Spiritual Self-Care: An Exploration of How Spirituality Shapes Holistic Self-Care Practice

Abstract

The second commandment instructs to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30–31, New International Version); this declaration implies loving the self is a necessary prerequisite of loving others. Self-care is behaviour designed to promote self-love and foster overall health and wellbeing. The benefits of tending to physical and mental health are typically understood. Spiritual self-care, however, is often ambiguously conceived outside of mainstream religious practices. Recent statistics report that more Canadians are aligning with an individualized spirituality as opposed to religion. This growing demographic of individualized spiritual seekers may be interested to learn about the myriad ways to tend to spiritual health beyond religious practices, particularly since research is suggesting that spiritual self-care can assuage many of the afflictions plaguing Western culture today. The field of psychotherapy may also benefit from gaining insight into the ways spiritual self-care can promote holistic health and wellness in both the therapist and the client. This inquiry was designed to explore the ways that four co-researchers conceive of spirituality and practice spiritual self-care as part of a holistic self-care regimen. Interpretive phenomenological analysis methodology was used to explore the ways the co-researchers make meaning of their experiences with spirituality. The findings suggest that engaging in spiritual self-care practices offer unique benefit to promoting overall health and wellness. For this reason, psychotherapists are well served to incorporate spiritual self-care into both personal and professional practice.