Have you crossed the point where wellness becomes narcissism?
Self-care obsessions: Have you crossed the point at which wellness becomes narcissism?
IPaltrow at the head, anointing us all with Goop. Plentiful squats, the avoidance of refined sugar and a regular intake of zucchini noodles (‘courgetti’, to the cognoscenti) are the key precepts of this religion. Meditation takes the place of prayer, and good deeds (from Goop’s bestselling multi-vitamin range) are in pill form and popped orally.
Of course, with all that focus on living one’s “best life” – boosting that Fitbit tracker count, hitting your macronutrient targets and enjoying such a premiumquality 12 hours shut-eye a night that you want to walk around the office in a “Bet I slept better than you” tee – other people and their dare-i-say-it more crucial concerns tend to be forgotten. In their quest to be canonised, the wellness apostles have become the very thing they fear most: self-indulgent.
Because self-care is all well and good, but in its most fetishistic forms, it is quite simply narcissism.
Then there’s the boredom factor. Aside from other people’s children, dreams and holiday snaps, there is nothing duller than conversations about health.
If we make it that far, most of us will be able to consecrate our last 20 years purely to issues of bone density, cardiac arrhythmia and the outlandish lesbian plot lines in Emmerdale.
That is literally what old age is for. So to sit around in your prime discussing how you magically cured the various ailments and intolerances you never had to begin with seems like rather a waste of all that life – and all that wellness.
Unless, of course, you’re one of the wellness-peddlers grafting away in a global industry worth billions – or, indeed, a “contextual commerce platform” (translations on a postcard, please) such as Goop, which will, from September, be available in a print version, published by Condé Nast, and coming to a news stand near you. In which case, there should be no limit to the micro-maladies and miracle remedies you dream up – while ensuring that both you and your bank account are positively glowing from within.
‘How intensively we “selfcare” is as much of a status symbol as the scale of our Céline Phantom handbags’