Emily Gryllakis, Special to The Denisonian
Spend five minutes scrolling through social media or reading a popular magazine and there is a good chance you will see at least one article detailing new self-care practices to incorporate into your life. These practices are, of course, always accompanied by advertisements and are marketed as necessities to reach interpersonal fulfillment. Which of us isn’t intrigued by the idea of inner peace being a facemask away?
The phrase ‘self-care’ conjures images of a spa day, pretty journals, or some good old-fashioned retail therapy. There is room for these things in an individual’s life, but conflating mental hygiene with consumer goods is disingenuous at best and dangerous at worst. Many of us are compelled by fantasy and blinded by the promise of a quick fix. This leads to normal people chasing a dragon and companies lining their pockets; not to mention the waste of cheap plastic products that will quickly be thrown out, if not collecting dust on someone’s shelf (clutter can actually worsen mental distress long term.)
Estimated to be worth 20 Billion U.S.D. as of 2022, the wellness industry is a behemoth that has grown ever larger in the past ten years. Although self-improvement snake oil has been around forever, self-care started to look like how we know it today back in 2015-16. Bath bombs entered the cultural consciousness, companies like Glossier exploded onto the beauty scene, and wellness became synonymous with consumption. In 2020 when people were literally and figuratively stuck, they turned to the “Order Now” button. Esoteric wellness practices made their way into the mainstream as a balm for the worries and frustrations that characterized the year. It’s never a good thing to solely turn to consumption for comfort. It’s worse when physical health is neglected as a consequence.
Physical health has a direct impact on mental state, but that dimension of self-care is often overlooked. Diet and exercise are underrepresented in wellness industry marketing because although they can and have been commodified, they needn’t necessarily be.
A strong foundation is critical to maintaining quality of life with age. It’s much harder to monetize lightweight lifting and a healthy diet than it is to hawk a cure-all piece of plastic, so the wellness industry must resort to a dualistic ethos. The dichotomization of the brain and the body is an illusion that helps to keep us dutiful consumers.
The individual consumer is not blameless. The business model that allows the wellness industry to thrive couldn’t work without the participation of individuals. We live in a time when instant gratification has never been easier, and never before have we been so constantly bombarded by advertising. The future is uncertain, so we are encouraged to “treat ourselves”. Undoubtedly this has affected the human psyche and eroded our ability to conceptualize long-term outcomes. Despite the exacerbating factors, each of us has free will and the capacity for critical thought. There is a comfort in the tangible and immediate but while a fancy new water bottle or pack of meditation prompt cards might bring temporary happiness, lifestyle has a far more significant role in health and wellness. A mini mini-fridge won’t cure your anxiety. It’s worth it to take time to think about the way we live: Are you taking care of yourself or a business’s bottom line?