A Note About Self-Care

A few years ago I learnt from Instagram that vitamin C can do wonders for your skin. I soon found myself driving my friend (who does self-care product reviews)  crazy asking for vitamin C serum recommendations. For r months, I tried various brands, some ruined my skin, and others made no difference, finally, I found something  I liked, and that suited me. Despite all that effort and using the product for over a year I  am still waiting for the dewy skin and trying to get into a skincare routine that I can remember to do every day.

A year later, I started a diet with a highly recommended nutritionist. It lasted a week.  I then joined Pilates, with the hope of working on my physical health. I did that for 10 days and then I fell sick. Having fallen out of the routine I don’t know if I will ever return to the diet and workout routine.

Honestly, if you ask me now - I am tired, and I haven't even spoken about my spiritual practises which too I have been struggling to maintain. 

Self-care is all about taking deliberate actions to preserve or improve one's well-being, often encompassing activities that promote relaxation, stress reduction, and emotional nourishment. However, I feel frustrated that none of the routines seem to be sustainable, leaving me feeling stressed on some days to fit skincare, healthy eating, exercise, and spiritual routine alongside work and household responsibilities.

Self-care has become a buzzword, a trend on social media. Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are flooded with images of picture-perfect self-care routines. While these images may inspire and motivate, they can also create unrealistic expectations and feelings of inadequacy. Comparing our imperfect realities to the carefully curated highlight reels of others can trigger feelings of low self-worth. It has become a breeding ground for comparison and an endless source of unrealistic expectations.

Social media has created an aesthetic culture of self-care by the commodification of it. It has transformed it into a marketable industry, with companies being eager to capitalise on consumers' desire for wellness. While there's certainly nothing wrong with investing in products or services that promote self-care, the commercialisation of this concept can inadvertently perpetuate the idea that well-being is something to be purchased rather than cultivated from within. Due to this, we find ourselves striving for an unattainable ideal, perpetuating a cycle of dissatisfaction and self-criticism. This constant comparison erodes the true essence of self-care, which is meant to be a personal and individualised practice.

If you want to practise self-care you need to remember that it can be: emotional, mental, physical, social, spiritual, financial, environmental or recreational. The trick to taking care of yourself lies in being self-aware so that you know which part of you needs that little extra attention each time you feel a little less. It's that simple!