What Is Radical Self Care?

I’m pretty sure I know what self care is. But what is Radical Self Care? And why is it radical? And what does radical even mean?

So I asked Google and this is what I found at the Indiana State University website:

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.

And at Integrative Nutrition, we have this explanation as to how regular self care differs from radical self care:

Self-care is taking care of your needs first, however that may look. In a broader sense, radical self-care involves healing your heart and soul (metaphorically) and healing your body in order to keep going. It’s about being present in your own care ‒ recognizing that you care for yourself in an intentional way.

These explanations are all well and good, but they don’t really answer my questions. In my world self care means taking care of your self… your whole self… why is this a radical thought? Which brings me to another question… What does radical even mean?

This was interesting! In chemistry, radical means:

A group of atoms behaving as a unit in a number of compounds.

As an adjective, it means:

(especially of change or action) relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something; far-reaching or thorough. For example ~ “a radical overhaul of the existing regulatory framework”

As a noun, it means:

A person who favors rapid and sweeping changes especially in laws and methods of government.

So based on what I just read, my interpretation of our Radical Self Care project goes something like this:

We are going to pull our self together, stop scattering our energy all over the place and begin to behave as a unit, as our own true self. And we will do this in a far reaching and thorough way because we want rapid and sweeping changes in the way we rule our lives.

I like this. What do you think? We start tomorrow! Are you ready?