We are meeting at 8pm on Zoom this week and if you want to join us please message me and I will send the link (Rob Wylie is resting!). This week Sue Hutchinson Has written our blog so take a read and see you Sunday.
Self care is trendy, modern and ‘everyone is doing it now a days’ is the concept. On Instargram alone there are over 18 millon posts with #selfcare. In 2019, it was estimated that the health and beauty industry will be worth £26.7 billion in 2022. The majority of self care is aimed at women but there is an increase of men taking to self care. And if you google ‘self care in a pandemic’ the search will find 794,000,000 results.
The popularity of self-care has had a positive impact encouraging more people to be open, honest and talk about mental health and state of being (www.dazeddigital.com).
Self care can range from physical, emotional, social, spiritual, personal, space, financial and work, to name a few. Self care is seen as a medical necessary, luxury, self-indulgent, political and an individual preference. Nicole Stamp (2019), in her blog ‘The revolutionary origins of self-care’ and BBC4 (2020) ‘The radical history of self-care’ gives a insight to the history:
1950s – to allow institutionalised patients practice physical independence and self-worth through exercise and personal grooming, the term self care was created.
1960s – First responders experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were encouraged in three areas for self care, physical: good diet, sleep and proactive action regarding medical care, emotional: journaling and self reflection and spiritual: meditation, actively seeking spiritual community and enjoying nature. Women started to take back their own bodily health and strength.
1970s – Self care come to the for front with the Black Panther Party as ‘a means for all Black citizens to stay resilient while experiencing the repeated injuries of systemic, interpersonal and medical racism’. It was the Black Panthers who created free community health care clinics and in 1972 campaigned to have not only they illnesses treated such as sickle cell but also to develop preventive medical programs for survival. The Black Panthers understanding of how oppression affected health has now been demonstrated by science.
1980s – Audre Lorde, self-described as ‘Black, lesbian, mother, warrior poet’ (wikipedia), living with cancer, become influential within self-care writing ‘I must not surrender my body to others unless I completely understand and agree with what they think should be done to it, I’ve got to look at all the options carefully, even the ones I find distasteful.” And in her 1988 book ‘A burst of light’ she writes “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is a self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare”.
Andre Spicer (2019) writes, that which was once radical is now being stripped of its politics to make more pleasant to mass market. What was supposed to be an invitation to collective survival has become another form of individualism, another word for ‘me time’, an excuse to get out of any commitment.
And she is right, self-care can be used as an excuse to not engage, participate, or be involved and I have used this on occasion where what I wanted was to be left alone, undisturbed, and not have to make the effort or give the energy to engage, participate and be involved. In other words, to stay in my comfortable place. What I am say is that I can put my hand on my heart and say that in these times it was more to do with ‘I just don’t want to’ more than to do with I need to protect/care for me. What experiences, conversations, connections, and opportunities have I missed by doing this as Andre expresses.
And here is where I find myself in an awaking of the power of and for self-care. While I must at times insure to make time and practice self-care for my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and feel no shame or guilt for doing so. I must also be aware that at times my reasoning for ‘self-care’ is more to do with comfort rather than care. And I must ensure my practice of self-care does not lead to “becoming increasingly isolated or enjoying less and less nurturing human connection intensifying loneliness and mental illness (Nicole Stamp 2019)”. We will give her the benefit she did not know we would all be in a worldwide pandemic a year later. However, she is right, even in the pandemic it has been even more important to stay connected wherever possible and yet the fight to do so has left many tired, weary, and needing to practice self-care.
And her is my finial thought: Reflecting on my life I can see that I got self-care wrong is many ways. My early years I did not wanted to practice self-care as this meant facing things I did not what to face, namely me. I then give time to practice self-care for my physical health and lost weight, however still not dealing with my mental health and gained the weight back. In the past five or so I have had no choice but to deal with my mental health and this had led me here. A place where I will very happily make time and practice self-care, acknowledge at times I can get comfortable in this and my own company which can become unhealthy. I also need to practice self-care as part of a collective, to help raise the challenge to the injustice, oppression, stress, and anxiety within the world, to raise love, hope, mercy and grace just as Jesus did; he took time out with or without his disciples, and he led the collective to love, challenge and change the world too.
What is your ‘guilty pleasure’ to watch on TV?
What is your perspective on self-care?
Do you practice self-care? If so how?
What are your thoughts about self-care being part of a collective?
What do you think God makes of self-care?
References:
Nicole Stamp (2019) The revolutionary origins of self-care,
https://locallove.ca/issues/the-revolutionary-origins-of-self-care/#.YEFkzWj7RPY
Andre Spicer (2019) ‘Self-care’: How the radical feminist idea was stripped of politics for mass market, The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/21/self-care-radical-feminist-idea-mass-market
‘Why the commodification of self-care might actually be a good idea’.
https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/soul/article/44463/1/commodification-self-care-good-thing
Has been a part of BeachcomberFX since his arrival in the North East in 2014. He is well travelled (at least in the UK) having lived in Manchester, Nottingham, Derbyshire, Southport, Doncaster, Berwick and Edinburgh. Supporter of Newcastle United, will watch any sport.
