Self Care Without Boarders

SELF-CARE WITHOUT BORDERS

BY CAITLYN GARRITY

There’s a good chance your idea of self-care doesn’t involve compassion, meditation or communal naked bathing. Our western world has a different definition of self-care than the eastern world. However, there are practices that are worth traveling the globe for.

EAST VS. WEST SELF-CARE

The western world sees the body as a “machine,” composed of different parts we treat as problems arise. On the other hand, the eastern world views the body as a self-regulating ecosystem that is affected by the environment and approaches self-care holistically, like daily waters to a garden.

As westerners, we are familiar with what self-care means to us. We use bubble baths, massages, face masks and other skin products to promote a clean and healthy exterior to fight against a stressed state. For internal self-care, people promote therapy, talking with friends, setting boundaries and other ways to establish a strong sense of self.

All these tactics tend to focus on fixing your state when you are experiencing moments of stress, depression and other negative feelings. While there are aspects of our self-care

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routines that are great for improving overall health, the East has a different perspective of self-care and new practices we could appropriately integrate into our routine.

EASTERN SELF-CARE: THE ART OF THE MINDBODY CONNECTION

Keeping in mind the eastern mentality of the “body as a garden,” the East implements self-care as a lifestyle, rather than a practice. According to Penn State kinesiology professor Storm Riddle, in their self-care “they look at body systems and their traditional practices, their practices are in the idea of blending mind and body together.” To eastern cultures, the body is not divided in different segments in which each part is working independently, but that every part needs to function properly for overall health.

Some common practices in the eastern world are yoga, an internal medicine practice called Ayurveda, meditation, tai chi and more. While a lot of eastern practices have exercise elements, the alignment of the body and mind is key. Connecting the mind and body means doing things mindfully and with purpose — making sure to analyze what you are feeling and how you can improve your mental and physical state together.

For professor Sima Farage, a Penn State kinesiology professor and instructor in the Health Promotion and Wellness department, mindfulness and meditation are a part of her daily routine. Each morning she engages in mediation. “I don’t put pressure on how long it needs to be, whatever you can do is good,” says Farage. “The little pause in the day is important to disassociate yourself from the doing.”

Farage references the different lifestyles between the East and the West. Having lived in Lebanon, she says a key difference is the need for constant productivity in the West. “We [westerners] think that sitting and taking up space is a waste of time,” says Farage.

She says that we might find it fearful to surrender ourselves to the Earth and the energy around us, which is the spiritual aspect of a lot of eastern practices. But this pause could be beneficial to add to our pre-existing self-care routine.

Photographed by: Jacob Lawall, Elinor Franklin

Farage focuses on her internal health by practicing Ayurveda, a way of health that involves the prevention and treatment of illness through massages, meditation, yoga, dietary changes and herbal medicine. Ayurveda is a direct reflection of the eastern self-care perspective of treating ourselves from the inside-out.

“Getting away from the notion that self-care is about how you look, the eastern part is about how you feel,” says Farage.

For Farage, she integrates Ayurveda by getting 12 hours of sleep each night, using food as medicine, dry brushing her skin and being mindful of her five senses, like monitoring the kind of music she hears.

INTEGRATING EASTERN PRACTICES IN A WESTERNER’S ROUTINE

Although eastern self-care is very different and has great benefits, we shouldn’t entirely abandon the way we live in the West.

“I am not necessarily advocating for one approach over the other, but how both can be beneficial,” says Kristen Boccumini, adjunct professor in kinesiology at Penn State.

Boccumini understands that we like to treat symptoms rather than change our lifestyles, but ultimately, change is what is required to see real results.

“Daily lifestyles of self-care are easy to neglect,” says Boccumini. Western intuitions, like college, can cause stress and mentalhealth concerns. If you find yourself to be the person that has good intentions when it comes to changing your lifestyle but ultimately quits because it’s “too much work,” you’re not alone.

Whether your definition of self-care is a face mask and a bath or a yoga flow and guided meditation, the main goal is to take time for yourself. Maybe try taking a “trip” in your routine to see a refreshing and hopefully enlightening perspective on what it means to self-care.