The Cult of Self-Care

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#TheMinimalists #SelfCare #Narcissism

[TheMinimalists]

What’s your favorite self-care activity?

[williamclark]

Going to a spa is 'personal care'. I engage in self care by going for a walk, caring for my plants, savoring a home made meal, taking time away from technology and going to bed early.

[lisahinkofer]

I had called in sick with pneumonia and was told to stay in bed for a week. I had a doctors note from the hospital emergency room where I spent an hour on oxygen. When I got out of the ER I called my director and left a message on her voice mail. It was after eleven at night. In the morning I called in to my job. The director said she got my message and that if I didn’t come into work I would lose my job. I went in very sick but I did need my job so I had no choice. After an hour of being there the head director came in and was walking around visiting every one but when she came into my classroom she took one look at me and asked me what’s wrong. You look very ill. I told her everything is fine but she didn’t buy it. I told her what was happening and she reached over and grabbed my coat and said go home. I said that I have a note from the hospital which my director didn’t even want to look at but the head director took the note and read it. She looked at me and said by see you next week. She then got another teacher a floater to take over my room. She walked me up to the office where the director was and said she’s going home. And she placed the doctors note on the desk. When I returned a week later the director was gone. Fired. People there were so glad she left. She was a cold hearted person

[sylvee]

You guys should talk about self care and how its pushed so much on women and the anti aging obsession. So much consumerism thrown to women everyday

[regimefais-toiconfiance]

The person who held the lease to the apartment asked me to move out, while I was embarking on 4 months of chemotherapy treatments for cancer, in the name of "self-care".. She needed to "be alone". She phrased it in such as way that I was supposed to pity her... I had to pack my belongings as my fingernails were falling off. Covid was still raging, and my white blood cells count was extremely low. I was out of breath walking two blocks on the flat because of low hemoglobin. I thought that she could shove her self-care where the sun doesn't shine...

[thecosmicprime]

Self care has been morphed into a marketing ploy.

[nimmieamee]

I love Dr. Ramani so much. She is so thoughtful and nuanced in how she approaches things.

[magpie]

2 years ago, I was given homework to do self care. The whole idea was foreign to me. I tried a few things. One day during and after reorganizing a shelf in my closet, I got this feeling of glee. Organizing is self care for me! That's why many people over the years have asked me to their houses to redo their linen closets and pantrys. I love it!

[AM-bmxw]

What she said right at the end is so true. I have had to teach myself, as an adult, to take care of my basic human needs because I didnt think I was worthy of taking care of myself.

[happyjourneywithlynn]

I spent most of my life taking care of other people, mainly my own family members. I also spent my time in caring for my now ex boyfriend of 25 years, being to him someone who was taking care of his affairs, finding him a few jobs, being a therapist, doctor, nurse…etc. I never knew what self care was until I left him 10 years ago. Now after I do my own responsibilities, I take the time for myself for self care with knitting. It’s something that makes me calmer.

[Zoe-lvrc]

Having a day to myself every so often makes me a better employee, teacher, partner, friend etc.

[lamochilademary]

Meditation, drinking water, breathing exercises, social media detox, saying no when it's not a hell yes, pausing

[joyceonthego]

Here is what I would call self-care: saying "no" to things that would harm us and "yes" to what would promote our well-being. Examples: having the self-discipline to turn down foods that would spike our blood sugar and to cook ourselves a healthy meal. Regulate our schedules so that we can be productive for our employer, our family, and ourselves without running ourselves ragged trying to do everything at once. Get healthy exercise in whatever shape or form benefits our body the most. Go to be when we're under the weather rather than run our body sick. It can also include a bubble bath at the end of the day, a trip to the spa to get our over-stress dealt with, or even a pick-me-up trip to the nail salon for a mani-pedi treatment (within reason and within our budget).😊

[proudhavenot]

The part where you mentioned the "look at me" part of this discussion is SO real. It is another version of class warfare, ego and separaton.

[VMR]

When a family member died and I asked for the 3 days of bereavement, there were people(managers) at my job who didn't believe me and thought I was making up stories just for time off. It really hurt so much, especially considering I worked my A** OFF for these people. They didn't believe me because I've never mentioned anything about my sick and dying family member. I understand there are a lot of liers in this world, but there are also honest people still around, and we unfortunately get treated similar to all the narcissistic liers.. 🥺

[fromhumblebeginnings]

Self care is being minimalist and having time to do what we love!

[gurupi]

Glad to finally see some pushback on this. I see 'self care' all the time from people who already focus primarily on themselves.

Sure, take care of yourself, but it becomes a problem when you're just getting out of responsibilities.

[maiaheiss]

Linguistically, we should be distinguishing between self care (taking care of one’s self) and PAMPERING.

[cirelo]

I actually really learned about self-care when I went to Cameroon for several years to work as a teacher. I found that all the students were routinely taught how to take care of themselves as part of boarding school life and they acted just as responsible as me as an adult oftentimes. The townspeople were the poorest of the poor, subsistence farmers that I lived among, I learned so much about how they treated themselves with such dignity and care. They bathed every day in cold water and always dressed beautifully and kept their environment clean (to their own cultural standard). I came away from that experience inspired and knowledgeable about how to care for myself better. I was a slob in a lot of ways. It has helped improve my life so much to know about "taking care of myself." I do think there is an epidemic of self-care but I don't think it means what popular culture thinks it means. It means properly meeting your basic needs! We have a breakdown of the home life now so these basics aren't modeled. I suspect that's why various "do life with me" videos are inexplicably attractive because people haven't had real life modeled to them and are wondering what the heck they are supposed to be doing with themselves.

[VS-fopy]

I have noticed lots of you tube shorts and videos about self care, using a lot of products. To me, these over the top routines in the videos are just to showcase products that they can link for a commission.