When people think of the term “self-care,” they probably think of a group of girls having a spa day: getting facials, their nails done and massages. However, this is definitely not the case. Not only can it include those things, but it can mean cleaning your room, exercising or even sleeping. People tend to oversimplify self-care and put it into a category only meant for girls, but it is for everyone, and it means more than we think it does.

       Self-care can mean many different things. The whole point of self-care is to better yourself or to do things for your well-being. My self-care day might look like deep cleaning my room, taking a nap and being by myself all day, but someone else’s might look like going to the gym for an hour, doing a peel-off clay mask at home and going to dinner with a friend. It is all about individual needs at the time, and it can manifest in different ways for different people.

       Not only is self-care physical, it can be mental as well. Depending on a person’s needs, self-care can also include asking for help, setting boundaries or forgiving yourself. No matter how it comes about, self-care needs to stop being generalized as a girly thing. Men do forms of self-care without even realizing it most of the time, such as when they go to the gym or cook themselves hearty meals. You do not always have to be painting your nails or putting cucumbers over your eyes to be participating in self-care. It comes in many forms and can be expressed in many different ways.

       The point of self-care is to put yourself first and to do something to benefit you. Whether that means doing a face mask or going to the gym or forgiving yourself for something that happened in the past and setting new boundaries with people, it’s entirely up to you. No matter what, it is all up to specific needs at the time. Self-care is not all glitz and glam; there are some hard pills to swallow to genuinely get to a place of self-love and acceptance. Generalizing it into a girly act and only thinking that it involves those stereotypical components is not right and an outdated way of thinking.