The One Where Wellness Went Mainstream: How We Can Shift Today’s Culture to Live Well and be GOOD

We throw “wellness” around to relay the latest health trends - new products, routines and information that promise a better life. Non-toxic makeup, CBD oil, cauliflower in absolutely everything. Whether or not these products and ideas truly promote health doesn’t seem to play much of a role in what drives us to chase an idealized state of well-being. 

But to say we are chasing wellness implies that we know what this state looks and feels like. When truthfully, have we ever considered what it really means to live well and be GOOD?

Maybe you think so, or maybe our current culture is fooling you.

The wellness industry has its origins in alternative medicine - the belief that “health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” This way of thinking about health was totally against the norm. Wellness enthusiasts were the hippies of their academia. Think Burning Man, but healthcare.

This counterculture has its roots in ancient practices dating back to Hinduism and Buddhism and the ancient Greeks. The Hindus emphasized harmony between the mind, body, and spirit through Ayurveda, a regime that catered to the individual’s needs. Traditional Chinese medicine discovered herbal medicine and acupuncture amongst other practices to optimize physical vitality. And the Greeks arguably founded the principles of preventative medicine by which diet, lifestyle, and environmental factors contribute greatly to our overall well-being. Health, it came to be, was determined by much more than the presence or lack of disease. 

And then (like, hundreds of years later) the internet happened and what it meant to live a GOOD life drastically changed - not because of false information on health, but how industry began to capitalize on it. 

Wellness went mainstream.

We’ve come a long way since the rockstars of the age B.C. Stretching is an integral component of workout programs, many college campuses provide free mental health services, and even fast food chains have found a way to capitalize on the growing truth that incorporating more plant-based foods into our diet rocks. Alternative medicine as a niche has grown into a much larger community that celebrates the importance of good health and emphasizes our ability for self-improvement.

Remember the telephone game from elementary school? Where the first player comes up with a message that gets whispered into the ear of the other players one by one until your original “once upon a time” becomes “I like eggs.” The final message is totally different from the original and no one understands how it got there. I like this game because it illustrates a flaw in how we share information: the larger the audience, the more attention and visibility, the greater the vulnerability to miscommunication.

So as more and more people become eager to chase greater health - which, fellow sisters we are HERE for it - the core message to what it means to live well and be GOOD gets tangled up in status and labels created by the industry.

Take yoga. It originated in India over 5,000 years ago as a practice that fosters physical, mental, and spiritual development. Researchers have caught on to the numerous ways yoga can benefit our health - improved flexibility, adrenal regulation, and self-efficacy to name a few. Not nearly as many people were practicing yoga regularly twenty years ago as they are today. Luxury athleisure lines started to capitalize on its growing practice as more and more fitness centers add yoga classes to their offerings. Yoga then feels less attainable, requiring a certain privilege to achieve its benefits. Yoga becomes more about doing something “right” by society’s standards rather than actively participating in a greater self. Yoga now is given a superficial label of wellness because yoga went mainstream.

But that doesn’t mean yogis are fooling themselves of greater health. I use yoga as an example because I feel like we can all agree that yoga is awesome for its timeless success. Just because something goes mainstream doesn’t mean there isn’t promise and truth in its efficacy. And when it comes to wellness, this capitalization makes it easy to chase status over the act itself of living in full health.

It becomes necessary then to shift today’s culture to understand what wellness truly means in order to encourage a wider engagement in its pursuit.

Wellness is neither achieved or ascribed. Wellness isn’t a term we can streamline as across individuals because wellness by its very definition is personal. It’s all about catering to your needs and what best helps you live well and be GOOD.

It’s all about you.

Back in the 2010s (wow) when I fell in love with the pursuit of greater health, I came across this quote by Dr. Emeran Mayer that to this day I argue speaks the truth of what it means to live well:

“Optimal health [is] a condition that has been defined as complete physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social well-being, with peak vitality, optimal personal performance, and high productivity…it is a person who not only has no bothersome physical symptoms but is also happy, has lots of friends, and enjoys his or her work…living is all about happiness and laughter.”

The key takeaway from Dr. Mayer is that “good health” is not a label or goal, but a way of leading life that brings day by day vitality.

So yes, wellness went mainstream - but this isn’t a bad thing. Garnering more attention to the pursuit of greater health is a groundbreaking movement that in the last decade alone has grown rapidly. People today care about their personal health and understand how their lifestyles can enhance it. Shifting the culture therefore doesn’t require any more convincing that wellness is a worthy endeavor. It relies on defying labels developed by the mainstream and keeping the principles of wellness above core to its very pursuit. 

Because it’s all about you. And you choose how to engage in your greater self.

Looking to further craft what it means for you to live well and be GOOD? Our first ever Change Maker Retreat is all the best parts of GOOD (amazing community, connection, high vibes, amazing swag, dreamy speakers), with a spin on programming that challenges and inspires impact, leadership, and GOOD change within ourselves and the world around us. For more information and to reserve your spot, click here!

Written by Samantha Sette