The Intention Behind Self Care

Self-care is a term that has been endlessly thrown around these days, to the point that it appears to have lost all meaning.

As we continue to pick up the pieces of our lives in a post-pandemic world, I've been thinking a lot about intentionality.

In part, this comes from having finished reading Sundus Abdul Hadi's Take Care of Your Self: The Art and Cultures of Care and Liberation, an exploration of care and how it relates to social justice.

One of the most powerful parts of the book for me, from pg. 141, is excerpted below:

“What good is self-care, really, if it isn't used for self-awareness, community building, and reaching towards liberation? What good is self-care if its practices hurt the planet, or if it's indifferent to the struggles of the world and the question of privilege? What is good is care if it perpetuates the systems of oppression, erasure and appropriation, and actually works to strengthen destructive capitalist markets? What good is care if it continues the same cycle of greed, white supremacy, and colonial class structures that continue to hurt the people who most need self-care practices?”

The more intentional we are with our self-care practices, the more likely it is that our care results in deeper levels of presence and healing, without further harm or ignorance.

How are you caring for yourself? Does that practice create self-awareness or build community? How does it impact the planet? Is it accessible to all populations? These are questions I'm journaling on this week.

An easy way to take care in this moment is one of my favorite breathing techniques, box breathing. You can do this to feel more grounded, present, and alert. Try to do 4 rounds. Breathe in for 4 counts, hold the breath for 4 counts, exhale for 4 counts, and hold empty for 4 counts. You can imagine tracing the four sides of a box as you do this. Find more information about the benefits of box breathing here.

Find Abdul Hadi's book Take Care of Your Self here.