I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am.
Sylvia Plath

When tending to your self-care or self-devotion, it is a gradual, consistent practice. While there may be moments where you need instantaneous support and relief, the more care you can bring into each day, the better for you, your nervous system, and others around you. The volume of the world and your life might be turned all the way up to 11, but there are ways to reduce the intensity, bring yourself perspective, and build your resilience.

The more you show up for your heart before it aches to be supported, the more you can release the tension of uncertainty. Even if the rest of the world is chaotic and confusing, you will know you can trust yourself. You will KNOW you can count on yourself to tend to any rough edges or hard moments. This practice of heart tending will show up like muscle memory, something you do without a lot of thought. Like a habit with the texture of a well-worn path in the woods.

My favorite practice is to drive to the ocean before dawn, to watch the sun rise and spread colors across the sky. And even when the sun is hidden behind fog and mist, it always gets brighter. This helps me remember things will always change and shift, even if I don’t know how or when. I also talk to the ocean, to deity, and to myself as I walk along the shore. No one else can hear me, but I hear me.

Here are some other things I like to do:

Seek out nature – Follow the texture of grass or water or bark or ice. Consider all that it took for that moment to reveal itself to you.

Say thank you – Thank you to myself for trying, even if I make a mistake. Thank you to the harshness of the news for reminding me what I care about. Thank you to food and the water and the sunlight and the too-long rains.

Laugh – Talk with your favorite person(s). Watch Ted Lasso (or something else). Listen to the conversations between children and cats and the gurgling of that one pipe in the ceiling. Life is ridiculous.

Make something – Sing a song. Redo your altar. Paint over the crack in the wall. Write a love letter to yourself. Rearrange your furniture. Move your body to the sound of your desire.

Release knowing – No matter how much I know, I can’t predict the next moment. No matter how much I read or watch, I do not know what will happen next. I don’t know how everything will turn out, where I will end up, or what the world will look like in a year.

Find what makes your heart feel held. Try something and then something else. Write a list of all the things that help. Commit to doing those more often.

Listen to your heart to see what it needs from you. And answer that call.

(this post includes a portion of a Heart Magick substack post from January 13, 2025, written by Irisanya.)

Irisanya Moon (she/they) is an author, witch, international teacher, poet, and Reclaiming initiate who has practiced magick for 20+ years. She has taught in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia, bringing her blend of grounded, graceful, and radically authentic facilitation to inspire transformation and liberation at the personal and collective levels.

She has written a number of books:
Pagan Portals (Reclaiming Witchcraft – 2020, Aphrodite – 2020, Iris – 2021, Norns – 2023, Artemis – 2024, Circe – 2024, Hestia – 2025)
Earth Spirit (Honoring the Wild – 2023, Gaia – 2023)
Practically Pagan: An Alternative Guide to Health & Well-being – 2020
(With Pantheon: The Greeks and The Muses to arrive in late 2025 and early 2026, respectively.)

Plus she has written essays, articles, poems, and blogs for Moon Books, Watkins MIND BODY SPIRIT Magazine, Llewellyn, Revelore Press, Girl God Books, Witches & Pagans, Pagan Dawn, Coreopsis Journal, Epona Muse Publishing, and more.

In 2023, they self-published a book of poetry, “wrecked: the insistence of grief.”

Irisanya cultivates spaces of self-care/devotion, divine relationship (whatever that means to you), and community service as part of her heart magick and activism.

For more details: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/authors/irisanya-moon