towards oneself, recognizing and accepting one's own worth and value. It involves treating oneself with kindness, compassion, and respect, and it is the foundation of a healthy and fulfilling life. When we love ourselves, we are more confident, resilient, and able to handle life's challenges.

Here are some ways to cultivate self-love and celebrate yourself this Valentine's Day:

1. Practice self-care. Self-care is an essential component of self-love, and it involves taking time to care for your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. This can include...

Healing through creativity helps you to explore your emotions, improve self-esteem, manage addictions, relieve stress, improve symptoms of anxiety and depression, and cope with a physical illness or disability.

"Creativity healed me. I don’t know that I could think of any word that I get more inspired by than the word healing." -SARK

Research shows that being creative can improve well-being by increasing positive emotions and decreasing negative emotions. It shows that creativity can reduce depression, stress and anxiety, and improve our ability to express difficult emotions such as grief and sadness.

Being creative gives us opportunities to try out new ideas, and new ways of thinking and problem-solving. Creative activities help us acknowledge and celebrate our own uniqueness and diversity. Creativity encourages self-expression, a way to create something from personal feelings and experiences.

Studies also show that creating stimulates the release of dopamine. This chemical...

The holidays are an interesting time. It can be a time of joy, excitement, and anticipation. It can also be stressful. 

Add to that the fact that you still resent what Uncle Bill did last Christmas, and the possibility that your cousin might have Covid-19, and the holidays just got even more stressful. 

Holidays can also be expensive! The cost of gifts, travel, and extra food can really add up in a hurry. 

Keep these tips in mind to help reduce holiday stress: 

1. Take time for family and friends. This may look very different this year, maybe it is zoom calls or phone calls. Maybe it is sending a letter or card. Keeping others in mind can help us as well.

2. Get some sun. The days are shorter in the northern hemisphere during the winter months. Many people are sensitive to not getting enough sunlight. Sit by a window with good sun exposure and get all the sunlight you can for an hour each day. You’ll feel less stressed. Use the time to read a book or make...

There’s just no way around it: betrayals hurt. Whether you’ve been betrayed by a partner or a friend, it’s difficult to recover. 

There is good news however, there are things you can do to help speed up your recovery so you can move on with your life and even start looking forward to a brighter future. 

So how can you heal your heart, body, and spirit after a betrayal? 

These strategies will help: 

1. Recognize the betrayal. You might try to block out the betrayal so you don’t have to think about it. However, it’s healthier to accept the betrayal and deal with it.

    Trying to ignore a betrayal traps everything inside you and can stop you from healing.

    It’s important to address the issues and learn to manage them. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. You’ll learn to move past the betrayal, especially if you take action to help heal yourself.

2. Forgive yourself and others. Forgiveness is...

When someone has wronged you, forgiveness may be the last thing on your mind. You’re convinced they deserve all the anger and hostility you can muster. However, forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself. Does your anger harm the other person? In most cases, the other person just stays away. 

Holding a grudge is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Forgiveness is the healthy and logical choice for several reasons: 

1.     Living in the past steals your present and taints your future. A great future requires an attentive present. That’s not possible if you’re living in the past. Life is happening right now in this moment. Every moment spent in the past is lost forever. Reclaim your life by forgiving and moving on.
2.     Failing to forgive creates misery. Creating and maintaining negative thoughts doesn’t feel good. Pleasant thoughts support a pleasant mood. By refusing to forgive the person that wronged you,...

Why is self-respect so important? 

When you have self-respect, you actually fully love yourself. You love yourself for who you are on the inside and not just because of what you do, what you look like, or what you're capable of. When you have self-respect, you take pride in who you are and you know that you’re valuable. 

On the flipside, without self-respect, it’s difficult to have honesty, confidence, and integrity. Instead, a person without self-respect may feel the emotions of anger, guilt, blame, shame, or regret, and they sport secretive behavior because deep down they feel unworthy. Beyond that, if you can’t respect yourself, how can you respect others and how can others respect you? 

Putting Your Needs First 

Too many people put the needs of others before their own. Although this is admirable, in order to respect and serve others, you need to meet your own physical and emotional needs first. Meeting your own needs first is an important...

Many people feel that when they take time for themselves that they are being selfish, but it’s just not true. Self care is vital for us to continue to care for others and all our responsibilities.

How to know if you are being selfish or not?  You would think we would not need to ask this question, however in this day and age it is even more important. Our culture (especially for women) is to do for others. We are expected to do it all and do it with a smile on our face. But this would be why we have so much overwhelm, anxiety and depression, because it is just not possible to do everything without also doing for ourselves.

So how do you know if you are being selfish or not?

Selfishness never brings joy, peace, or love, it creates an inner and outer experience of isolation and loneliness. It does not create an opportunity to share, nurture, or serve. Selfishness is a choice to always think only of your needs and desires. 

Self-care chooses to respect your inner...

Tomorrow is the launch of the Creative Soul Healing Podcast. Where we interview creatives, healers, and people who have healed with the help of creativity.

Our first episode features Kriket, a Shaman from Edmonton, Canada. 

Kriket has been practicing Shamanism in Edmonton for almost 25 years. She practices the Medicine of her Grandmother and family from Finland. Her interest in stories and Myths from around the world sparked when she began to experience shamanic trances. She shared her intense desire to learn and teach through a shamanic drumming circle she led for 15 years. During this time she listened intently to the journeys of others, reporting their visual and visceral experiences they had when entranced with the sound of the drum. Common themes, symbols and mythological beings, were a constant in her own experiences, as well as experiences shared with her during drumming circles and classes she taught. 

In her quest to better understand the shamanic visionary world,...