Self-Care, Boring Self-Care, and Just Showing Up
What Is Self-Care Anyway?
I spend a lot of time talking about “self-care,” particularly when I am advising my clients, colleagues, and loved ones to practice it. I tell people to take care of themselves or give specific instruction, to “eat,” “sleep,” or “get outside.” The more I preach the gospel of “self-care,” the more I feel inclined to explore the term itself and its history. Sometimes, what we, or our clients are already doing by “showing up”, is in itself all the self-care that can be mustered at the moment.
The term “self-care” became a household term seemingly overnight, following the 2016 US Presidential election — an indication of the term’s political origins. I knew that just because the term had become a buzzword overnight, it did not mean “self-care” was a new concept. I had seen it before. In 2014 I spent a lot of time grappling with my own Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which for me meant reading a lot random stuff online, and “self-care” kept coming up in beauty/health/wellness columns in blogs and online magazines. From that context I had gathered that self-care was grooming for yourself and not to please others. But as the term gained more popularity I came to understand that self-care is anything you do for yourself to take care of your health — both physical and mental. Just about anything…
