‘We’re sedating women with self-care’: how we became obsessed with wellness

Within the wellness industry, there's a huge variance in subcategories: diet, fitness, workplace resilience, CBD, yoga, skincare, tourism. Commercialized wellness borrows customs from varying traditions and repackages them for modern trends. With promises of authenticity, these products often are shallow, anesthetized versions of the original ideas they're derived from. The profit motives are obvious; the wellness industry "represents a $4.4tn market" (Global Wellness Institute).

The wellness industry at times relies on well established foundations of health, like diet and exercise. That said, they have the capacity to be predatory (e.g. promises that castor oil can cure cancer, cults of true love like the Twin Flames Universe). Once initated into the cult of wellness, for some it becomes a benign obsession and others a debilitating dogma.

Our obsession with wellness might come from our lack of good health. Despite our copious spending on privatized healthcare (more than 18% of GDP), Americans suffer from "lower life expectancy at birth and die more often from avoidable or treatable conditions than people in other high-income nations". Not only are Americans some of the most stressed on our planet, but over 20% of us live with mental illness.

Women, who report higher levels of stress , anxiety , depression and burnout , may be particularly susceptible to wellness. The perfectionism we impose on women, especially those with demanding care taker roles, forces us to contort our bodies to visions of how we should be. Admidst unending impossible expectations, how could we not fall into this "new form of faith?" Wellness promises what many religions also promise: happiness, purpose, and above all, everlasting life.

It feels like the world is on fire sometimes and it's not just global warming. Even if we could optimize every moment of our lives, there's no avoiding impending disasters and atrocities. While we have the capacity to direct ourselves through our will, systemic and environmental factors impede real boundaries in our lives. Not impossible or inescapable boundaries, but REAL boundaries.

"According to one well-trafficked statistic , the social determinants of health – factors like air quality, domestic safety, community support and education access – account for as much as 80% of health outcomes."

The Wellness Industry slyly makes promises it won't keep. Think about it. Wellness promises happiness, health, long life, better relationships, stable careers. If any one of these are lacking, whose fault is it? You're not "doing wellness" well enough. If unregulated, it can cyclically convince you that the solution to all of your problems is the right attitude. It's a trick to get you to spend money, and a potent one at that.

When self optimization becomes our main goal, it seeps into our daily rhetoric. Key phrases bombard us everywhere. We have to "take care", buy "mood-boosting" products, and use "hacks" to become "a better you."

Like a hamster on a wheel, we chase impossible expectations of wellness. Our discomfort with our own pain, fallibility, and mortality pushes us into a rat race to escape the inescapable.

We rigidly self regulate and surveil what we eat, drink, wear, think, read, watch, say, write, produce, consume, present, love, hate, feel indifferent towards.

It's a lot.

There will be a day when we are unwell. It may be soon or far in the future, but unwellness is inevitable. If we never feel well enough, when will we?

Wellness culture often implies "that it is not sufficient to simply feel good – we could always be accomplishing more." If there is always more for to be accomplished without rest, this obligation can easily take over our lives. Instead of improving our minds and bodies, it may debilitate them.

The wellness industry often provides snake oil solutions to very real problems. Real Wellness doesn't have a price tag or a combo deal or blowout sale. It's about ensuring conditions we thrive in whether:

• personally- daily movement, interoceptive awareness, resilience...
• socially- support systems, networks, hugs, meaningful connections...
• structurally- accessible medical care, nutritious food, good working conditions etc.

And when we don't thrive, it's about accepting that we won't always perform at our best. Not as a cheat code for performing better later, but because we are already enough.

It may be worthwhile to sit back and consider the hold that the cult of wellness has on our lives. We're here for a reason: because we've made a conscious decision to try to live more meaningful lives. When that goal overwhelms the very life we're trying to appreciate, it's gone too far. We have the option to accept life's unpredictability and relish in it. We can choose.

We're alive. What a gift.