Member-only story
Is Your “Self-Care” Serving You?
Why society’s version of self-care is dangerous.
Self-care is such a buzzword nowadays. We call almost anything “self-care”. Drinking a glass of wine? Self-care. Dining at a fancy restaurant? Self-care. Buying a new outfit? Self-care. But when do we stop calling everything “self-care”?
I think self-care is extremely important, but only when used as it is meant to be used. Wikipedia defines it as,
“the process of taking care of oneself with behaviors that promote health and active management of illness when it occurs”.
If this is the true definition of self-care, then many of our habits don’t qualify as caring for ourselves. A glass of wine at night isn’t a healthy habit to manage stress. Dining at a fancy restaurant doesn’t promote health. Buying a new outfit could be a means to suppress your emotions.
When do we realize that we push certain things too far as a society? We let the extremes become the norm. It’s time to bring back balance and make sure we aren’t taking advantage of buzzwords to justify our habits.
