We're Overcomplicating "Wellness"

What real wellness actually looks like in everyday life and how to engage with trends more intentionally

Red light masks, vibration plates, weighted vests, cold plunges, beef tallow, collagen peptides, greens powders, magnesium spray, GLP-1s, protein sodas, and salmon sperm.

A small sampling of the things social media tells us we should be doing or absolutely have to buy.

Social media romanticizes a lot of things, and wellness just happens to be the current fixation.

We need to be health maxxing, habit stacking, and buying all the hottest products.

These wellness trends mostly seem to be rooted in improving our appearance. With each scroll it’s easy to feel like you’ll never be skinny enough, tan enough, hot enough.

But that’s not wellness.

Wellness shouldn’t be about taut skin or getting a Pilates body, but instead should focus on our holistic wellbeing — mental, emotional, physical.

At least that’s the wellness I’m focused on.

So I’m sharing my everyday wellness rituals. They may not look like the “wellness” you hear about on social media, they’re rooted in more traditional healthy habits. I’m also sharing how I engage with wellness trends in a more intentional way.

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My everyday wellness rituals

I’m here to remind you that “wellness” can be simple. And I’m willing to bet it’s already found in your everyday routines. My version of wellness is a healthy lifestyle.

Community Building

We’ve all heard it. With the rise of social media, and the fall of third places, we’re all feeling lonelier than ever. There’s no community anymore.

I would argue that a support network will do more for us than any protein soda ever will, especially when life gets us down. Lacking social connection can actually raise your risk of premature death … by 60%!!!

Knowing you have people to rely on, people to laugh with, and people to hang out with, does wonders for your mental health too.

Building community might be the most important wellness habit on here.

Here’s how I work my community into my daily life:

• Social plans once a week- Maybe it’s plans with friends on the weekend, a morning coffee date, or a family dinner on a Tuesday. Building this habit into your weekly routine is a good way to make sure you’re in consistent contact with your community. You’ll always have something to look forward to and it can help break up a boring work week. You’ll always feel better after too.

• Walk + Talk- This one is a bit lower effort than the previous one. This is one I use more with long distance family and friends. I try to walk almost every day and usually I listen to audiobooks, but sometimes I’ll call someone and chat while I walk. The benefits are two fold: the walk goes by faster and I get to talk to a loved one.

• Hobby Clubs- If you don’t have much of a community yet, a good way to still feel that connection is joining a hobby club. Think book club, knitting club, cookbook club, sports leagues — the options are endless. Think of all the people you could meet! There are even virtual options which can be more approachable.

Basic care

I may be a little biased, but I truly believe we can thrive when we have routines we can rely on. Setting up some kind of structure for my mornings and evenings helps me accomplish all the things I need and want to.

Here are the basic care routines I’ve turned into wellness rituals:

• A solid morning routine- Slow mornings are the real wellness hack. No 5 a.m. wake up required, just a few intentional additions. Morning sunlight, mandatory breakfast, resetting your space (make your bed, I promise it makes a difference!), and some form of movement. These are real (and virtually free) steps you can take to regulate your nervous system and start your day on the right foot. You can read more about my intentional morning routine here.

• An evening wind down routine- By the end of the day I’m more than ready to wind down. Before I established an evening routine, I felt like I never had enough time to do anything I wanted to do and always felt unsettled when I got into bed, like I didn’t truly unwind. My evening routine focuses on closing out the day, closing down my house, and giving some time back to myself at the end of crazy days. You can read the full breakdown here.

Nutrition

These may seem small, but good nutrition will do a lot more for you than a bunch of random supplements.

Here are the wellness habits I try to keep with my nutrition:

• never skip breakfast

• eat primarily whole foods - limiting processed foods to 1-2x/week

• only eating out 1-2x/month

A nutritious well balanced diet generally eliminates the “need” for random supplements or powders.

You will feel so much better too. That’s true wellness.

Daily Movement

The wellness space is constantly pushing us to work out, lift weights, go for a run, or some combination of it all. Personally, I’m not big on working out, but I reluctantly acknowledge it’s important for your health. As someone who works from home and spends most of their day at the computer, I have to actively try to reach my step count.

