BY SOUMANOU SALIFOU

The Divine SelfQare Strategy: A Wellness Guide to Total Body Alignment

288 pages

Self published

Released in August 2022

Author: Sheila Denise Brown

“The Divine SelfQare Strategy: A Wellness Guide to Total Body Alignment,” the just-released book by veteran author Sheila Brown, provides the reader with the tools necessary to achieve great health by becoming what the author calls a “Divine SelfQare Practitioner.” Sheila Brown, a wellness expert and the founder and president of the online wellness shop Queendom Qare, writes: “Divine SelfQare Practitioners seek to fulfill their Divine Purpose in life, knowing that being in complete harmony with themselves through Total Body Alignment is the way. By focusing on improving the health of your physical body, you can elevate your spiritual and emotional self.”

Deeply rooted in the rich history of Blacks’ reliance on natural healing methods going back to time immemorial, “The Divine SelfQare Strategy” draws from the experiences of Black legends such as iconic civil rights leaders Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, and from the author’s own ancestors. In this regard, the author shares—from a historic perspective—some recipes from her ancestors that have survived the passing of time: salted pork fat and copper pennies to remove infection from a wound resulting from walking on a rusted nail; the use of rotten apples and Witch Hazel and other ingredients to create a solution that helps store vision, among many others.

A few of the most striking chapters in the book include:

• Ancestral Perspectives on the Four Elements
• Trans-physics in Practice | Healing Ways and Freedom
• A Rivalry with Western Medicine
• Sacred Wellness
• The Art of Total Body Alignment| Grounded | Centered | Elevated
• A Guide to the body as a Sacred Temple
• Treasures of Sacred Knowledge
• Create Your Personal Divine SelfQare Environment

The book offers several illustrated exercises the reader can easily do, and talks about pure essential oils, natural cotton, organic herbs, pure pinewood, and other products handcrafted with earth-based elements that promote healing and engage the senses of smell, sight, touch, sound, or taste. All of these products are available on the author’s website, https://www.queendomqare.com

I was born in Africa where I grew up, went to college, and worked for a few years before migrating to the United States several decades ago. Though I grew up in the city, I spent the long vacation (the equivalent of the summer break in the United States) and all the other holidays in the village—that’s one third of the calendar year. I spent those months in the village along with my siblings and cousins in the good care of our maternal grandmother who had a rigorous routine: every morning, before indulging in a warm breakfast of beans cake and yam or a millet porridge, we all had to drink a cup of a rather bitter, warm tea made with kinkeliba, a flowering plant also known as the “health tree” and named “tisane de longue vie” (herbal tea of long life) by the French. Kinkeliba is known, even outside Africa’s borders, to have proven, strong medicinal virtues.

I made this long journey back to my childhood—with nostalgia—because Sheila Brown’s book resonates with the grandchild of a wise, unschooled woman known back then in our village as “Mama Doto” (Mama Doctor) because of her willingness to use her knowledge of nature’s gifts to keep everyone around her healthy.

“The Divine SelfQare Strategy” is for women anywhere, but, as the author remarks, it should also be read by men who can share the knowledge with female loved ones. The book is very easy to read, with the author acting as a grandmother talking with her granddaughters and grandsons; which reminds me of folk tales time with grandma or grandpa when I was growing up, except that this conversation is about the serious subject of health, Blacks’ contribution to world medicine. Sheila Brown writes: “The reason I can imagine myself sitting surrounded by you, my beautiful grandchildren, teaching you the ways of our elders is that the foundation of our health principles is rooted in their life experiences and success strategies. Undoubtedly,”

“The Divine SelfQare Strategy: A wellness guide to Total Body Alignment” would be a great addition to libraries everywhere. I strongly recommend this book.

Soumanou Salifou

Founder/Publisher/Editor

“The African Magazine”