The Post-Wellness Era

Whenever a note takes off and spreads like wildfire, I take it as a sign that a deeper conversation lies beneath the surface and must be excavated:

I wasn’t expecting it to take off.

When I posted it, I was kind of anticipating that it would just be a throwaway—that it wouldn’t resonate, a stream of consciousness too niche for anyone to identify with.

Boy, was I mistaken.

I don’t know what my actual most popular note is, but I’m certain it has to be this one at this point, and that’s incredibly telling of a truth that many are feeling but few are talking about: we’re tired of wellness.

Maybe I should rephrase: we want to be well, but we’re sick of the perfectionistic, commercialized wellness that profits off of us never feeling like we’re ever doing enough. Always a new problem to solve, always a new boogeyman to be afraid of, any skin condition, gut issue, sleep problem, or nervous system dysregulation, our fault for not trying hard enough (or shelling out enough money).

So today, I’d like…