The Burden of Self-Care

“Self-care” is a term that’s been in the lexicon for a while now. The idea usually conjures images of wine and bubble baths and face masks. Lots of organizations and employers talk about self-care these days too. They emphasize the importance of engaging in this practice to help prevent burnout. That’s all well and good, but too often telling people to engage in “self-care” is just putting a bandaid over a psychological wound that won’t heal with bubble baths and wine alone. Oftentimes we end up placing the burden of healing and preventing burnout on the individual person, which keeps the systems we live and work in from having to change to address burnout and dysfunction.

So, if you are doing all of the self-care and still feel burned out, don’t beat yourself up. There is only so much you can do as an individual to fix the burn out, anxiety, and low mood that is caused by living in systems of oppression, trauma, and dysfunction. Baths and therapy help, but we need collective care and compassion for ourselves. If you are still experiencing symptoms of burnout after a whole day of self-care, you are normal. You are doing the best you can.