The Girl Gang Talks Self-Care | #91

Click here to access a written transcript of this episode.

Your favorite Girl Gang is back in action! Ally Ridnour and Tiffany Cunningham return to the podcast once again, and this time we're chatting about self-care. If you feel like the self-care conversation is overdone, I get it. But I promise that our discussion is nuanced and has far more depth than the average self-care article or post. In fact, you just might learn something new about self-care that you didn't know before.

We discussed:

• Self-care's historic roots in the civil rights movement.
• How we each define self-care for ourselves at this point in time.
• The differences between self-soothing, self-care, community care, and structural care.
• The concept of self-parenting and helping yourself do self-care more consistently.
• How capitalism has kind of taken over self-soothing.
• Magical thinking about hydration in wellness culture.
• Having agency over and intention with what we choose to do for self-care.
• Revenge Bedtime Procrastination
• The inaccessible nature of a lot of aspects of self-soothing and self-care when community care and structural care are lacking.
• Learning to move through fear so you can make more informed decisions.
• Not falling prey to the “shoulds” of self-care.
• Not being a Judgy McJudgerson about other people's self-care choices.
• How self-care for individuals is not an answer to systemic problems that need systemic solutions.
• Allowing your self-care to happen in baby steps at first.

Mentioned in This Episode

• Urine Color Chart
• The Shine App post about the history of self-care
• The Unspoken Complexity of “Self-Care” webcomic by Deanna Zandt
• The Enneagram
• 5 Strategies for Improving Mental Health | #71
• Counselor Deanna Troi and her ice cream
• Revenge Bedtime Procrastination
• Financial Self-Care and Values-Based Spending with Kara Perez | #63
• My You Need A Budget (YNAB) referral link
• Laziness Does Not Exist with Dr. Devon Price | #88
• Yes Please by Amy Poehler
• Biscuits by Kacey Musgraves

Featured in This Episode

The Girl Gang is made up of Shohreh Davoodi, host of the Conjuring Up Courage podcast, as well as two of her closest friends, Tiffany Cunningham and Ally Ridnour.

Shohreh (she/her) was the host of the Conjuring Up Courage podcast during the show's three-year run. Currently, Shohreh is focusing her attention on being a writer and creator. You can keep up with Shohreh by subscribing to her newsletter, The Queer Agenda, and following her on Instagram and TikTok.

Tiffany (she/they) is a graphic designer, aerial enthusiast, fanfic author, cat mom, gay fairy gothmother, and bisexual human disaster. An actual Austin, Texas native, she’s been keeping her hometown weird long before it was cool. She is proud to be friends with Shohreh, and their friendship has grown through their shared passions for aerials and pop punk, mental health struggles, and experiences as queer women thumbing their noses at the patriarchy. You can find Tiffany on Instagram.

Ally (she/her) is an aerialist, a horror movie enthusiast, and a proud member of the Girl Gang. She has been described as “actually a trench coat filled with snakes and chaos” as well as “literally a demon,” and she feels those are pretty accurate descriptions. When she’s not busy filling every space she encounters with chaotic energy, she can probably be found laughing about farts or giving long-winded speeches about her weird taste in music to unappreciative audiences. She has a lot of opinions. You can find Ally on Instagram.