Faux Self-Care vs. Real Self-Care

A launch week excerpt from Real Self-Care: Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble-Baths Not Included

REAL SELF-CARE launch week exceeded my wildest expectations. As a first time author, I didn’t have a mental frame of reference. But, I think it’s safe to say that it was a pretty fucking great week.

There was GMA, Times Square, a ginormous Amazon Books billboard towering over 7th Ave and 34th, a feature in the The New York Times. On pub day itself, the book was an instant Amazon women’s health best-seller (wut!)

And a surprise rave review in Vox by Constance Grady, where REAL SELF-CARE was held up with best-selling author Jenny Odell’s SAVING TIME, as a handbook for how to make sense of time in end-stage capitalism. This was a particular highlight for me because Grady so deeply got my core message.

“Where Lakshmin aligns with Odell is in her contention that once that internal work begins, it evolves into systemic reform…The biggest gift both of these books have to offer, though, is the possibility that life doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t have to languish, impotent, in our dumb d…