Food for the Soul

Nutrition writer and wellness expert Leah Vanderveldt looks at the spiritual side of eating and wellness in her latest book, Magical Self-Care for Everyday Life.

- By Chris Mann

As the author of several forward-thinking cookbooks, including 2019’s The CBD Kitchen, Leah Vanderveldt has long known that nourishment extends significantly beyond the physical to the mental, emotional, and even the enchantingly spiritual. Her latest book—Magical Self-Care for Everyday Life: Create Your Own Personal Wellness Rituals Using the Tarot, Space-Clearing, Breathwork, High-Vibe Recipes, and More—sprinkles conscious and soulful eating with a bewitching blend of earthy and otherworldly self-care ingredients.

“Magical self-care means connecting to your intuition to take care of yourself holistically,” she says. “It uses mystical and everyday tools and practices to get you in touch with your core self and inner wisdom. It’s about adding a little fun, mystery, and magic to your wellness routine.”

For Vanderveldt, who embraces alternative therapies ranging from reiki to herbalism to astrology, this expanded approach to wellness meaningfully augments her primary self-care habits of getting enough sleep, drinking a lot of water, and eating well. “I think intentional rituals can enhance and make us more mindful of the routine things we do to care for ourselves anyway,” she says. “For example, before sleep I like to wind down with an herbal infusion and some breathwork. I infuse my drinking water with crystals as a way to make hydrating more exciting. And when I prepare a meal for myself, I think of how I want to feel and channel that into my cooking. Adding these intentional elements makes these things feel special and brings me into the present moment.”

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