35 Ways to Care for Your Soul

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I remember laying in bed one night about four months after starting my job as an Executive Director wondering if my heart was about to explode.

My system had gone into tachycardia due to the unhealthy doses of caffeine and adrenaline that were pumping through my veins, as a result of the stress and demands of my 70-hour work weeks.

I carefully reduced my caffeine intake in the weeks to follow and thankfully my heart rhythms returned to normal. Nonetheless, it was quite the wakeup call!

As a leader, we often push ourselves to the limits. Our needs are often placed on the back burner while we attend to the needs of others or our business/organization. The problem is, we left the back burner on and if we aren’t careful, we’ll go out in flames… and not in a good way.

Have you ever found yourself teetering on the edge of destruction with all the good intentions in your heart of serving others?

It’s easy as a leader to believe that our attention must be focused outward, but in actuality, we need to turn that focus inward. How else can we expect to do our jobs well, let alone set a good example for those we are serving?

Though my free time was extremely limited as an Exec, I did my best to fill my cup by incorporating some easy practices of soul care into my schedule.

I’ll fully admit that it wasn’t easy. It took time to build a routine. But I came to rely on these simple ways to give back to myself.

During my week, regardless of how full my schedule was, I would:

Take a walk – for just 15 minutes after lunch
Listen to worship music– while working
Read Psalm 23 – every morning when I woke up
Turn phone off – I set “do not disturb” from 9 pm to 7 am

Priorities of Soul Care

I know, I know. You’re looking at your calendar right now thinking there’s just no way, but I want to remind you of what your job really is…

Your job is to fill your own cup, so it overflows. Then, you can serve others, joyfully from your saucer. – Lisa Nichols

I’m grateful for the truth in that statement by Lisa.

I’ve tried to run on fumes. I’ve also tried to run on caffeine and adrenaline. Neither of those is a good choice for doing a job well.

The only way you can truly serve others well is from a place of overflow. And your cup will only runneth over (Psalm 23) when it is filled with Living Water (John 4).

I want to challenge you to schedule one of these soul care activities each day for the next month. Be sure to grab your FREE download of 35 ways to care for your soul.