Sacred Self-Care: A Study of Spiritual Self-Care Through Devotion and Reflection

A seven-week guide to help you shift your behaviors and create lifelong habits to care for your whole self— mind, body, and soul.

"In a world that has cheapened self-care, Chanequa Walker-Barnes provides a valuable, faithful, and much-needed antidote.” —Jeff Chu, author of Does Jesus Really Love Me?

Taking care of ourselves is essential, and lately, we’ve started to pay more attention to the ways our physical bodies need and deserve nourishment. But we are not just bodies, we sacred beings, and our souls need just as much care and attention to be healthy.

As a clinical psychologist, pastor, and activist, Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes has studied and worked with clients, clergy, seminary faculty, faith-based activists, and others to encourage them to think of self-care as both a divine right and a sacred obligation. She has developed a seven-week guide gathering activities, habits, disciplines, and practices that promote spiritual, physical, emotional, mental, and relational wholeness.

Each day includes a story alongside short and simple prompts and scripture passages that help us shift behaviors in the short term and create lifelong habits. Each week walks readers through the following areas:

• Mastering the Self-Care Fundamentals
• Practicing Self-Compassion
• Setting Healthy Boundaries
• Caring for Our Emotional Selves
• Caring for Our Minds
• Practicing Self-Care as a Way of Life

Also included is an inventory for identifying areas you may need to focus on, and a "Rule of Life" guide to help you direct your self-care practice and maintain it throughout the year. Inspiring and practical, ruminative and actionable, Sacred Self-Care invites us on a journey to craft a sustainable self-care practice to care for our whole selves.

Reader's Best Award for The Englewood Review of Books, Honorable Mention

Dr. Chanequa Walker-Barnes is a clinical psychologist and professor of practical theology and pastoral care at Columbia Theological Seminary. Her work focuses upon writing and ministering to clergy and faith-based activists, and supporting women of color engaged in Christian social justice activism. She is the author of I Bring the Voices of My People and Too Heavy a Yoke. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia.