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The Toxicity of Self-Care — Part I
Because not all self-care trends are created equal…
Self-care is taking deliberate action to help support your physical, mental and emotional well-being. This can be all kinds of things — from getting enough sleep to eating well, managing your stress, setting boundaries or asking for help when we need it.
It’s a slow and gentle practice that helps us build resilience, deal with challenges, and prevent burnout. It’s not always pretty or aesthetic because it doesn’t need to be. Also, it’s deeply personal, so what feels caring to me might not feel caring to you. What matters is that you choose with awareness and not because of what social media or ads tell you self-care should look like.
But not all of self-care is actually caring. Sometimes what’s being sold to us as wellness or taking care of yourself ends up doing more harm than good. These trends range from possibly toxic if done the wrong way to really toxic, misleading and something we want to avoid.
The first toxic trend is commercialized self-care. Self-care is big business. According to this article, the wellness market is now worth $2 Trillion dollars, with millennials and Gen Zer’s spending the most on health and wellness purchases — mainly cosmetic procedures, hair and skin care products, personal and home care…
