Thoughts on Wellness and Wellbeing
This post is more personal than most of what you’ll find here on Little Gems, in that it’s purely my thoughts without references to research or links to further reading. The terms, definitions, and meanings I’m playing with here are my own and not backed up (as far as I’m aware) by any experts or scholarship. Other individuals will have different interpretations of the concepts I get into below, and that’s wonderful! This post is just my attempt to describe what I am seeing and sensing out here in the world, without laying any claim to authority on the subject.
What I am currently struck by — from my position as both an observer and a participant here in late-stage capitalism — is the contrast between wellness as an ideal and an industry, and wellbeing as a felt experience and a way of living.
In 2024, the global wellness industry was a $6.8 trillion economy, larger than pharmaceuticals, tourism, or IT. Wellness, now, is almost completely indistinguishable from consumption. Most of us would likely find it harder to define “wellness” than to simply rattle off a slew of expenditures: wellness supplement, wellness routine, wellness membership, wellness spa, wellness [product or service here]. The legitimization of “wellness influencer” as a career path reflects the public appetite for participating in the wellness economy; after all, the job of an influencer is to influence spending. And what is the goal of all this spending?
Wellness influencers, devotees, and industry leaders all paint their work as cultivating and maintaining health, but the briefest survey of their products on offer gives away the game: it’s health as defined by thinness, conventional attractiveness, the appearance of youth, the appearance of wealth. Beneath the sleek marketing, the goods are the same as they ever were: anti-aging skincare, grifty and unregulated dietary supplements, appetite suppressants, waist-snatching exercise plans, etc. Despite the holistic-health-washing, these products and programs represent the same disciplining behaviors, purifying behaviors, and achieving and perfecting behaviors that Western culture has promoted and demanded (especially of women) for centuries. Through this lens, wellness looks an awful lot like repackaged patriarchy, capitalism, and diet culture.
Wellbeing — again, in my completely subjective take — is free. Wellbeing results from kindness and self-compassion. There is no wellbeing economy. In contrast to “health” achieved through a disciplined body, wellbeing is a soul at ease. Instead of an endlessly purified, perfected self, a deeply nurtured one.
Responsiveness to the body in rest, hunger, and movement. Frequent experiences of joy. Purpose. Connection with friends and loved ones. Stillness and reflection through religious practice, meditation, or art. Exercising agency through service, giving, or political engagement. Gratitude. The emotional growth and development to be able to regulate in difficult moments, communicate needs, and tolerate discomfort. An inner sturdiness and groundedness, even in the worst of times.
These nurturing acts, practices, and behaviors are their own reward. Wellbeing is the byproduct of treating oneself with dignity and tender care, and consistently meeting one’s own needs. In this way, wellbeing is the opposite of wellness — disciplining, purifying, achieving, and perfecting — where the methods are in service of an ideal state of existence. We don’t strive for wellbeing; by tuning out the noise from culture and capitalism, by turning inward to listen and honor our inner wisdom, we happen to find ourselves there.