Better Than Happiness

March 31, 2022 | By Sharla Moody BK’22

Since coming to college, I’ve noticed an emphasis on self-care, which I understand to mean the actions one takes to preserve one’s own health and well-being. Especially since the beginning of the pandemic, I have adopted habits to keep me grounded and healthy, like taking walks and baking to de-stress. Encouraging people to take stock of their mental health and build healthy habits has clear, unambiguous good effects. But at times, our understanding of self-care can become a complete prioritization of the self in a way that overlooks the fundamentals of living as a person in community. If I am prioritizing myself in all situations, this will come into tension with how I prioritize the communities of which I am a part. While I have responsibilities to myself, I also have responsibilities to others.