The Ultimate Self-Care Playbook: Discover & Nurture Your Centered Self
Jonathan Van Ness · Host, Queer Eye & Getting Curious
Jonathan Van Ness turns a scrapbook-style planner into a genuine self-reflection tool, though the craft segments eat time better spent on substance.
A planner as the entry point, not the point
The class opens with a clear premise: self-care isn't a spa day, it's a relationship with yourself, and the tool for maintaining it is a physical planner. Jonathan Van Ness spends the first two lessons making the case for why a planner works before ever building one, framing it as something borrowed from his years managing an appointments book as a hairstylist. The pivot from client scheduling to self-scheduling is a nice bit of reasoning, and it grounds an otherwise abstract idea in something practical.
The decoupage lesson that follows is the weakest stretch of the course. Cutting and gluing photos onto a planner cover is demonstrated in real time, with commentary that amounts to "don't worry if it's messy." It is pleasant to watch but teaches almost nothing that generalizes, and at several minutes long it is disproportionate to its actual instructional value. Anyone who wants a decorated planner already knows how to use glue and scissors.
The course recovers ground in the middle stretch. The meditation and journaling lesson is the strongest in the class: a short breathing exercise leads directly into writing down "above the line" (love-based) and "below the line" (fear-based) thoughts, which gives an otherwise vague instruction like "listen to yourself" an actual method. The following lesson on limiting beliefs builds on this by introducing a lightweight version of parts work, imagining an insecure thought as a specific part of yourself (a teenage self, a busy-bee self) and consciously responding to it as an adult would. It is not clinical IFS therapy, but as a self-guided reframing tool it is more useful than a generic affirmation list, even though the water-crystal anecdote used to justify positive self-talk is presented as established science when it is not.
Routine-building and the home stretch
The routine-building lesson is where the course earns its "actionable" claim. Rather than prescribing a fixed schedule, it walks through building a personal weekly plan with protected mornings, deliberately unscheduled weekend days, and named boundaries for saying no to conflicting requests. The home spa lesson that follows is heavy on product brand names and functions more as a skincare tutorial than a self-care technique, though the layering order (mist, eye cream, serum, moisturizer, oil, sunscreen) is genuinely instructive for anyone new to a skincare routine.
The joy-discovery and needlepoint lessons ask for five minutes of timed writing about a lost passion, then demonstrate needlepoint as one example of a calming creative practice. The needlepoint segment runs long relative to its transferable value, much like the decoupage lesson, but the underlying idea (deliberately trying old or new hobbies to rebuild a sense of joy) is sound.
The closing lesson on failure and forgiveness is the most practically dense in the class. It offers a specific coping method for four named triggers: a love-and-light meditation for resentment toward another person, child's pose followed by cat-cow for anxiety, a nonjudgmental "autopsy" of missed goals, and volunteering as a corrective for feeling self-absorbed. Naming the trigger and pairing it with one clear response is the most transferable structure in the entire course.
Overall, the class delivers on its promise of a personal-development framework rather than a single technique, but it is stretched by two long craft demonstrations that add runtime without adding skill. Viewers willing to sit through the decoupage and needlepoint sections will come away with a genuinely useful journaling and reframing practice, alongside a serviceable skincare routine and a short list of specific coping tools for when the routine breaks down.
The standout
The above-the-line/below-the-line journaling exercise, done right after a short guided meditation, gives a concrete and repeatable way to catch fear-based thoughts before they run the day.
What you will learn
- How to build a decorated self-care planner (decoupage technique) as a physical habit anchor
- A guided meditation paired with 'above the line / below the line' journaling to surface fears versus desires
- A parts-based reframing technique (drawn from Internal Family Systems) for talking back to limiting beliefs
- How to build a realistic weekly self-care schedule with protected time blocks and boundaries
- A five-layer skincare routine (mist, eye cream, serum, moisturizer, oil, sunscreen) as a home spa ritual
- A specific coping menu for setbacks: love-and-light meditation for resentment, child's pose for anxiety, 'autopsy' journaling for missed goals
Best for: Beginners to self-reflection practices who want a low-pressure, visually engaging entry point into journaling, meditation, and routine-building.
Skip it if: Anyone wanting rigorous, evidence-based self-improvement methodology or a fast, no-frills routine, since the pacing is loose and several segments are more demonstration than instruction.