I don?t know who needs to hear this, but self-care is bullshit.
OK, not everything to do with self-care is bullshit, but a lot of it is, especially if you?re a woman, and even more so if you?re a mom.
The concept of taking care of yourself is a good one, obviously. Mental, physical, emotional, creative, spiritual?we all have needs, and it?s important to nurture these parts of ourselves. When people say ?you can?t pour from an empty cup? or ?put your own oxygen mask on first,? we know it?s true. We can?t take care of our kids if we?ve neglected ourselves. But often, it?s just not realistic.
Eat well. Sleep better. Meditate. Exercise. Journal. Drink lots of water. Do more of what you love and less of what you hate. Good advice" Sure. But that?s a long list. Self-care has become something to cram in between responding to work emails, schlepping to toddler swim lessons and making dinner. The term ?self-care? actually has roots in the civil rights and women?s rights movements of the 1960s and ?70s. (There?s a frequently shared quote by Black American writer and activist Audre Lorde??Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.?) But now the concept has become a buzzword used as a marketing tool to convince more privileged communities?partnered middle-class moms like me, for instance?that our stress will dissolve if we just find the right juice cleanse or charcoal sheet mask. It?s been trivialized into a hashtag ...