Just like America runs on Dunkin’, the country also runs to social media to scope out the smartest self-care secrets. And while self-care is imperative to entwine into a hectic week, it’s easy to strive for perfectionism instead of balance, causing stress instead of serenity. As someone who likes everything perfected to a T, I knew my mentality of self-care had to be redefined, so I did just that as the new decade roared around the corner.
While rose petals and a bubble bath are a dynamic duo for deep relaxation, it’s unrealistic to prepare every day, especially as a college student in the box that I call my apartment. Yet, this is how self-care is digitally displayed: a young woman waking up to birds chirping, preparing an oatmeal bowl with over ten ingredients, and pampering herself from her bouncy curls down to her pedicured toes. Yeah, she’s all over the self-care advertisements.
I soon realized that the time I spent setting the perfect stage for self-care was wasted because I wasn’t pampering myself, I was pampering the falsehood of what I thought I needed to achieve. Instead of focusing on how shiny and smooth the lined paper was in my journal, I just started to write, not glancing at a scribble or two that I had left while my creativity was on the loose. Instead of effortlessly lining up fruit in an acai bowl (which is not as simple as it looks, FYI), I pushed the Instagram-worthy images of the colorful bowls aside to focus on my one self-care goal for the morning: to make a healthy breakfast. So, I made an oatmeal bowl with bananas, strawberries, cinnamon, chia seeds and a scoop of almond butter. Sure, my morning creation may never hit the cover of a magazine, but I know amid a busy week, taking the time to incorporate an energizing start to my morning is what makes me happy, and that is how I now define self-care.