It’s time to embrace community care & let go of individualistic self-care

Everyone loves self-care these days… including billionaires, wealthy celebrities, corporations, your workplace or academic institutions, pop culture, and every social media influencer & wellness “guru”. The flourishing multi-billion dollar wellness, self-help & self-care industry reflects on the popularity of the concept. Since I migrated to the United States, I’ve spent years trying to understand what the f*** “self-care” even means. The concept is entirely non-existent in many collectivist communities (particularly Indigenous or land-based communities in the Global South) and by extension it is incomprehensible to many of us. I’ve felt deficient, confused, & inadequate being unable to grasp something so many around me seemingly got (seemingly being the key word).

I kept asking “how can I care for myself when I cannot survive or thrive in a world by myself?” How can I care for myself when survival is a collective responsibility & we are fundamentally dependent on the care of so many beings? How can I care for myself in a vacuum when caring for others is inevitably how I end up being cared for? What does “self-care” mean when my wellbeing is inextricably tied to the health of my community, the land & every part of our ecosystems?

Read more in Cosmic Anarchy.

Written by External Article
Everyone is talking about caregiving, but it can still be difficult to find meaningful information and real stories that go deep. We read (and listen to and watch and look at) the best content about caregiving and bring you a curated selection. Have a great story about caregiving? Use our contact form to submit it to us so we can share it with the community!

Related Articles

The cost of living with a disability

The cost of living with a disability

On average, disabled households require 28% more income to obtain the same standard of living as non disabled households. Read more in Esquire.

Popular categories

Finances
Burnout
After Caregiving
Housing
Relationships
Finding Meaning
Planning
Dying
Finding Support
Work
Grief

Don't see what you're looking for? Search the library

Share your thoughts

0 Comments

Share your thoughts and experiences

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Join our communities

Whenever you want to talk, there’s always someone up in one of our Facebook communities.

These private Facebook groups are a space for support and encouragement — or getting it off your chest.

Join our newsletter

Thoughts on care work from Cori, our director, that hit your inbox each Monday morning (more-or-less).

There are no grand solutions, but there are countless little ways to make our lives better.

Share your insights

Caregivers have wisdom and experience to share. Researchers, product developers, and members of the media are eager to understand the nature of care work and make a difference.

We have a group specifically to connect you so we can bring about change.