Is Self-Care A Scam?

Written by a human, for humans, always.

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I was just reading an article, and they made a bold statement.

Self-Care is a scam.

It is an interesting position because we live in a world that is consumed with the idea of self-care.

Lots of products...

Services...

Modalities...

All designed to help you with your self-care.

You would think that if the industry is so profitable...

And people say good things about self-care...

It cannot be a scam...

Right?

The positioning of this statement creates what is known as a "False Dichotomy".

It puts us in a position to think either...

Self-Care is a scam...

Or...

Self-Care is not a scam.

But the reality is that neither is true.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Self-Care is a good thing...

But a lot of what we learn about self-care is a scam.

It may seem like a silly statement...

But "not" taking care of ourselves is problematic.

It sounds very reasonable when we say it.

We can probably all agree that this is true.

Yet...

Where it becomes significantly more problematic is in this question...

How do you take care of yourself?

There are some things which we may know pretty clearly...

Like you need to drink water and eat healthy food.

You may not "do" these...

But we can generally agree these are true, even when we do not actually do them in our lives.

But what qualifies a "healthy food"?

Which is better for you...

A fast-food burger or a plant-based burger?

Well, it may surprise you that they are about equally bad for us...

With some people claiming that the fast-food burger, if it is made with real meat, might actually be healthier.

The problem with both is that they are extremely processed.

Many people have "heard" that processed foods are not good for us...

But they do not really understand what that means...

And it is why they might believe that a "plant-based burger" is a healthier alternative...

Even though it is actually extremely processed "food"...

Often filled with sawdust.

But this is just one tiny example of a scam within the many aspects of "self-care".

Another is all of the "services" designed to help with burnout.

Meditation.

Breathing exercises.

Exercise.

Wellness retreats.

There are many more than these...

With workshops and programs galore, which will charge you an exorbitant amount of money.

But do these actually solve burnout?

No.

It is why most of these solutions have existed for years or decades...

But burnout has gotten exponentially worse.

Burnout is far more complex than any of these is able to handle.

In fact...

Assuming you do the "right" things to overcome burnout...

Which these services do not...

Failing to account for things such as energy (Mg-ATP) production or oxidative stress reduction, as examples...

It will still take a "minimum" of 6 weeks to recover from "mild" burnout...

And potentially "over" a year in more significant cases of burnout.

What "self-care" program are you aware of that will help you with this?

Especially when you are still experiencing extremely high levels of stress from overwork and lack of proper recovery?

Do you really think that someone who has a certificate in some modality that took them a few months to obtain (if they have legitimate training at all) is going to solve the problem?

I know for a fact that it will not...

Because it took me years of study and obtaining both certifications and degrees in a variety of psychophysiological modalities to understand the extent of the problem.

All of this also does not account for the wide variety of scams, as they are legally defined, that also occur in the "self-care" industry.

This is why people, rightfully, say that self-care is a scam.

A lot of it is...

Sometimes literally.

What makes it all more difficult...

Is that there are a number of people who are actually very well intentioned...

Who deeply believe in the work that they do...

Yet fail to really understand the limitations of their work or the long-term results of their work...

Or have been trained in such a specific way as to believe that their methodologies "work"...

While failing to see that there are other things that may work significantly better.

This is why the self-care industry can become so difficult to navigate and obtain results with.

It also fails to address another challenge.

Some of the problems we face, no amount of self-care is going to help.

For instance...

If you are working 60 hours a week in a job that you despise...

It really is not going to matter if you meditate, exercise, and do all of the "self-care" things...

Because your biggest problem is your work...

And trying to do so many things outside of your work may actually end up making things worse...

Simply because you do not have the available capacity for more stressors...

Even "healthy" stressors, such as working out.

What many people do not realize is that even "good" things can become harmful for our health when done in certain ways or at certain times.

For instance...

Many people believe that going for a jog will be healthy and help relieve their stressors...

But if you push your body into your anaerobic zone for long periods of time...

Which most people do, believing they are "jogging" when in fact they are actually doing "long runs", which physiologically are completely different...

And you are not getting enough nutrients to maintain those long runs...

And you are not getting enough water and electrolytes to replace what you lost...

And you are not getting enough sleep to recover...

And you are not getting the nutrients for ceruloplasmin or protein-repair...

And you are doing it in shoes that cause heel-striking and over-striding...

You are going to end up just destroying your body faster.

That is why there are reports that say up to 75% of "runners" injure themselves every year.

They are doing a "self-care" exercise incorrectly, while simultaneously, they are already past their stress threshold.

Eventually...

Something breaks.

The point of all of this...

Is that self-care "is" important...

Clearly.

But most of what we believe "is" self-care...

Is a scam...

Or fails to account for real barriers that make the self-care unusable and/or worthless...

Which can end up creating more problems than solving.

Many people in the self-care world...

Knowingly or unknowingly contribute to the problems and make them worse...

By preying on your fears and pains to convince you to buy things you do not need.

You do need to make sure that you take care of yourself...

But make sure that you are not being scammed in the process.

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