Beyond Self-Care Potato Chips

Choosing Nourishing Self-Care in a Quick-Fix Culture

De: Amber Wardell PhD

Narrado por: Amber Wardell PhD

From a cognitive psychologist, a trusted voice among millennial women, a call to action for listeners everywhere to enter their true self-care era that will nourish and sustain them.

Toxic self-care culture tells women that bubble baths and Botox are the route to happiness and fulfillment. Though these types of self-care can fill us up in the moment, they cannot provide long-lasting nourishment. They are empty calories—the potato chips of self-care.

And from them, we can never get full. In the same way, we will not feel fulfilled by reaching for the empty calorie “self-care” trends that toxic, materialistic self-care culture sells us. To fill our exhausted bodies and weary minds, to live fully and authentically, we need the kind of self-care that nourishes.

Beyond Self-Care Potato Chips is a call to action for women everywhere to reach instead for nourishing self-care. Though this may sound easy in theory, many women struggle to carry it out. We struggle because we have forgotten how to reach. Our training as little girls taught us that it is polite to be grateful for what we get. To say thank you but I'm full when offered second helpings. To accept the potato chips we are given because there are people on this planet who have none, so how dare we ask for more?

Through the narrative voice of a psychologist who is also an exhausted millennial mom trying to keep it all together, Beyond Self-Care Potato Chips explores courageous self-care in the areas of marriage, motherhood, family dynamics, friendships, career life, and mental health. The author's personal stories range from the hilariously-yet-painfully relatable to the resonantly heart-rending. Each of these stories—the beautiful, the sparkling, the sad and the chaotic—teach women something about what it means to reach. What it means to stop settling for potato chips and to instead grasp for the things that truly fulfill. Beyond Self-Care Potato Chips is a mindset—a way of embracing and stepping into all of our divine, feminine power.

©2024 Amber Wardell, PhD (P)2024 Recorded Books

Great read for both female and male readers

I purchased the physical and audio versions of this book. I listened to the audio version so I could hear Amber narrate her book. I do not usually like it when authors read their books, but Amber did a fantastic job.
I have followed Amber for a few years on social media and was excited to find out she was writing a book. I could not wait to get my copy (or copies as it turned out). A lot of what Amber talks about on her socials is female-centered. As a male follower, I know it is not all mean for me. Some may feel she bashes males, but I have never felt ill will from her. She always makes me think.
This book is not my typical book. No spies or espionage. This book is filled with stories and examples of things in Amber’s life and how she handled them. These stories are told in a way that may relate to the reader and how she handled the situations could help others find a way to deal with their situations. A lot of what she talks about is female-centered and female-empowering. To me, there was no male bashing. Her examples of being a mom and a female living and working in a world that can be very male-centric gave me insight into how women may feel about things. I know men do and say things completely oblivious to how it may come across to women.
For the men who may look at this book and think “This is not for me”, maybe this book is exactly for you.
Maybe it will make you think as well.