In the last few years, self-care has become a huge trend, and people of all ages have been actively been trying to integrate the philosophy into their lives. Self-care essentially means to pay attention to your body and its needs, and live a healthier life based on that. For example, if you were facing issues with your health due to weight gain or loss, self-care would be monitoring your food intake to take care of that.
People who are overworked and have been neglecting themselves for a long time, are taking this opportunity to step up and do something for themselves. But, somewhere down the line, self-care seems to have evolved into self-indulgence. While we should all continually do something for ourselves every now and then, self-care shouldn’t become about rewarding ourselves needlessly.
Self-care is “for you, by you”, taking care of your needs yourself, be it physical or mental. But people across social media are stretching the definition to the absurd, where eating healthier becomes all about juice cleanses and expensive diets, fitness becomes about jumping on the latest workout trend and mental health means treating yourself to relaxing, pricey spa day. While the philosophy might be similar and stem from the need to take care of oneself better, the execution paints a different picture – it becomes more about indulgence, something not everyone can afford.
Plus, because this movement is so largely social media reliant, you can’t tell a person’s real reasoning behind it. Most of the time, you don’t know whether a person is trying to be a better version of themselves, or putting on a big charade for the purpose of approval from their online peers. What’s worse, it’s putting even more peer pressure on people to follow suit. This social media induced self-care movement doesn’t seem to be fading anytime soon. But we hope it further evolves into something more inclusive to all kinds of people; and more importantly, for the right reasons.
