Trying out Mindfulness and Self Care Trends
Shimon Augustine, Contributor
In a world that seems to get more complex by the day, “Self-care” and “Mindfulness” have become two buzz words that are thrown around carelessly for reasons ranging from selling foot massagers to justifying an unhealthy diet. But do we really understand what it means to take care of ourselves? Let’s dive in.
Firstly, by no means am I saying that self-care or being mindful is something that should be stigmatized or looked down upon, every one of us has a right to take care of our own mental health. But as humans we’re always looking for ways to optimize our lives, trying to get just a little bit more happiness right now, because after all, isn’t mindfulness just living in the now and forgetting about the future? It’s grotesquely fascinating to see how people, especially the youth, are justifying increasingly selfish, destructive and narrow-minded behavior purely based on the false notion that they are taking care of themselves. The commercialist world we live in doesn’t make it any better, in fact it arguably fans the flames of people’s desires to have a little short-term gain at the cost of their long-term well-being, relationships, mental health and more. It doesn’t sound so pretty when you lay it all out does it?
So how do we take a step back and make sure that we really are doing what is best for us? I think the biggest fallacy that commercial self-care implores us to believe is that self-care is only about one person: you. Now it may seem a bit counterintuitive, but one of the best ways to help yourself is to help others. Volunteer at a local orphanage or comfort a friend, it really doesn’t matter as long as you’re making someone else’s day just that much brighter. No amount of self-care products can ever replicate the sense of accomplishment you’ll get after a good deed done well.
Another thing I’d like us to reconsider is what it means to be mindful. Mindfulness means turning a mind full of thoughts into a calm one by just taking time to appreciate the present moment. Unsurprisingly, this one simple task is becoming harder to accomplish in a world that is filled with noise from a hundred different sources. What everyone seems to skip over is that mindfulness isn’t something exotic or foreign, like a guided meditation session no one has time for. It’s something that we can practice every day, by listening to our senses instead of our mind every once in a while. Instead of thinking about the ungodly number of assignments you have while walking to your next class, take some time to really look at your surroundings, to feel the sunshine on your skin, to breathe in some fresh air. It might seem trivial, but a few moments of mindfulness can do wonders for your mental
Now that I have bestowed upon you the secrets of self-care, go treat yourself to some volunteering or a mindful walk in the park, you’ve earned it!
