If Wellness Works, Why Are We So Unwell?
To anyone who’s ever felt left behind in modern wellness culture...
🎧 Voice Notes from Me to You:
My close friends and I often send podcast-length voice notes to each other—it's our favourite way to share stories and stay connected. In that same spirit, here's my voice note to you! This is my way of bringing some real connection to our digital relationship.
Listen for the inspiration behind this piece, some context and the thoughts that didn't make it into the written article. Full article reading begins at 9:05 or scroll down to read for yourself :)
On paper, we should all be well.
We have more access than any generation before us - to all the medicine, gurus, experts, research, programs, and podcasts.
And yet… We’re exhausted. We're burnt out.
Our nervous systems are fried.
Our relationships feel fragile.
Our sense of Self — scattered.
As a somatic therapist, Slow Wellness is my life’s work and my love letter to anyone who’s ever felt like they don’t belong in modern wellness culture (which is something I feel often). It’s an embodied philosophy I developed for myself and started sharing with friends and clients to develop and support a slower, softer, and more sustainable relationship with ourselves.
After working in the wellness industry for over 10 years, I realized that the wellness industrial complex doesn't actually benefit from us being well. It tells us to “glow up” but doesn’t ask why we’re dimming ourselves in the first place.
Here’s the paradox: the wellness industry is booming — billions spent on supplements, biohacking, retreats, and routines — yet rates of anxiety, burnout, autoimmune conditions, chronic pain, and loneliness are higher than ever.
So when people ask me: “Why are we so unwell?” The answer isn’t that wellness doesn’t work. It’s that what we’ve been sold isn’t wellness at all.
So what gives? Here are a few insights from both science and my experience:
Wellness has become a commodity, not a practice.
What began as a path to deeper self-connection has been repackaged into a consumer cycle. Wellness is marketed as something to buy instead of something to embody. But a green juice can't undo chronic stress and a hot Pilates class doesn’t address intergenerational trauma.
We’re sold surface solutions for deeply systemic problems.
The pace of wellness mimics the pace of capitalism.
Faster. Better. More optimized. Wellness routines now resemble productivity hacks, which are a manifestation of hustle culture. But the nervous system doesn’t heal in haste, and nervous system care is essential to our sense of wellbeing.
Modern wellness culture centers on "the individual" while ignoring the collective.
“Fix yourself” is a modern wellness mantra that rarely asks: “What systems are making you unwell?” It places the burden on individuals, particularly women, BIPOC, and marginalized folks, to self-regulate without acknowledging structural harm, cultural erasure, or social determinants of health.
Co-regulation is a very real thing, happening in real time, and it's not getting enough attention.
We favour aesthetic trends over the abundance of ancestral wisdom.
Indigenous knowledge, somatic traditions, and ancestral practices are often ignored or co-opted, leaving behind a hollowed-out version that looks good on Instagram but lacks depth.
Ultimately, we’ve lost connection. To self. To others. To nature.
Loneliness is a public health crisis and disconnection is a trauma response. And yet, so much of wellness is practiced in isolation, with cheap dopamine readily available at our fingertips.
The truth is, we heal in community, we co-regulate through relationships, and we don't just live on earth, we have to tap into it's healing powers if we stand any chance of being well.
I wanted needed to create something different. Something that I saw myself in. something that could serve all the people who were not getting what they needed within the modern framework of wellness culture. And to be honest I think thats most of us.
I created slow wellness as an antidote of sorts. It's rooted in neuroscience and somatic psychology (which is useful, I'm pro-science). But it also reminds us of the ancient wisdom and lived experience available to us through our bodies and ancestry.
It's not a privilege. Perfectionism is discouraged. And you set your own pace. Success is tracked by how you feel and how your life shifts.
This philosophy centers on three pathways toward self-regulation and care:
Inner Self – tending to the mind, emotions, and nervous system with compassion.
Outer Self – reconnecting with your body, senses, and the environments you move through.
Higher Self – aligning with meaning, community, and something greater than yourself.
These are the interwoven dimensions of what makes you, you. This is not about having it all together. This is about coming home to a self that is already whole, already wise, already worthy.
Dive deeper into each pathway here {Link to start here page}
With so much love,
Melissa