I noticed that there is a difference between what science tells us and what the wellness industries sell us. We are sold the idea that if we eat the right things, if we use a certain supplement or product and if we practice a certain activity, we can practically guarantee our well-being and our individual health. But when we look at the available data, we see that health and well-being are influenced in part by our individual choices and behaviors, but also by many factors over which we as individuals have no control. However, the wellness industries sell us the opposite idea, which is false. It brings us into a perpetual wheel, always looking for better. The consequence may be that we will buy products, therefore we will have wasted our money, wasted our time, but it can have more serious consequences such as the development of eating disorders and lead to other mental health problems and a feeling continual failure. It’s not the importance of taking care of yourself that I’m questioning. There is a distinction to be made between wellness culture and toxic wellness culture. We need to be able to separate what is toxic from what is not. The goal is to get people involved in the right things.
Really. For me, it was a way of shaping myself. It was very much a part of my identity at that time. People who knew me or followed me on social media might have said, “Ah yes, she’s the girl who drinks green juice and has an impeccable diet. She plays sports, she meditates, she does yoga. » For me it was a way of being socially accepted, of having a certain value in the eyes of others. There are some of these practices that are still part of my life because they really make me feel good, regardless of how others see them. Do yoga, for example. But now, I do it for the benefit it brings me. One thing that fascinates me is that I have a background in science. I often take a critical look at the things presented to us, but I still fell into traps. I said to myself: “There’s no study behind it, but I have nothing to lose. I’m going to try it, because it’s the key I’m missing for me to be fulfilled. »
The number one determinant of health and well-being of populations is socio-economic status and money. When I asked, among others, the researcher Benoît Arsenault [associate professor in the department of medicine at Laval University and researcher at the University Institute of Cardiology and Pneumology of Quebec] what is the thing that we could do to improve the health and well-being of the population, his first response was: “We should raise basic incomes for many people. » On an individual level, it’s eating well, moving around, not smoking, not consuming too much alcohol and drugs, sleeping well, then having healthy relationships and tools to manage stress.
Today, for me, well-being is when I manage to be in a state that allows me to carry out activities that are important to me. It’s having enough energy to cook the things that make me feel good, seeing the friends I love, it’s having enough energy, motivation and calm to be able to take part in new activities that challenge me and being able to rest when I need it. What has especially changed in my definition of well-being is that I am learning to mourn an ideal, to accept the fact that it will never be perfect. It can be part of my well-being to have days when I am tired, when my morale is lower. It’s accepting that when I feel like this, I don’t feel the need to go buy something new or try something new to make it all go away.