The WELLGlossary #31

Wellness, or more appropriately wellbeing is an attitude. Not a product, a business, or an industry.

Anything and everything may influence how well or unwell we may feel, or how we are. Whatever we do has some impacts on our being: work, leisure, sleep, social contacts, etc. As Sigmund Freud has already stated preconscious, conscious as well as unconscious state of mind all have influence on the another. Such influence is proved to be very powerful.

Wellness-oriented attitude assumes certain level of awareness and consciousness. One may ask, however, do people know what is good for them? You may note that “they should know better” and you are right. Still, there is the tendency of engaging in such activities that directly or indirectly contribute to wellness. This contribution may be of physical, emotional, social, etc. nature. Of course, a balanced lifestyle would be the ideal scenario. As an extreme argument one may suggest that even addictions represent the quest for wellness. Altering the state of being and transferring the mind and body to a different state often is the indication of serious imbalances. People with addictions seek balance again but they find an extreme path that does not provide balance, instead creates even more serious imbalances.

As of 2024 in almost every service, brand and product bombards customers with wellness-improving promises. Post-COVID19 we hoped to see a world that is more conscious and aware of wellness. Instead, we see products and services are being plugged on every channel and platform as ‘wellness products’. Many of those may pose unjustified claims. Are you the victim of goopified products?

These promises, magical diets, gurus all offer something that the customer could perceive as a path to a better life. Many may achieve the better state of being, many really do not. Wellness-washing is not a new phenomenon at all.

The wellness attitude (wellitude) is expected to infiltrate every domain of our lives. As an Ogilvy study stated it in 2020 there are three major gaps that need to be closed to achieve that.

Apart from the awareness and product knowledge gap I find the equity gap the most important. Service providers and products makers, especially in the wellness world need to know and do better in creating wellness equity. The availability of wellness improving components and attributes may not be enough. As suggested before many people do not know what may make them be and feel better. This is wellness equity: we need to enable them so they can benefit from what is offered, what is available. Creating more accessible and affordable wellness-improving options is only one component. We need to educate and make them aware of all the amazing alternatives that already exist. Most are free or very affordable, e.g. being in nature, learning about how to be idle, etc.

We can learn from communities all around the world. There are dozens of happiness systems that created a framework for happiness (and now we assume that most people may assume that people translate wellness as happiness). There is no uniform way or pattern how to be well. Communities and societies have created many ways to do so. From ikigai to wu-wei, or from pura vida to dushi. They have been applying the wellitude approach for centuries without using the term ‘wellness’ or praising the ‘wellness industry’.

One may say that to be well we need to unwell time-to-time. There is no such thing that someone is well all the time. Applying a wellness/wellbeing aiming attitude, however, is something that we can and should aspire to and need to learn to include in our everyday lives.

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