Throughout college, it is easy to forget how vital it is that we take care of ourselves and each other. Sure, everyone is going to go through times where we stay up all night trying to get work done, not eat enough, get stress and anxiety, have bad days, tests, quizzes, and papers, a bad report card, family drama, friend drama, getting in trouble, missing a deadline, and so much more.
But hey, at least we are better than most.
NPR’s Christine Silva calls the millennial generation “the generation of emotional intelligence” because we have such a huge focus on self-care. Sometimes, we cannot all reach those high expectations set for us in our daily lives and due to popular millennial culture, we young people are ready to admit that this is acceptable. How many memes have you seen memes about becoming a complete failure? Our generation embraces the fact that it is okay to fail, in every way. If there is a limit on how much you can fail according to meme culture, I have not found it. These days, it is not seen as inappropriate to live in your parents’ house; rather it is seen as economically wise.
For me, I like to remind myself that Zac Efron performed Bet on It in High School Musical 2 and got paid millions, and if that can happen then I will be okay.
This is a result of our positive outlook on life. According to Pew Research Center, more millennials reported making improvement commitments than any generation previous. The word self-care reached a five year high on Google searches, which has only continued to rise, after the most recent election. Perhaps, ironically, we have our current president to thank for that. We spend twice as much as baby-boomers on self-care according to Field Agent’s Dr. Chris Mendenwal. Apparently, there are now self-care Twitter bots.
This all seems to be because of the internet, according to one study titled “Google It!: Urban Community College Students’ Use of the Internet to Obtain Self-Care and Personal Health Information”. The background for this study states that “as electronic resources increasingly play a major role in consumer health, eHealth literacy has emerged as a valuable tool to improve and enhance health knowledge and behavior.” Millennials have increased their awareness of self-care that extends beyond going to bed every night at the right time, which shampoo and conditioner to use, and eating more avocados. According to a research report prepared for Time for Change called Attitudes to Mental illness 2014 Research Report, the millennial generation has increased awareness and decreased stigma regarding mental health issues. For example, there has been an increase in people who agree with the statement “‘people with mental health problems should have the same rights to a job as anyone else’ – agreement increased from 66% in 2008 to 80% in 2014.” No wonder the self-care industry is now ten billion dollars, millennials are clearly doing something right and everyone needs to catch on.
Self-care TED Talks:
https://www.ted.com/playlists/299/the_importance_of_self_care