Tending to the Human Body

Waking up early, eating healthy food, journaling, and exercise are all self-care as much as ordering in, treating yourself to a nicer bottle of wine, watching a trashy movie, or taking a long bath. It’s about tending to the human body like an animal: listening to what makes it happy, and what makes it not. This definition is still compatible with intense self-absorption. In Stein’s novel, Devin, one of the women at its center, spends her time drifting from treatment to treatment, colon cleansing, going to workouts, and otherwise meticulously tending to herself.