Let's Talk About Self Care w/ Amie Ward

Chances are, you are familiar with this term, whether from its nearly 40 million hashtag uses on Instagram or Googling it during quarantine. At its core, self-care is the deliberate act of tending to your well-being, and it is a highly flexible concept since we each feed our soul in different ways. But the "treat yourself" mainstream culture we have seen take over these past 4-5 years is not exactly what early proponents were envisioning. Self-care has roots in 5th century BC Greece courtesy of Socrates, who suggested that people try nurturing their souls rather than chasing social ladders and wealth. Fast-forwarding a bit through history, the term would eventually be adopted in the United States in the early half of the 20th century by medical professionals advocating for patients in long-term care to develop a sense of autonomy, value, and worth. It was later explored as a healing application for people experiencing PTSD, which is essential today.

But it was the tireless work of Black Civil Rights and Women's Liberation activists that radicalized the ideology as a powerful means for survival and standing up to social injustices—especially racial discrimination within the healthcare system where marginalized communities lacked access to essential health services. Audre Lorde, a Black poet, and activist revolutionized self-care in her book, A Burst of Light: and Other Essays with the infamous quote, "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence. It is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." Lorde and other activists like Angela Davis and Erika Huggins left indelible marks in the fight for racial equality, encouraging Black women and men to control their health as a pathway to freedom and liberation of their minds and body.