Rachel Ricketts on Her Self-Care and Soul-Care Routines

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It makes sense if youre invested in her well-being.

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It’s healing work.

Its liberation work, she tells SELF.

Ricketts understands more than most that rest is an integral part of remaining effective.

I will not survive this world or this work if I don’tprioritizeand center myself, she says.

But I will wake up still quite fatigued.

So I confirm that I really power down.

I start powering down early.

At, like, 7:30 my phone automatically goes into Do Not Disturb mode.

That’s one of my main things, getting off of thatphone.

And I do a lot of really embodied and involved, heart-centered work day in and day out.

I hold a lot of space, so Im usually trying to unwind at the end of the day.

One of the things I’m trying to do more of is energy releases.

To release pent-up energy, I shake my whole body out.

Then I wash my face, which is actually kind of new for me.

I use OSEA Cleansing Milk, and their Advanced Protection Cream, which I’m obsessed with.

And I will sometimesexfoliatewith Keys Soul Care.

I was gifted a bunch of their products.

They have a Be Luminous Exfoliator thats amazing.

So I will spritz it with rosewater and braid it.

And then I put on asilk cap, and that’s like an act of love.

I spent all of my life hating my hair, like, really hating it.

I have worn my hair natural since I was 15, but I still hated it.

I still wanted it to be long and straight.

And it’s neither of those things.

So Im taking the time to love and honor her.

And in this pandemic she’s longer than she’s ever been.

I usually crawl in bed by 9:30, and Ill read.

I just finished Cicely Tysons memoir, and everyone needs to read it.

Or Ill read anything by Octavia Butler or anything Afrofuturism.

We readBecomingby Michelle Obama togethersometimes Ill read to him, or hell read to me.

And he also goes to bed early.

I even got him putting on face cream.

And then I meditate.

I just have to.

I usually listen to a Lalah Delia meditation.

She has a bunch ofmeditationson the Insight app.

Another thing I’m learning is thatboundariesare required in all facets of life.

Before bed I talk to my ancestors and tell them when I need rest.

I’m a spiritual person with an active dream life, but Im still earthly.

So I say, I’m tired, I need rest.

I keep a photo of my mother, who passed, on my bedside.

I have a picture of myself as a child next to my mom.

I think it’s from my first birthday.

I’m holding balloons, and I’mlaughing.

I attempt to look at that picture every day to remind myself that’s who I am.

So having that physical representation of her, that photo, is super important.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.