Routines for Self-Care (with Tarot, Astrology, and More)
Today marks the end of my fifth week in quarantine! All this time spent at home has made me consider the idea of routines and how they have helped ground, center, and calm me over the last 35 days.
Self-care is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot and its ubiquity has probably watered down its meaning.
But I don’t think there’s any shame in bringing self-care back—especially these days. The world is having such a tough go at it, if there was ever time we needed to take care of ourselves, it’s now.
Caring for yourself doesn’t just involve bubble baths and mani-pedis (although those feel great). It means doing tough work too—dealing with thoughts and emotions that aren’t the greatest, confronting issues that make you squirm, and calling yourself out when you know that the permissive behavior you’ve been indulging is just not good.
Carving out routines for myself has been the bedrock of my self-care these last couple of weeks.
Creating structure in my days—especially when I want to just lay around and snooze—has helped me keep my prana (life force!) moving, my breath more whole, my mind a lot clearer, and my emotions more manageable. Routines have always been a source of comfort to me (even before this pandemic started) because I work freelance. And as many of you probably know by now, having free reign of your time 24/7 can leave you feeling a little nutty. I’m glad I was able to hone my routine-making skills before covid-19 happened. Intentionally setting structure to mornings, afternoons, and evenings has really helped me keep it together.
Incorporating tarot and astrology into my everyday routine has added a much-needed layer of self-awareness to my days too.
I came up with a video that walks you through different parts of my routine! For the more text-inclined, I’ve included bullet points and a couple of extra pointers too.
Tarot and Astrology Practices
Drawing a tarot card every morning. You can use this to set the tone of your day, although I use my daily morning draws to reflect on the day that was. I start the day reflecting on my pull from the previous day and how it did or didn’t resonate with me. And then, I pull a card for the current moment and record it in my diary so I can reflect on it the next day.
Draw cards during the Full Moon and New Moon. Doing this helps me figure out the patterns I went through over the course of a month or season because each Full Moon and New Moon gives me a specific theme to reflect on. The spreads I use for the Full Moon and New Moon give me something to look forward to every two weeks as well.
Following tarot spreads using inspiration from my decks’ little white books. I’m currently working with the Game of Thrones tarot—whenever I feel inspired to shuffle, I’ll follow one of the deck’s prescribed spreads and journal about it. I find that I’ve been doing this once a week since quarantine started. It’s been an effective way to track my moods and thoughts.
Doing your readings. I usually prep for client readings at night—I read through your questions and concerns so I “get to know” each of you. And then I work on readings in the morning, around 11am. Even before this pandemic, morning was always my sharpest and most productive time of day, which is why I still reserve it to get your readings done.
Studying my birth chart. I use my book to see how the different signs, planets, and houses are represented in my chart and other’s charts. Astrology can be complicated but devoting a few minutes of reading time a day can be a fun and educational way to pass the time.
Doing astrology for a cause. Through Mindful Magic, the fundraiser I’m hosting with Slow Folks, I’ve been dedicating a certain amount of time each day to create astrology profiles for people. We have 50 profiles to do so doing a couple a day has helped me create structure—it’s been great for my state of mind and makes me feel like I’m using my time for something that’ll do good too.
Other Parts of My Routine
For my mind. The Morning Pages exercise prescribed by my friend Aueeie (and also The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron) is something I do to help get my thoughts and paper so I can officially start my day with a clear mind (as clear as I can get it!). This involves three pages of free-writing first thing in the morning. I like to make this ritual special by using my Hobonichi notebook and my fountain pen.
For my mind-body connection. I keep talking about it and I’m going to bring it up again—Barre3 is seriously my favorite studio workout and I’m so grateful to be able to access their classes online. I’m currently going through a 15-day challenge and it’s been so motivating for me. I love that our local teachers in Barre3 PH also conduct IG Live classes—it’s almost like I’m still seeing them every week. If you haven’t tried a barre class, it’s a low-impact mind-body workout that encourages you to feel your strength, get your endurance going, and to cultivate presence. The website has a free 15-day trial and you can go to Barre3 PH’s Instagram account to access free classes too. If I wake up before 9am, I get my workout done in the morning. But if I find myself a little lazier, I shift my movement part of the day to mid-afternoon! This part of my routine has been flexible depending on my energy levels. I love how I’m able to move things around depending on how I feel!
For calm. Never has my yoga teacher training been more useful than it is now, as I’ve been doing restorative yoga and sending my friends with achy bodies some poses to bring them relief too. I do anywhere from one to 10 poses a day and it’s been so soothing! If you’re not familiar with restorative yoga, you can check out this video by Yoga with Adriene—one of my faves. I also love calming Spotify playlists that are all mostly instrumental music.
For social interaction. WhatsApp, Telegram, social media, and Zoom are always tapped into (I’m sure you’re doing this too). I try to schedule at least one Zoom call every week. I do love my private time but it feels nice to connect with others too.
For my surroundings. I make my bed! Every! Morning! I like doing this as soon as I’m done with my daily draws, morning pages, or full moon / new moon spreads. It gets me off my butt and kind of signals that I’m ready to move on to my next task—be it a Barre class or hashing out some readings.
For my body. Showers. It’s summer right now and all of you people in Manila know how humid it can get. Standing under the shower with my eyes closed always makes me feel good… and grateful that water is available (do you guys remember the recent shortage? I’m just glad it didn’t happen now!).
For my entertainment. I watch a show, a movie, or even a play (I just discovered that the National Theatre opens access to one play a week on its YouTube channel) a day. I try not to binge watch because I try not to cave in to time-suckers—instead, I spread TV time out across several days.
For my Aries competitive self. When the year started, I challenged myself to read two books a month. It’s only April and I’m now on book 14. Reading has been great because it takes my eyes off the screen (I’m on a Kindle, which is technically a screen too, but it doesn’t have blue light!). I’m on my second attempt at “War & Peace” now, telling myself to read 4% a day so I can finish by the supposed end of this quarantine. We’ll see how it goes. So far, I’m at 24%!
For the sisterhood. I’ve been doing Sunday cinema club with my FME friends, Macy and Patty. Basically we all watch the same movie at the same time and live chat about it. :) Patty and I, who are staunch Hallmark Channel supporters, watch our Hallmark movies and series in tandem too.
I hope you picked up a thing or two about building routines and incorporating your tarot and astrology practice into them. Like I said in the video though, I follow these routines most of the time but don’t give myself any flak for breaking them when I feel like I need a “weekend” or a break. I used to be super hard on myself when it came to following schedules to a tee—but thankfully, I’ve learned to pull back and be kinder to myself.
Routines are only effective if they’re bringing good to our days, after all! If your list of To Do’s is just daunting and causing you to contract, then it may be more caring to oneself to let them go and start fresh the next day.
As always, I’m wishing you safety wherever you are and whenever you are in your quarantine situation!