Real Self-Care

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Self-care has become a staple in women's lives. From juice cleanses to yoga workshops to luxury bamboo sheets, we are sold breezy fixes in pastel-coloured packages, and then made to feel at fault when they don't work, like there is something wrong with us. But we are not broken: the game is rigged against us. And if we set aside those activities that don't serve us, we can all reconnect with ourselves and become agents of change in our lives.

In Real Self-Care, psychiatrist and women's mental health specialist Dr Pooja Lakshmin will help you understand what a real and sustainable practice of caring for yourself looks like. Using case studies, clinical research and actionable strategies to deal with common problems, this book will help you set boundaries and move past guilt, treat yourself with compassion, live a life aligned with your values and assert your power. The result - having ownership over your life - is nothing less than a personal and social revolution.

Because real self-care is not a noun - it's a verb. And while it may not be as easy as buying that crystal-infused water bottle, the rewards are infinite.

©2023 Pooja Lakshmin (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

  • In Real Self-Care, Pooja explores what it really means to take care of ourselves and provides a revolutionary self-care framework that is honest, compassionate, and completely actionable.

    Dr Becky Kennedy, no. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Good Inside

  • A compassionate and powerful approach to true wellbeing. Real Self-Care is a helpful and timely book, and one that every modern woman needs.

    Julia Samuel

  • A bracingly honest, galvanizing and necessarily provocative look at what ‘self-care’ looks at – through a political and feminist lens. Expect to fold down every other page.

    Pandora Sykes

  • Invaluable. For anyone mothering, working, simply trying to be their ‘best self’, this book will offer clarity and a new way forward.

    Katherine Ormerod

  • This isn’t just another self-help book. It gives us a clear-eyed look at the way social systems drain our energy, and a concrete set of principles to rely on as we declare independence from these systems. Pooja is just the kind of wise, compassionate, experienced advisor who can help us claim health and happiness for the long term, despite the near-impossible demands that face us all. Real Self-Care is a much-needed sanctuary for the minds and hearts of its readers.

    Martha Beck

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