the money grab that is “self care”

It literally doesn’t matter what you’re selling, all that matters anymore is how you market and display what you’ve got.

The color scheme, the packaging, the description, the layout design, the brand logo, the website font, etc etc etc. There is so much emphasis on how things look, versus how they are in reality.‍ ‍

Like my momma always says, “Presentation is everything.”You may have made the tastiest meal, but if it doesn’t look pretty, very few are going to eat it.

So in the world of entrepreneurship and such, what a wildly creative opportunity we have to customize our offerings to look any way that feels like a right fit — but also, so many times, it is such a completely false representation of what’s actually being offered.

Marketing is designed to be in tune and aware of the things that will pull your heart strings and steal away your attention.

So for women in this culture that holds beauty, anti-aging, anti-curves, and anti-pause to the highest importance, there the marketing will be.

But how many of the “self-care” practices that women are encouraged to do and invest in actually leave them feeling nourished and recharged?

From my set of eyes, women are gathering up their limited dollars with their tired hands to go spend money on things that end up needing to be re-done in two weeks, and that never get close to the root of what’s draining them.

And around and around they go.

Sure, “You look good, you feel good.”

And of course, that’s going to be different for each of us. The clothing, the hair, the nails, the style. It’s all individual. But my wonder is, has it become that women are spending so much of their resources (time, energy, finance) to chase the “looking good” part in hope that the “feeling good” will sometime follow? And… does it ever?

In Circle, this was something my sisters and I had talked about a while back — how women are so eager to invest in things that inevitably leave them empty, yet are hesitant to give time and energy to the things that may actually give them fresh spark. Actually, the group of women I am in circle with several times a month is a perfect example of exactly this — I couldn’t care less about makeup and nails, but I do invest my time and resources into relationship, connection, and conversation with women who fuel me, have held my raw, unsanded stories, and mirrored back to me my own strength.

It’s the realest kind of self care, actually.

And of course there are a million ways we can “care for our self” — but maybe it would all sink in a little deeper and replenish us more thoroughly if we would be willing to look at the actual roots of what’s left us feeling in need of self-care in the first place.

True self-care connects us to the things of life that are greater than our individual selves, while simultaneously restoring power within our individual self.

This can look so many ways.

It might be sitting on the porch with a good pup and a good book.

It may be things that help you dive deeper into the layers of yourself — massage, sisterhood, meditation, you name it.

So dear sister, I am simply inviting you to bring awareness and intention to the things that you consider to be self care practices and ask, “Does this bring me more life energy, or is this actually a distraction?”

Is this worth the resource I give it, or should I use that energy elsewhere?

Let your inner knowing guide you and don’t be afraid to say a resounding yes to the things that you’re called to invest your resources in.

Let the distractions go.

With so much love,

G