In a culture where indulgence in earthly goods is commonplace, it becomes more challenging to depict a personal brand solely through possessions and hedonistic achievements. There has to be a next level of differentiation. One’s reputation has to stem from something more virtuous, something whole, and given the post-pandemic reality that we live in, it seems hard to find a better social currency to fulfill this void than one’s own wellbeing.
It does not take much browsing around the digital world for one to find some sort of guru or internet influencer promoting a certain lifestyle. Whether it is beauty, athleticism, youthfulness, longevity, or even immortality, there is always some ideal that will help elevate one’s life. Regardless, the intent of these personalities is not always to sell a sponsored product or an ordinary course. Projecting a dream on their audience’s minds is often the end goal. Meanwhile, the cutting-edge health interventions and the most coveted specialists remain exclusively accessible to the one percent.
Wellness clubs are probably the epitome of this phenomenon. As recently divulgated in prominent magazines, such as Forbes¹ and Vogue², these businesses have been gaining popularity in affluent environments where individuals have the ability and resources to invest in their wellbeing. They are the new status symbol of the elite. From health-friendly social spaces to an extensive offer of premium services, the psychosocial benefits derived from frequenting these clubs are perhaps even stronger than the physiological ones. It is the closest to buying time as one can get in the beginning of the third millennium.
In parallel with this wellness trend, there is the industry of self-development. This concept, infused with a more democratic attitude, advocates that anyone can achieve their full potential in life with enough discipline and hard work. As a corollary, individuals are led to believe that they are single-handedly responsible for their own fate. The examples of people who turned their life around are endless and, for every excuse one comes up with, there is a story of someone who managed to thrive under similar conditions.
As expected, this over-exposition to almost perfect creatures ends up taking its toll on the unsatisfied individual. They cannot live up to their expectations and become a stoic, a warrior, a supermodel, a bon vivant, or whatever unrealistic archetype they have in mind. It is simply not possible. There is a job to stress about, bills to pay, relatives to take care of, and many other worries that one does not find when inspecting other people’s lives.
Fortunately, this does not mean that one should simply surrender. There is hope. Consulting one’s general practitioner and getting a simple plan of nourishment and exercising is a good start. If one can only exercise for ten minutes, instead of two hours, that is good enough. If the budget doesn’t allow for a fancy diet, buying basic fresh produce is better than relying on unhealthy snacks. Just following simple heuristics and adopting mini habits has a leverage effect on one’s lifestyle. Most importantly, the outcome of such measures should be self-serving. The worth of one’s experience is not measured in beats per minute or wrinkles erased, but in memories collected and relationships forged.
