Has self-care become synonymous with white privilege?
Between COVID, appalling political moments, protests and outrage over the treatment of Black lives in America... we've been asking ourselves what parts of "normal" and "supposed to" is privilege? We've been asking ourselves what we can do to support and be allies to ALL mamas, especially mamas who are Black and Indigenous? And we've been curious about how the language and culture around self-care can be seen as white privilege.
We are three mamas, one of us is Swedish and white, one of us is Arab-American, and one of us is a Caucasian white woman. And all three of us are committed to supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.
We believe self-care has been over-commercialized and marketed and become what looks like more white privilege.
Self-care is not pedicures, vacations to the beach, spa treatments, wine, and anything that requires financial resources.
Quite simply, we believe self-care is taking time for ourselves to connect with our own internal wisdom. Every person has access to this. It requires only a few moments a day.
And in saying that, we recognize that time is a privilege as well. Some mamas barely have a few minutes available to them to take a breath for themselves because they are so busy working and caring for others because our systems for centuries have not supported women, and especially women of color.
We see that and we honor all mamas that barely have a moment for themselves. We do believe though, that self-care at its core, is still available to even the mama with zero time and little resources.
Self-care is learning the tools we need in our lives to hear our own voice amidst the chaos and noise and moving beyond the "supposed-to's" of this world. It's a spiritual calling.
It's about making time for deep centering breaths that bring us into more life and joy. It is available to each and every one of us. We believe we all need self-care to thrive in motherhood.
Just a few weeks ago, we watched a man have his breath taken away. As he was dying he asked for his mama. He asked for his mama. That call shook us awake as a collective (thank goodness it did, but it's deeply troubling that it had to get that far to get us to wake up!). How many people, besides George Floyd, have had their breath taken from them because of the color of their skin?
We are on the side that says that this should never happen again.
Here is how we can do our part:
We will do our part in listening more, using our platform to be a voice for women of all colors—especially Black and Indigenous mamas. We will always welcome the feedback of our community to offer self-care resources that are available to every mama.
