Dear College of Education Community,
The importance of engaging in radical self-care is critically important as we witness or directly experience racism, sexism, homophobia, audism, class, and other forms of oppression. Radical self-care involves deep reflective work that prioritizes our own inner peace and commitment to take care of ourselves first before attempting to take care of others. In a broader sense, radical self-care involves healing our hearts and souls (metaphorically) and our bodies in order to keep going. It’s about being intentional in our own care.
In their 2017 article in Feminist Teacher, Donna J. Nicol and Jennifer A. Yee state "Radical self-care was and is an imperative practice to resist pressures to comply, conform, and above all, to remain true to our authentic selves. Radical self-care involves embracing practices that keep us physically and psychologically healthy and fit, making time to reflect on what matters to us, challenging ourselves to grow, and checking ourselves to ensure that what we are doing aligns with what matters to us. We consider this self-care “radical” because it fundamentally alters how we make choices about allocating time, money, and energy for ourselves personally, at home, and at work and seeks to revolutionize our workplace practices. Practiced faithfully, radical self-care involves owning and directing our lives and choosing with whom, how, and how often we engage in our nested, interconnected worlds so that we can be unapologetically ourselves in the face of unrelenting pressure and expectations to be otherwise."
If you are interesting in reading more about radical self-care, please view this article https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/femteacher.27.2-3.0133
For a list of other self-care options, you can also go to our COE self-care website for resources for faculty, staff, students, and the community at
https://www.csun.edu/eisner-education/self-care
Radical self-care is important for all of us to practice, no matter who we are or what our journey in life has been.
Warmly,
Shari