A “Self-Care for Self-Love” workshop was held by the Women of Color Leadership Network on Saturday morning in the New Africa House.

According to the Center for Women and Community website, “self-care” focuses on how individuals make sure that they are able to function at their best. Six students attended the weekend event.

Hindi Mari, the WOCLN director, said the workshop was part of a series based on the needs of women and non-binary people of color.

“I hope our attendees will achieve academic success and build connection with other attendees, other students of color and resources on campus with their takeaways of our ‘Self-Care for Self-Love,’” Mari said. “I would like to help them to prepare for their professional lives after graduation.”

The attendees of the workshop were asked to define what self-care meant for them and share their answers with a partner in what was called a “bump activity.” Common answers included playing musical instruments, cooking or using face masks.

The students then answered questions related to self-care to get a better understanding of what role self-care plays in everyday life. The conversation among the attendees focused largely on the stress of academic life and sharing ideas on how to include self-care on a tight schedule.

The final question asked the students whether their race impacted their “idea [of] and access to self-care,” to which four students responded in the affirmative. The students then shared how their cultural and ethnic backgrounds have influenced their experiences.

The final event of the workshop allowed the students to categorize their ideas of self-care into six types: psychological, emotional, spiritual, personal, professional and physical. Afterward, all attendees set individual goals for improving their self-care and considered possible barriers to reaching those goals.

Xi Wong, a junior BDIC major, said that she decided to attend this workshop to develop her personal growth and learn to “help take care of [herself] better.”

She added, “Eventually, it was good to share ideas about self-care with other women. I will pay more attention to the facets [of] self-care that I need to work on.”

The next workshop held by WOCLN will focus on salary negotiation for women and will be held on Saturday, March 2 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Yurika Yamazaki can be reached at [email protected].