What Even Is ‘Wellness’, Anymore?

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What does wellness mean to you? What do you picture when the word comes up?

Sometime in the last decade, the world became totally and utterly obsessed with wellness. Feeling good is a pretty important part of life and increases our happiness and quality of life overall, but the phrase has become so blurred and complex that it’s almost lost its meaning.

Initially, the idea of wellness being presented to us was about minding your body and mind – but various strands of the trend have since developed, from the commercial to the downright dangerous.

The Dangerous Side of Wellness

While wellness was always supposed to be about being the best version of yourself, a trend worsened during the pandemic, where some self-described wellness ‘gurus’ leaned into conspiracy theories, alt-right beliefs and controversial views. Many of those who believe in the importance of wellness believe in natural remedies, organic produce and connecting to nature, but with it, in some cases, came a distrust of anything not listed above.

Some social media personalities who peddle wellness began to talk about the alleged dangers of the Covid vaccine, the main-steam media and high-profile figures. Dr Eileen Culloty, Assistant Professor in DCU and co-author of Disinformation and Manipulation in Digital Media, observes that wellness concepts are often lifted and twisted from cultural traditions all over the world.

“In rural Ireland, for example, there is a rich history of folk remedies that vary between the mysterious (healing wells, healers) to practical efforts (herbs and salves). A lot of contemporary wellness takes the folk traditions of other cultures, especially South Asian, and repackages them for Western audiences.” She adds that due to a lack of resources and support, there is a demand for this from society again.

“People seem to be drawn to the idea of spiritual or mystical alternatives and traditions that pre-date our highly technical and scientific age. It’s also worth remembering that while advancements in medical science have been incredible, medical services are not as impressive. In the US, a completely commercial system leaves many people unable to access healthcare or in fear of getting sick.

In our own country and the UK, the systems are crumbling leaving people deeply frustrated. That kind of environment makes it easy for wellness practitioners to present themselves as alternatives.” As for the conspiracy route, Dr Eileen points out: “A lot of ‘alternative medicine’ and ‘wellness’ is more accurately described as anti-medicine and anti-science. There’s a continuum of beliefs. A starting point for many people is concern about over-prescription of medicines. That’s an understandable concern. Similarly, some people find medicine too clinical and they feel a need for alternative practices, such as meditation or yoga, which put emphasis on the person and their state of mind. Again, that’s reasonable.

“Unfortunately, people who market themselves as wellness and alternative health practitioners often go further than that to attack the entire concept of evidence-based or scientific medicine. They typically rely on the natural fallacy to argue that what is ‘natural’ must be better than what is synthetic and developed in a lab. That’s a fallacy because there are plenty of natural things that are deadly for humans and the supposed remedies have no evidence to back them up.

“For example, many wellness practitioners have argued that people can eat themselves healthy if they have cancer. These are very dangerous ideas – not only because they are not grounded in any evidence and serve to make money for wellness practitioners, but because they put the blame on the individuals: if you are sick and don’t get better, you didn’t try hard enough to ‘eat well’ or you didn’t do enough positive thinking.”

Photo by Anna Shvets / Pexels

As for the rise in the concerning blend between wellness and conspiracy during Covid, Eileen points out: “Conspiracy theories are often associated with periods of upheaval and uncertainty as people seek answers. But also, the lockdowns meant people spent more time online and the speed of digital technologies is such that when a conspiracy emerges in the US, people in Ireland are automatically engaging with it.

And there’s money to be made in making people afraid and selling false cures.” Ultimately, the best way to combat this is for people to be aware of the motives behind these ideas, and to educate ourselves as much as possible.

Selling Wellness

A perhaps less sinister side of wellness, but one that can also dilute its meaning, is hyperconsumerism. Like most things in this world, if there is interest, it will be sellable. At this point, you might associate the concept of wellness with mindfulness journals that cost €50 and supplements that give you energy. I’m not suggesting this stuff doesn’t work or isn’t part of the puzzle.

If this stuff works for you, and you enjoy it – then it adds to your wellbeing. But the concept of wellness has huge commercial value, with wellness influencers and brands bringing out products marketed as self-care. Dr Patricia Barber, counselling psychologist at My Psychology Ireland, admits that this side of wellness makes her feel ‘uneasy’.

