Examining Wellness Culture
Chasing wellness can give you something new to strive for, a better you. It’s easy to fall into a pattern of seeing impressive people on social media promoting a new tea or a new diet and jumping on the train. It’s a rat race of trying to better yourself through new things, all at the risk of being unhealthy. A wellness culture can be beneficial for making a community and better managing your health, but it can very easily become a toxic obsession. Can wellness culture ever make people feel good about themselves? Let’s take a deeper look.
Wellness culture always leaves you wanting more. It’s as if you’ll never be fully healthy without pursuing the newest health trend that’s being promoted online. It’s an insatiable need, the idea that you can always be doing more to be healthier. There is a kind of fear factor that is underlined throughout wellness culture as a whole. If you stop drinking bone broth for breakfast or skip a day of 5 am yoga, you’ll ruin your health completely. One step forward and fifty steps back, people are worried about having to start over completely if they mess up once. There are multiple threats presented, but the common ones I’ve noticed are illness and gaining weight. People are convinced that if they fall off of the health trend, they’ll develop chronic illness. Additionally to this, there is an underlying theme of fatphobia within the wellness community. We often see health influencers who are stick thin advertising their minimal diet and extensive workout routine. This can plant an idea that thin means healthy, which just is not true. Even so, this idea of what kind of bodies look healthy creates a weakness in consumers. You have to participate to look like this influencer. It can quickly become a game of guilt and shame, rather than one of empowerment and shared journeys. There is an endless push to keep consuming content and control every aspect of your health, which simply isn’t possible.
How many celebrities do you see on Instagram promoting a new laxative tea or gym clothing? I know for me, it’s a lot. It’s almost unavoidable, it feels like every other post on a celebrity’s feed is sponsored. This kind of product advertisement isn’t solely for the good health of their followers, there is a steep monetary gain involved. This can be through sponsorships (think #ad) or simply by gaining traction online. Outrageous lifestyles, especially those marketed as healthy, garner attention. People want to follow along, simply because it’s different. Or maybe it looks luxurious. Influencers know that, and they know that there is money to be earned from all those eyes on their life. Additionally, Amazon storefronts are quickly getting a footing in the online sphere. There are plenty of creators who make posts reviewing or illustrating a product, and then pointing people to their Amazon storefront to pick up the product themselves. This is marketed as a convenience for the consumer, an easy way to find the exact same product, and it makes the influencer look like a girl’s girl, someone who doesn’t gatekeep good products. Through this practice, influencers make a small profit off of each sale completed through their storefront, kind of like an affiliate link. Promoting a constant wave of new products benefits them and their wallets, but it’s not usually with the consumer's best interest at heart.
When consuming and participating in wellness culture, it’s important to remember that there is no magic solution to your health. When a popular product doesn’t make your skin glow, remove your extra fat, and brighten your hair, it’s easy to think that you’re the problem. Unfortunately, when it comes to bodies, it’s usually not as simple as herbal fruit tea, bone broth, greens, or a secret food. Health is determined by a multitude of different factors, including but not limited to, diet, genetics, stress, and environmental factors. Any small thing can throw your health out of wack. It’s impossible to completely control all aspects of your health, even if you have the time and resources to try. So, consume with a grain of salt, and try not to micro-manage your every action when thinking about wellness.