At a bookstore recently, I happened upon a selection of goods curated for the “wellness minded,” a group the shop’s signage described as those who treat self-care as a way of life. There were jigsaw puzzles and hardcover journals alongside kits for knitting and reflexology.
Today’s self-care phenomenon took off in 2016 as people unhappy with the results of the U.S. presidential election looked for ways to cope with their distress. Layer on growing concerns around career burnout and social media-sparked anxiety, especially among young adults, and it’s easy to see how it became such a buzzy concept.
It’s not surprising that the popular hype is that self-care is all millennial pink bubble baths and snail slime face masks, and that this idea is already experiencing a backlash. Critics have pointed out its narrow focus on leisure time and the affluence required to afford a self care-filled life as exclusionary. But it’s shopping in the name of self-care that seems the most counterintuitive considering the growing awareness about overconsumption.
It turns out, when it comes to nurturing your own self-care routine, thinking about what you can buy to feel better is best ignored in favour of looking inward. “It’s really about checking in on yourself and planning what’s important for you,” psychologist Dr. Khush Amaria says. The clinical director of MindBeacon Group, which offers customized digital therapy, Amaria helps her patients establish self-care practices to manage mental-health conditions including anxiety, depression and trauma.