Everyone wants to talk about self-care, it has become very in-vogue, and I can appreciate a society that looks to take care of itself.
But why do you have to be sold on it?
We have built this society that is sold on the idea that to take care of ourselves we have to follow this influencer, or download this app, or some tool or kit that will surely solve your problems.
Gone even are the days where you go into a bookstore to buy a self-help book, though there is certainly no shortage from those so-called experts, turning to new ways to hock their products.
According to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, there are an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 mental health apps across all major app stories, while 2 to 15% have any published evidence behind them, according to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Ultimately these catch-all products for taking care of yourself have just become another commodity, it’s no longer a cottage industry, but a multi-trillion dollar economic force.
The disgusting part about all of it is that it centers upon the self, that your problems can be fixed if you just buck-up, pull yourself up by your boot-straps, and buy “their product.”
There are just better ways to spend your time and your money, another product or app isn’t gonna fix the problem, it’s simply placating it until it festers or grows into something else, something worse.
Sometimes self-care means finally talking to your friends and sharing what you have on your mind, just getting it off of your chest. Being able to let it sit out in the open can be the most freeing thing in the world.
Sometimes self-care is making time for the things that truly bring you joy, whatever that may be, whatever makes your heart wake.
Sometimes it’s finally laying in bed and resting, finally catching up on a terrible sleep debt that you have accumulated, having that quiet moment to yourself that you have been longing for and yet rarely ever arrives.
Truthfully there is no right or wrong answer in what self-care looks like, it will look different for all of us.
Perhaps that’s the most sinister part of this industry that has developed, it looks to neatly package self-care into an efficient user interface, or a product you can order off amazon.ca.
