Is self care really the answer?

“Self care” has become a real buzzword in the past decade—and it can include anything from an hour (or a day) at the spa to meditating to practicing yoga to drinking green smoothies to slathering yourself, your pets, and your house with essential oils.

I don’t have anything against these activities in principle—well, you can probably tell by my aggressive use of sarcasm font that I might have something against some of them—and I don’t think they’re particularly effective in the way they are currently applied.

why not?

Because very often self-care activities get crammed into our schedules in the way every other appointment is: someone says we “should” do it, we believe them and/or want to please them, so we add it to our already overstuffed calendars.

Do we feel better—really better deep down inside—afterwards? Maybe. And maybe they just become another “should” that makes us feel guilty when we break the appointment or neglect the practice, but really, how much can we get done in a day?

And if we don’t keep the appointment, do we then start blaming ourselves for that, adding yet more evidence to our list of why we’re terrible people who can’t do anything right?

what’s an alternative to self care?

Join me for a live webinar on Tuesday, July 17 at 12pm ET and find out!

(And since I may have just ticked off an entire nation of health coaches by saying that self care is not the answer, if I don’t show up for the webinar, please send bail money.)