There is a word that we use as if there were no tomorrow and that belongs to this era: well-being, no longer or not only understood economically as in the post-war years but as feeling good, in physical and mental health. It is the term that marks the times and that we look for in the most diverse things: everything is well-being. The gymnastics upon awakening, the melatonin supplement, the salad to eat for lunch not to mention what comes to us from social media: a continuous practice of yoga on the chair, the food plan with intermittent fasting, even the tutorials to keep tidying the wardrobe refers to well-being.
Whatever wellness activity you have, you’ve probably never thought: this is wellness. The term that became ubiquitous in the 2010s for rising to the top with Covid, is almost impossible to define. From supplements to breathing exercises, luxury experiences to outdoor tranquility and TikTok influencers, wellness hides behind almost everything related to health and beauty. It’s about how you feel, but also about looking good for how you feel (which is, ideally, good). It’s about striving to be better, whatever that means to you (and knowing what that means to you is part of the process, too). Wellbeing has a vocabulary. It turns everything you touch, from practices to products, into lifestyle improvements that are good for you.
L’Oxford English Dictionary fa trace the word “wellness” back to 1650but the term didn’t catch on until the 1950s, when Doctor Halbert L. Dunnwidely recognized as the father of the wellness movement, began to argue that health is not only defined by the absence of disease, but also by a person’s “inner world”, social environment, and economic status. In a 1959 article for the Canadian Journal of Public Health, Dunn defined “high-level wellness” as “an integrated method of functioning that is oriented to maximizing the potential of which the individual is capable.”
Flash forward some sixty years, hundreds of doctors, yogis, personal trainers, and influencers, and Dunn’s words still echo in today’s wellness marketing far and wide. The difference is that “high-level wellness” and “maximizing potential” can now mean a gym membership, a diet shake, or a trip to an urban spa before a meal at a fast-casual salad chain.
How did we get here? According to Alyssa Bereznak, wellness editor of the Los Angeles Times, in its early days, wellness was about preventing disease and meeting emotional and physical needs. And while it’s still these things, our emotional and physical needs have evolved along with what it means to live a good life: “Many of the roots of American wellness trace their roots back to the 1960s, when Americans were re-examining what it meant to live a fulfilling life. They were abandoning the idea that it had to mean buying a house, starting a family and working in a company until retirement.” The same thoughts that we had more or less in those years in boom Italy.
So if the goal wasn’t just to achieve middle-class comforts, or if middle-class comforts didn’t actually lead to long, fulfilling, healthy lives, what should the new goal be? Feel good. In the United States in particular, this has almost never included looking good and looking young, for as long as possible. And that’s one of the reasons why the wellness industry was once largely aimed at women, because as we know, women have historically been held to standards of beauty that men simply didn’t meet.
Many things have changed over the years. While the wellness industry is still shaped by cultural notions surrounding gender, race, body size and shape, and its products have been criticized for offering miracles where miracles have not been proven, and the barrier to entry is more often than not the ability to pay big bucks for special treatments, what we’re seeing now is a more relaxed, inclusive wellness that’s less about what you can buy and more about how you think. “Wellbeing is not synonymous with luxury”says Anthony Vennare, founder of the popular health and fitness newsletter Fitt Insider. For Vennare, wellness can be things like taking walks, interacting with other people and camping. It is also about “replacing third places” such as community centers and churches. “It’s about bringing together like-minded people with similar goals to participate in an activity that everyone enjoys.”
And as convenient as it may be, there is no magic pill for well-being. The future of “wellness” may well be a verb that means finding and maintaining a practice, investing time, and engaging in things that help you relax and pay attention to yourself to better care for others: “Wellness is not a product that you can buy; it’s not a course you can take.”
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