When self-care becomes ego-care, its purpose is lost. To care for yourself is to care for another
Picture a woman getting out of bed, slipping into black tights and top, wrapping herself in a soft blanket and sitting down on a meditation cushion. She lights a candle, some incense, and her Palo Santo stick, repeating a mantra or manifestation. She has adorned her space with crystals and tarot cards. She drops some essential oils on her pulse point, her matcha latte sitting just an arm's length away laced with CBD to calm her over-productive mind.
You can see her chest lifting while she breaths. After a few minutes, she rolls out a yoga mat, moving into sun salutations, a flowing sequence until she lands on her head before taking a savanna, resting pose. She gets up, reaches for her mobile phone, switches the camera off, presses post and tags her reel.
Yoga and self-care, two practices with roots deep in various cultures, are now primarily associated with the wellness industry. The woman I describe above could've been me.
Photo: Julia Astok
McKinsey estimates the global wellness market at more than $1.5 trillion, with annual growth of five to 10 per cent. However, according to tradition, to care for the self involves scaling down, adopting a slower pace, respecting nature and community, and most importantly, getting to know yourself.
I asked Fariha Róisín, the author of "Who Is Wellness For?: An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who It Leaves Behind", to explain the importance of knowing the narrative behind wellness traditions, and what happens if it is left out. "Firstly, the wellness industry refuses to understand how it participates in neo-colonial structures that rely on the labour and industry of the Global South, while refusing to equitably pay them Western standards", she writes in an email.
Fariha Róisín. Photo: Sylvie Rosokoff
According to McKinsey, the six most popular categories in wellness are health, fitness, nutrition, appearance, sleep, and mindfulness, but this is from a survey based on scoping out the future of marketing in the industry. What happens when something meant to heal becomes a marketing tool for consumerism?
Róisín continues, "we're in a constant cycle of extraction. The structure is rooted in insecurity and the need to "extract" from cultures we deem lesser. This billion-dollar industry predominantly takes its information from Asian ancestral lineages. If we cared about wellness, it wouldn't be about making money for the sake of making money – we would care about wellness for all."
We live in times of upheaval; every aspect of our lifestyles is scrutinised. Sometimes, things need to be cracked open for change to happen. To quote the late singer Leonard Cohen, "There is a crack in everything; that's how the light gets in."
The origins of today's self-care industry are rooted in 'radical self-care' an idea popularised by the United States' Black Power movement of the 1960s and '70s. Róisín explains: "It is rooted, I think, in political action. It's remembrance that we self-care only to be better citizens in the world. As Malcolm X once said, 'If you replace the 'i' out of illness with 'we', you make wellness… it's so simple."
With 'radical self-care', caring for the self is also to give back to the community.
40% of Europeans suffer from some form of mental illness. Self-care can be more than skin deep if we dare to overcome the ego of using distractions as tools to reward and recover. We don't need to transform and become a better version of ourselves instead; we should find more solace in nature and much less in smartphones, apps that track every heartbeat and algorithms calculating every google search. It's imperative that we understand that the tech industry profits enormously on capitalising on marketable mindfulness apps.
Addressing personal growth means taking an honest look at what activities we engage in to obtain a healthy lifestyle. To put things into context, the self-care we read about in media is all about the surface. With 'radical self-care', caring for the self is also to give back to the community. In a thriving community we would hold space for each other and find comfort and relief, even in the challenges of daily life.
Róisín ends our conversation with, "The more we connect with a true sense of selves within the landscape of the natural world, the more we can tap into the greatness of what it means to heal."