The Concept Has Devolved Into The Stuff Of Vapid Memes. Devon Abelman Searches For Its True Meaning And Ends Up Finding Herself.
Self-care is everywhere and nowhere. It’s the unofficial hashtag of Instagram. But it also lurks in the shadow of sad-trombone statistics showing that—despite the meditation, despite the yoga, despite the journaling—we’re increasingly anxious.
Could it be that we’ve gotten self-care completely wrong? Yes. Experts say today’s self-care barely resembles its roots in the civil rights movement: Women and people of color needed self-care because they were denied health care.
Now, as a large part of the international wellness business (estimated in the tens of billions in the U.S. annually), the term “self-care” is synonymous with privilege. This new, superficial version has officially become a cliché, says Juli Fraga, a psychologist in San Francisco who specializes in women’s health. “Because stress and anxiety are far more prevalent, especially for young adults, self-care has made its way into the self-help jargon world,” she says. And that commoditization is “dangerous in the sense that it reinforces the belief that self-care means spending.”
This story is from the March 2019 edition of Allure.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the March 2019 edition of Allure.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In