Real Wellness Doesn’t Come With a Price Tag
Wellness and self-care used to be simple. Wellness was about tuning in to your body and mind, finding balance and creating health in a way that felt right for you. Self-care was about small, doable acts like taking a walk, getting enough sleep or saying no when you needed to.
Today, it’s hard to separate self-care from the dopamine-fueled spending industry behind it. Wellness is no longer just about looking after yourself; it’s often about status. Think $300 yoga mats, $175 IV vitamin drips and luxury retreats promising to “transform'“ your life in a weekend. The false promise of wellness culture is that if you buy something you’ll feel better.
The irony of this largely unregulated industry is its limitations. Sure, money can smooth over some of life’s challenges (and wrinkles) but it can’t cure everything that ails us. A new serum can’t stop you from getting older. A new supplement regimen can’t wipe away burnout. A meditative weekend can’t heal your trauma.
Real Wellness is Not a Luxury
The global wellness industry is collectively worth over $6.8 trillion and it thrives by convincing us that our ordinary lives are not enough. The message is clear: You’re not healthy, happy or whole yet but you could be—if only you bought this jade egg, this goat-milk cleanse or this perfectly curated lifestyle.
Brands like GOOP and Wanderlust have fine-tuned this formula. Acting as a one-stop shop for “perfecting” yourself, GOOP sells not just products but an entire philosophy: wellness as luxury. It’s a seductive message, especially for those who feel their problems have been ignored by conventional medicine. Buying into this modern lifestyle brand feels like self-care in itself, as if the act of spending money on something thoughtful and tailored makes you more cared for and seen.
The sad truth is that most of these products are the modern equivalent of snake oil. They promise a better life, but their effects are fleeting at best. For some, the joy is all in the buying, the anticipation that something about you will change. And when it doesn’t, the cycle begins again.
This consumerist approach to self-care isn’t just misguided—it’s exclusionary. The way the wellness industry operates today widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Access to wellness now feels like a privilege reserved for those with the disposable income to afford it.
Real Wellness Takes Work
This new wellness paradigm undermines our intelligence. It tells us that we’re incapable of taking care of ourselves without external help, that we need an endless supply of products and programs to feel okay. But real wellness can’t be sold in a bottle. It’s not something you buy; it’s something you work on over a lifetime.
Dr. Pooja Lakshmin writes in Real Self-Care, wellness is about doing the hard often invisible work of understanding your values and living in alignment with them. It’s about setting boundaries, sitting with uncomfortable feelings and learning to navigate life’s ups and downs without looking for overly simplistic remedies.
Real Wellness is for Everyone
Wellness culture wants us to believe that we’re broken and need to be fixed. We’re not. We have everything we need to care for ourselves, it just takes commitment. Here are 4 ways everyone can reclaim wellness.
Introspection: Take a moment to ask yourself what you truly need. Trust your inner wisdom to guide you—we all have it. Work toward understanding your core values and learn how to live your live in alignment with those values.
Connection: Lean into relationships that lift you up. True wellness is found in community, not isolation.
Resilience: Embrace life’s messiness. The ups and downs are part of the human experience and they can’t be erased with a credit card.
Self-Compassion: Practice self-compassion by treating yourself with the same kindness you'd offer a close friend. It involves embracing imperfections, recognizing shared humanity and approaching personal failures with gentleness rather than self-criticism.
There’s nothing wrong with getting excited about buying something that has the potential to make you feel better. We’ve all been there. Sometimes we find temporary fixes that make looking after ourselves a bit easier. But lasting wellness and real self-care come from self-determination and simple, free choices. It’s not about what you buy but rather how you care for yourself with what’s already within reach.