A healthy debate on the worth of 'wellness'
The 360 is a feature designed to show you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories.
What’s happening
Two weeks into January, resolutions are fresh, gym memberships are activated, diet plans are underway and words like “health,” “wellness” and “self-care” are everywhere, along with phrases like “a new year, a new you.” It’s the beginning of another cycle of self-reinvention.
“Wellness” isn’t a new concept, but with the rise of celebrity-backed lifestyle ventures like Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, it’s become a popular and highly profitable one. Wellness is now a multi-trillion dollar industry that has its critics and its champions.
There are those in the medical field who have looked on warily as face masks and energy crystals are marketed as antidotes for real ailments. And there are just as many advocates of the “mindfulness” movement (also now referred to as an industry) and its holistic approach to well-being. Case in point: The most popular Apple store apps of 2018 were the “self-care” features like the meditation app Calm and the pep-talk app Shine.
The wellness epidemic (and use of the word “wellness” to mask commercial motives) has sparked debate over whether a pursuit of feeling “well” might get in the way of being medically healthy, or whether the two must go hand-in-hand, as several studies have noted. Is it junk science or a valuable supplement? Is it a privilege or a necessity?
The latest viral debate
The latest flare-up in this debate was sparked when then Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced on Instagram in December that she’d be taking a break before taking office: “I am starting a week of self-care where I am taking the week off and taking care of me.”
Her post continued, “I went from doing yoga and making wild rice and salmon dinners to eating fast food for dinner and falling asleep in my jeans and makeup. We live in a culture where that kind of lifestyle is subtly celebrated as ‘working hard,’ but I will be the first to tell you it’s NOT CUTE and makes your life harder on the other end.”
Ocasio-Cortez later added on Twitter that self-care can be an especially tricky topic, because “for working people, immigrants, & the poor, self-care is political.”
While she was mocked by a few, Ocasio-Cortez mostly received praise for her candor in bringing the hazards of burnout to the fore (even from some Republicans), and the varied perspectives on her self-care mission also reflect the themes of the broader cultural debate about the balance of health, life and work.
Perspectives
Do like Ocasio-Cortez and make time for self. “Few in America brag about time off; it’s almost regarded as something sinful. Our culture is hardly religious, yet we seem most Puritanical about work. Nothing wrong with hard work, but too often work is considered ‘hard’ if the hours are long. Many employees fall into the trap of grinding out longer hours because their boss does the same. There is the perception that if they work “normal hours” they are slackers. In such instances, activity is equated to productivity. Work hard but work smart! And let me add work wisely. That is, like Ocasio-Cortez, make time for self. Exercise, eat right and indulge yourself in your passions. You need downtime to re-energize. For many work is energizing but too much work for too long becomes an addiction.” – Executive coach John Baldoni,
Burnout is a real thing. “American culture is forever suspicious of what’s perceived as frivolity, particularly when it’s practiced by people who are traditional caretakers or who are without monetary means. … Burnout is a real thing. Vacations and breaks, even coffee breaks, make us more productive and more engaged with both our work and our day-to-day life. However, to say all that already plays into the dominant narrative that we need to rationalize our time away from work as good for the work, and our desire that we not live on scraps alone as something bigger than a simple desire to relax and enjoy our life.” – Helaine Olen,
The “crusade” for “wellness” creates unhealthy anxiety. “The rise of the internet has allowed amplification of the cool, trendy and aesthetically pleasing, and science — which does not readily use advertising teams or public-relations companies — has struggled to make itself heard. So there is nothing new about the goodness of exercise as medicine — indeed, there is high-quality evidence that it helps prevent and treat many conditions. The wellness crusade, however, invites people to feel constantly anxious about their health, even when feeling entirely well.” – Dr. Margaret McCartney,
Meditation is a wellness fad, but don’t let that stop you from doing it. “A few years ago, I began to fear that the caustic mechanisms of the internet were eating away at my brain, turning me into an embittered, distracted, reflexively cynical churl. … And so, to survive the brain-dissolving internet, I turned to meditation…. For a while, I flitted among several meditation books and apps, trying different ways to be mindful without pain. … Then, about four months ago, I brute-forced it: I made meditation part of my morning routine and made myself stick with it. I started with 10 minutes a day, then built up to 15, 20, then 30. Eventually, something clicked, and the benefits became noticeable, and then remarkable.” – Tech columnist Farhad Manjoo,
Wellness is not the same as medicine. “Medicine is the science of reducing death and disease, and increasing long and healthy lives. Wellness used to mean a blend of health and happiness. Something that made you feel good or brought joy and was not medically harmful — perhaps a massage or a walk along the beach. But it has become a false antidote to the fear of modern life and death.” – Dr. Jen Gunter,
The wellness industry is basically fat-shaming. “So much of what’s supposed to make us feel whole is actually preventing us from being our whole selves in an authentic way,” writes Caroline Rothstein in
Marie Claire. She quotes Linda Arbus, a New York City-based psychotherapist who teaches fat studies at the Women’s Therapy Centre Institute, who said, “We use all this diet, beauty, and wellness stuff to compare and compete with each other … It loses the real central importance of trying to live as holistically as possible and love ourselves and each other the best we can.” Rothstein also quotes Gloria Lucas, who runs Nalgona Positivity Pride, a “Xicana/Brown*/Indigenous” body positive organization. Lucas said, “The wellness industry all ends up tying to thin obsession.”
Because the journey to wellness is such a personal one, many pushing back on the multi-trillion-dollar industry explain that individuals must focus less on the latest juice cleanse and more on simply what makes them feel their best.
“Wellness … is not about finding the ‘new you.'” Anne Hodder, a certified sex and relationships educator in Los Angeles, explained to Yahoo News: “[It] is rooted in a place of unconditional love for and connection with yourself, and taking the necessary steps to building that love and connection in a culture that actively tries to sabotage it.
