Why Your Wellness Routine is Expensive Self-Sabotage

The Cult of ‘Wellness’

Things begin innocently enough, you see a composed influencer sipping on bright green juice while perched on a sunlit terrace, her life looking very calm and kale-filled. You think that perhaps you could be her, if only you bought that juicer. One month later, and you’re struggling to remember how you justified this many pairs of £100 yoga pants. Facing a rising sense of failure because you didn’t meditate this morning.

The wellness industry promises serenity but thrives on turmoil. Some might say with less focus on making you well and more on making you want. Want the £300+ red light therapy mask, the 10-step skincare regimen, the crystal water bottle that somehow enhances your spiritual growth and hydrates you. Spoiler: it’s just a bottle.

The Aesthetic

Wellness seems to have become less about health and more about appearing to be healthy. Instagram turning self-care into a full-blown competitive sport. Smoothie bowls that look like edible art. Matching yoga mats, bras, leggings, tops and scrunchies. Skincare shelves resembling an entire apothecary business.

Meanwhile, as you aspire to recreate this in real life, your attempt appears slightly less curated. Your smoothie is lumpy as can be, your yoga poses look much less graceful, and your skincare routine is an eclectic selection of freebie samples. But that’s all totally fine, because wellness doesn’t care what your life looks like.

Complicatedly Simple

Wellness practices often preach simplicity, but that’s often not the case. Try googling ‘morning routine’ and you will be presented with a plethora of suggestions. Lists of activities including mindfulness, visualisation, journaling, grounding and cold plunges. You’ve now turned your mornings into a part-time job, congratulations.

Don’t even get me started on meal prep. After two hours of chopping and preparing, you have six identical containers of a dull looking chicken salad that no one in their right mind will find appetising when it comes to eating it.

Chasing Perfection

So when wellness routines are supposed to make you feel good, why is it that more often than not, they leave you feeling like a failure? Skip a workout? How lazy. Forget to journal? You’re disorganized. Eat a carb? How dare you.

Wellness, when done wrong, becomes another stressor. Why put ourselves through this when stressing about wellness is probably worse for us than just living our normal life.

Low-Maintenance Wellness Anyone?

So how do we tackle this? Try keeping things as simple as possible. Start with drinking water. Go for a walk. Take a nap. And if you want to, just eat the damn chocolate bar. Wellness doesn’t need to come with a post or a price. Sometimes the best self-care is ignoring what everyone else thinks you should be doing.

Make Wellness Work for You

At the end of the day, wellness is supposed to make you feel better, not stressed and overdrawn. Focus on what actually makes you happy, even if that’s bingeing your favourite boxset in your pyjamas with a pizza. Real wellness is about being kind to yourself.