Wellness as a Mindset, Not a Trend
By Alexa Le
Photo: Unsplash
I like to think that while trends come and go, mindsets are pretty much forever. They are how you see the world, what you deem to be important, and are how you structure your day. If your life is a composite of all of the choices you have made over the years, you can bet that your mindset has helped determine pretty much all of them.
As a result, it baffles me when people tend to place one of, what I believe to be the most critical mindset of all, wellness, into the hands of precarious and potentially harmful trends. Unfortunately, this is nothing new, especially with diet culture. From the promise that eating a grapefruit a day will keep the calories away in the 1930’s to juice cleanses in the 2000’s (1), people have been conditioned to view their health through the lense of what is most popular within the general public, not necessarily what is best for their individual self. And while diet fads are just as popular as ever, all aspects of commercial wellness have gotten worse with one tool: TikTok.
With catchy, one-minute-and-under videos specifically designed to cater towards our waning attention span, adults and teenagers alike are offering wellness advice like professionals, yet the problem is that in most cases, they really aren’t. For example, one popular trend that has been circulating around the Internet is frozen honey. Instead of reaching for the tub of ice cream, many TikTokers recommend freezing honey overnight as a healthier alternative, which has only resulted in unmatched levels of blood sugar levels and lower blood pressure. Even worse is the Benadryl challenge, in which people recommend others to take dangerous levels of Benadryl to “experience hallucinations and an altered mental state” (2). Thankfully, this one has appeared to die down with professionals heavily warning against it.
One trend that appears is here to stay cleverly masquerades itself under the guise of a wellness mindset, the idea of “that girl.” The “that girl” mindset is one that steadily involves waking up at 5 A.M. to workout, drinking green juices, and maintaining a sense of productivity until the sun sets. And while that may seem great in theory, it really only touches on the most superficial aspects of wellness, how you look instead of how you feel. With this hyperfixation on self-improvement and strict routines, there is often little room for mistakes or reflection, going to show just how harmful these types of trends are.
It has become greatly concerning just how much the attitudes prevalent in consumer culture have invaded even our own perception of being. Our mindsets are not one-size-fits-all, so we must stop treating our mental and physical health like they are too. We owe it to ourselves to build healthy habits that make ourselves feel good as opposed to simply chasing after the next trend that appears in a 15-second video. By treating wellness as a mindset that we shape our choices around, we can all hope to achieve greater peace and clarity.