Some Thoughts on Wellness
When I say the word “wellness,” what comes to mind?
I think of green juice. Pilates. Electrolyte potions. Morning meditation. Yoga retreats.
When I Google the term, Goop and Vogue are on my first page of results. What does this say about our society? What does health look like, outside the confines of capitalism and consumerism?
I find myself asking this question quite often, these days. As health becomes increasingly defined through the lens of the digital age, we are bombarded with advertisements, content, and advertisements disguised as content promoting products that will supposedly improve our wellbeing. In reality, many of these peddlers use deceptive marketing and unverified claims to sell a dream of health that is wrapped up in lies.
Our health has also become increasingly tied to how we look. Health is not monolithic; a variety of body types, shapes, and sizes of people are, and can be, healthy. Yet, we are constantly told to strive to look more attractive, to change our appearance to be more ‘acceptable’ to the mainstream ideals. The metrics are ignored, or also co-opted, instead replaced by eyes of judgement.
Of course, appearance and image have something to do with health. Through natural selection, we’ve come to value clear skin, full hair, long nails, and white teeth, because they are heuristic indicators of ones reproductive fitness. We unconsciously prefer those of an ideal hip ratio, for the same reason; it is indicative of fertility and the ability to bear children. That doesn’t mean that aesthetics or physical beauty are inherently negative either; it simply means that this isn’t the complete story. These tools are valuable, but they don’t tell the complete picture of health and wellness. There is also a complete layer that is missing when we try to make things look picture perfect and that is our mental and emotional wellbeing.
If all it took was ideal physical health to be well, no one would ever suffer from addiction, mental illness, or emotional pain if they were in peak physical shape. We’ve probably all known people, or maybe even ourselves been one, who appeared to have everything figured out, to be beautiful, young, and full of zest for life, who are struggling with depression, PTSD, anxiety, or deep, profound grief.
In order to decouple wellness and capitalism, we need to redefine health in our own lives and feeds. We need to focus on dental hygiene as much as skincare, we need to make our communities more accessible for those with disabilities, we need to prioritize clean air and water as much as we prioritize working out and eating healthy. We must be willing to acknowledge the systemic influences that make health more attainable for the privileged and rectify the damages that the privatization of our resources has on the wellness of communities. We must look at our world in the mirror, and not just ourselves, when we focus on physical beauty. We must be as invested in the beautification of our parks as our faces, our federal lands as our bodies, and our wildlife as our pets.
Wellness is more than Instagram wants us to believe; it is defined by the many layers of fabric in our ecosystems. It is our birthright.