Welcome to Self Care Recipes! We help you evolve your relationship with mindfulness through interviewing the womxn we look up to most. With tips, tricks, and practices, we hope their unique perspectives inspire you to explore your self care game.
Amy Lee is a Youtuber, digital creator, and trauma informed student of life. Through videos on spirituality, mental health, and self care, her mission is to make intergenerational healing & mental health spaces accessible and affordable to underserved communities, such as LGBTQ+ youth, BIPOC+, folx living with disability and others. We’re so excited to talk to Amy about how she honours her body and mind through self care.
What’s your personal definition of self care?
Self Care is putting yourself first in a way that makes you ‘self-full’. It’s pouring from a REALLY abundant cup, and for so long I had been pouring from an empty cup and operating at that place due to childhood and how I was raised. It was only the past four years when I really got into self development and spirituality and self care. I realized that you’re not supposed to feel this awful all the time. Self care is just filling your cup first, and when it runs over you have so much more to pour into other people's cups!
What is your favorite act of self care for yourself?
A big one right now is setting and honouring my boundaries with people, jobs, deadlines, just everything. If you don’t respect your boundaries then nobody else will.
Also, breathwork! Some call it halotropic healing and box breathing too. It’s really cathartic- you end up sobbing a lot whether you’re in control of it or not. It’s conscious body breathing and you’re able to really let go of your own mental awareness of your body. It shows you signs of trauma you store in your body. Breathwork is honestly body therapy, and it lets your body cry without having to talk and think. After breathwork I feel so much lighter. It’s intense.
What are your bathroom essentials?
I LOVE baths- I’m a huge bath taker. Every apartment I move to has to have a bathtub. Baths are definitely my go-to self care ritual. If i’m having a bad day, I’ll just go have a bath and wash off the day. I’m a pisces and we love water, so I feel like baths are hugs engulfing our body.
I also love lipstick and lipgloss. I feel the most myself when I get to experiment with different makeup looks. Neon eyeliner, sequins, rhinestones, and crazy colors are how I’m bringing joy in quarantine. I used to be so afraid of doing anything more than a matte brown or orange smokey eye, but now it’s more so about expressing how I feel on the inside. Makeup in general has been really liberating in this time.
Let’s talk mornings. What’s your routine to create peak balance for the day ahead?
The first thing I do is meditate from bed. I think it’s beneficial if you can do it right when you wake up to set good intentions for the day. Another thing that I learned from a spirituality course is to manifest your day. Basically, you segment intend and say ‘wouldn’t it be nice if today I worked out? Wouldn’t it be nice if my meeting worked out?’. It’s weird about how thinking of doing things in the most ideal way can make them true.
I like to say I’ve been eating super healthy in quarantine but sometimes I don’t. Some days breakfast is a kale smoothie and some days it’s dinner leftovers I have in the fridge. Next, i’ll take my dog out, then read. My morning routine is so simple.
So much of your work is about education regarding periods. Do you have specific self care rituals that you have during your period?
I had a chronic illness until I was 21, so my whole life was ridden with pharmaceuticals like antibiotics and steroid shots. I used to pass out when I got period cramps because I was so low on immunity. My journey with my body and my health has been super tumultuous, so when I got my surgery and felt cured I decided that ‘I’m never going to take medication that’s not holistic or homeopathic. On my period I try to take it easy. I just love non toxic period products, and I didn’t realize how many chemicals are in traditional period products. I love Blume because it’s really changing the paradigm on the way we talk about periods.
What’s your favorite personal affirmation that you use in times of stress or uncertainty?
“I am love” or “I choose love”. It’s interchangeable because you may be upset about something out of your control, and that’s when I’ll meditate and chant “I choose love’. Immediately after I say that sentence, it chills out the negativity and upset energy within me, and it drops me to a very soft and vulnerable place.
Other days I’ll say “I am love” when I don’t feel like I’m enough- I feel inadequate, and like I’m not smart or pretty enough. “I am love” tells me that I don’t even need to be loved or give love- I am purely the embodiment of love.
You can find more from Amy on her Youtube Channel and Instagram, we hope you love her and her work as much as we do! Stay tuned for more #SelfCareRecipes coming soon.