“At times it makes me feel quite sad as a professional psychologist because often these things are marketed to those who are more vulnerable or more ‘unwell’ in our society. I don’t have a difficulty with people selling these things as something that may be helpful or as one of many things that someone might need, but when they are sold as a quick fix then I find it difficult and damaging to others’ mental health. I will recommend a candle perhaps as one of many things within a self-soothing box for a teenager but it’s not a ‘wellness candle’ – it’s just a candle and I would never suggest it on its own to improve someone’s wellness.”

So if we can be alert to ways in which wellness can be twisted and turned into something darker, and we accept that we don’t need to buy green tea or new leggings in order to truly be ‘well’, what’s left?

What Does Wellness Really Mean?

Dr Patricia shares her understanding of wellness. “Psychologist Carl Rogers talks about ‘a fully functioning person’. By his theory, this is someone who is completely aware of their own feelings and reactions but are not overwhelmed or ruled by their emotions. What that means is that someone can feel sadness in the moment and they sit with feelings of sadness, but they aren’t over-consumed by it, because they know that emotions change and there will be a period of time where they feel happy again.

“Likewise when someone is happy, they embrace it in the moment and enjoy it because they understand that there may be another time where they feel worried or sad. Unfortunately, I think wellness has been distorted to mean that we need to be ‘happy’ or ‘content’ all the time and that simply isn’t reflective of our emotions. When Rogers talks about a fully functioning person he suggests very few of us actually achieve this level of self-awareness but I think we can all work towards elements of this. I also think there are different types of wellness, physical, emotional, social and spiritual for example and these all can be worked on individually but are also connected.”

Dr Patricia adds that if ‘things’ make you happy, it can indeed contribute to wellness. “I think it’s important to understand how these things can be helpful for some but not for others. Theories such as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggest that we can’t work on elements of our wellness without taking care of other aspects of wellbeing first. For example, someone who is struggling in terms of housing or employment will need to be focusing on their physical wellness – their safety and stability – before they can work on their emotional wellness or spiritual needs. If you can imagine being very vulnerable and perhaps quite unwell, I can understand why you would want to purchase something that claims to make you feel better.

“The danger then is that if someone purchases a candle, some supplements, maybe attends a healing circle, but none of these things show long-lasting benefits then the individual can begin to feel that there is something wrong with them because the change doesn’t last. I would love to see some more research on this area but I would hypothesise that many things might work for individuals with quite mild difficulties, in which case isn’t it wonderful that we have wellness items that can offer that. It’s when they are marketed as something that offers a quick fix or solution to more severe problems that I think people need to be mindful of what they are embracing. Certainly, there are physical items that can be purchased to improve wellness but it is important they are used within a toolkit.”

So if we are looking to build this ‘toolkit’ within, where do we start? “I think it’s about understanding wellness and what it means to you. There is some freely accessible literature on the different dimensions of wellness and it can be helpful to reflect on these as well as how much you feel you take care of each one. Focusing on improving one for a while might be helpful or setting short goals will be helpful. I would caution anyone saying ‘I am going to focus on being my best self’ but not really reflecting on what that might look like? How will you know if you have improved? What would be the signs for you that you are doing better?

“For some people, wellness will look more like acceptance of who you are rather than the need to change. Self-reflection is therefore important to ask yourself what, if anything, do I need to change? Why do I feel the need to change it? Some people will dive straight into self-help books, but if you find yourself buying multiple self-help books I would encourage you to stop and reflect on why. Sometimes talking to someone can be more beneficial but there are also lots of podcasts and online resources which are available and support you with wellness.”

As we enter the new year, it’s perhaps the most heightened time of all for messaging around wellness, so when it comes to coping in a time of ads, conspiracies around what wellness means, and general pressure from seemingly all around us, Dr Patricia offers her advice.

“The pressure of ‘new year, new you’ is one I feel is unhelpful. I think it can be helpful to reflect on what we might want for the year ahead but I typically tell my clients to do so in December or February, away from the pressure and need to change. Acceptance is also so important. If we constantly get messages that we should change, better ourselves or strive for more we can lose sight of the fact that we might be ok just as we are.”

This article first appeared in the January/February issue of STELLAR magazine. 

• New Year
• wellness