Here are the ways I add movement into my everyday without spending hours at the gym:

• Walking- Easily my favorite way because I can listen to an audiobook/podcast or call a friend while I do it. Lately I’ve been breaking it up by walking a bit in the morning and again on my lunch break if time allows. Find random times to work movement in. A game changer for me was getting a walking pad, so that weather is no longer a hinderance. I can still get daily walks in even when the weather is less than ideal.

• Morning Pilates/Yoga- These are so easy to do at home! YouTube is your best friend. I have a list of the pilates equipment I use at home here, for anyone interested. If you’re not compelled by these, YouTube has basically any workout you could want — Tai Chi, Zumba, HIIT, you name it. Or sign up for in person workout classes, and get some more social interaction in!

• Gardening- Now, if you’re not a gardener, this may seem silly to include here, but it truly is a workout! Constantly squatting, lifting, moving stuff around, walking, etc. On days that I’m out in the garden for hours I’m 100x more exhausted than most workouts I do. I suggest finding some sort of hobby that gets you outside and moving. I think tennis will be my next venture.

(These still count too):

• playing outside with your kids

• cleaning

• running errands (pro tip: park at the back of the parking lots!)

Every day I try to aim for at least an hour of movement, in whatever combination works for that day. Some days it’s all walking, some days it’s a short walk and gardening, and every once in a while I’ll deep clean for hours and don’t need any other kind of movement. I find doing it this way makes it a lot more enjoyable, because every day is different. And it mostly feels like part of things I would already be doing anyways.

Daily movement and wellness doesn’t have to look like fancy, expensive workout classes.

Environment / Home

Your home is considered an active component of your psychological well-being. If your home is chaotic, it’s likely your mind is too.

Here are a few home habits I keep to support my mental well-being:

• Reducing visual clutter- There’s nothing that overstimulates me more than a messy room. I can’t stand stuff sitting out on counters or shoes and bags flung everywhere. Keeping my home tidy is another way I keep my mind calm.

• Simple cleaning rhythms- I don’t let my home fluctuate between spotless and filthy. I prefer to keep a pretty consistent baseline clean. It’s much easier to maintain and my mental state thanks me. If you’re curious about how I do this, check out my weekly cleaning schedule.

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How I engage with trends in an intentional way

All jokes aside, I know it’s very natural to buy into these wellness trends. I’ve done it myself, and probably will continue to do it from time to time.

But once you’ve reframed how you view “wellness”, and understand that one product is unlikely to totally transform you, you can engage with trends in a more intentional way.

I ask myself the following questions when I’m feeling compelled by a trend:

Is there a way I could try a simpler version of the thing?

For example, instead of immediately buying a bunch of pilates tools when it became trendy, I tried doing basic pilates, with no tools, at home in front of a YouTube video. Once I realized I really enjoyed it, and actually stuck with it for months, I decided to buy some pilates equipment. You can view a list of the equipment I use here.

Is there a natural alternative?

Are these alleged benefits actually true? And actually google it.

How long have I known about this product/tool?

If I genuinely think I would use it and it seems legit, I still wait a month before buying it. And I don’t mark my calendar. If I really liked it that much and it seemed that life changing, I will remember to buy it.

My recent example of this is my LED face mask. As someone who loves skincare, I was so tempted to buy one when they first got popular. But I forced myself to wait, researched benefits and good options, and finally allowed myself to buy one after two months. I can proudly say that seven months later I still use it almost every night, and absolutely love it. If you need a good LED mask rec, this is the one I use.

Thinking intentionally about the product or tool itself can stop you from making impulse purchases that will waste away and clutter your house.

Being intentional about trends, in the wellness space and beyond, will save you money, and ultimately help you live more authentic to yourself.

Wellness starts with how you feel in your body. Most of the wellness trends now focus on how your body looks. Reshaping your idea of wellness can also help you block out the “wellness” noise and focus on things that will actually benefit you in a real way.

- The Living Standard

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