Maria Katrina Paras

Article (news)

Is Wellness Making Us Unwell?

<p>Today, simply being “well” is not enough. <strong>We have to appear well, live well, post well, and prove that we are well.</strong></p><p>Modern digital culture has rebranded the concept of wellness into a miraculous cure-all for nearly every discomfort. Hungover? Get an Electrolyte IV Drip. Feeling bloated? Take a debloating gummy. Bad sleep is no longer just bad sleep; it has to be tracked, quantified, and analyzed to get optimal sleep. Tiredness is no longer a simple human response. It escalated into a cortisol problem. Rest becomes something to optimize.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib fr-rounded" style="width:700px;display:block" width="700"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1785724063266How Wellness Makes Us Unwell.jpg" style="width:700px" class="fr-fic fr-dib fr-rounded" width="700"/><span class="fr-inner">Is wellness making us unwell?</span></span></span></div><p>Somewhere in between the clean diets, morning supplements, and red light therapy sessions, the concept of “wellness” has slowly shifted. What once felt like care now feels like surveillance. What once promised relief has become another box to tick off. As a result, we have punctured the true meaning of wellness–finding peace and comfort in who we are–and replaced it with a culture of perpetual improvement: one that demands that we heal more, regulate more, and exist in a state of relentless, exhausting optimization.</p><p>The question is <strong>no longer how to achieve wellness, but whether our frantic pursuit of it is precisely what is making us unwell.</strong> </p><div><br/></div><div><strong>The Promise</strong></div><p>Every wellness journey begins with the promise that you can look better, feel better, and live better. At its best, it extends you the opportunity to leave all the mental battles, physical fatigue, and emotional pain behind, and enter a new chapter of stability, peace, and control.</p><p>It’s a simple prescription. Morning rituals. A skincare routine. A journal. A cleaner diet. A Pilates class. A better sleep schedule. These practices offer us a sense of empowerment because they give structure to the desire to feel okay. They make us feel like we are trying, improving, and working towards a version of ourselves that has everything put together.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib fr-rounded" style="width:700px;display:block" width="700"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1785726195303Is Wellness Making Us Unwell.jpg" style="width:700px;display:block;height:auto" class="fr-fic fr-dib fr-rounded" width="700"/><span class="fr-inner">They make us feel like we are trying, improving, and working towards a version of ourselves that has everything put together.</span></span></span></div><p>Fairly enough, a good number of them actually do help. Exercise boosts endorphins. Sleep restores the body physically, mentally, and emotionally. Eating well matters. Skincare, resets, therapy, and personal rituals can all make life feel lighter and more stable. This is what makes wellness so captivating: the belief that these practices have the potential to materialize into improvement.</p><p>However, this is exactly what makes the trap harder to recognize. <strong>Wellness does not sell products first. It sells a lifestyle, an identity, a possibility.</strong> It shows us that with the right regimen, the right workouts, the right diet, and the right discipline, we can finally become the version of ourselves that we have been continuously working towards.</p><p>The problem begins when the wellness ethos refuses to settle for just feeling okay and starts to demand more, suggesting that we could always be better: <strong>more productive, more fit, more balanced, more in control. </strong>This mindset makes contemporary wellness culture feel like a “perpetual work in progress” that influences people to constantly monitor and improve themselves. <strong>And once actual wellness is superseded by visible metrics, it ceases to be an act of self-care and instead becomes a curated exhibition. </strong></p><div><br/></div><div><strong>The Performance</strong></div><p>When wellness unifies with the self, it becomes an identity.</p><p>Wellness has evolved beyond practice. It is now a performance with a specific look. It is the matching workout set, the iced matcha latte, a slot in the hottest pilates studio, the “healing era” caption, and the daily routines filmed in a calming environment.</p><p>It is no longer about being well. Instead, it is about looking like someone who has it all figured out.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib fr-rounded" style="width:700px;display:block" width="700"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1785726955717Is Wellness Making Us Unwell 2.jpg" style="width:700px" class="fr-fic fr-dib fr-rounded" width="700"/><span class="fr-inner">It is no longer about being well. Instead, it is about looking like someone who has it all figured out.</span></span></span></div><p>This wellness persona does not just rest. She resets. She does not simply exercise. She flows with intention. She does not just eat. She nourishes. She does not just start the day. She becomes.</p><p>There is, of course, <strong>nothing inherently wrong with an intentional routine.</strong> In fact, romanticizing these small parts of life can bring joy. The simple things that complete our mornings can make ordinary days feel softer.</p><p>The problem unfolds once the image starts to matter more than the feeling.</p><p>When wellness becomes something to perform, it becomes a point of comparison. Suddenly, all your efforts vanish into thin air. <strong>A morning walk does not feel as impressive as attending a boutique fitness class. A simple but healthy home-cooked meal does not feel as appetizing as a perfectly prepared salad bowl. Resting in bed does not feel as accepted as a full-blown self-care day with facemasks, candles, and a book in hand.</strong></p><p>Nowadays, wellness is no longer just lived–it is <strong>tracked, posted, optimized, and performed</strong>, until visibility begins to replace vitality. Wellness has become synonymous with one’s identity. It tells the world: I am the best version of myself, even if everything is just a carefully curated performance.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>The Pressure</strong></div><p>The moment wellness shifts from a practice to a performance, it becomes subject to failure and comparison.</p><p>Soon pressure creeps in quietly: eating the “wrong” food feels like slacking off, while missing a workout feels undisciplined. Contemporary wellness culture disguises itself as soft and comforting, yet its underlying matrix of expectations remains strict. Rest, but stay productive. Eat clean, but in moderation. Listen to yourself, but also monitor everything.</p><p>Before you know it, external pressure has turned self-care into <strong>self-policing</strong>. Suddenly, the body becomes a continuous project. Every facet of life–from sleep to hormones, fitness, and stress-levels - is placed under constant surveillance. A watch tracks our movements and sleep schedules. Supplements fix things that we never really knew were broken. <strong>Some stranger online tells us the reason we are tired, bloated, or anxious is that we haven’t found the perfect method yet.</strong> It almost feels as if wellness has become a second job, and somewhere along the way, the very habits that we were meant to find relaxation in started to make life feel heavier. Even normal human experiences like breakouts, stress, and fatigue start to feel like personal failures or proof that we aren’t doing enough.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib fr-rounded" style="width:700px;display:block" width="700"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1785727228559Is Wellness Making Us Unwell 3.jpg" style="width:700px" class="fr-fic fr-dib fr-rounded" width="700"/><span class="fr-inner">Every facet of life–from sleep to hormones, fitness, and stress-levels - is placed under constant surveillance.</span></span></span></div><p>Then comes the shame of being the flawed inspector of your own life. Shame for eating the wrong thing, for not being consistent, for not being disciplined enough, or for not being able to keep up with the latest wellness trend. Shame for simply being human.</p><p>The paradox of contemporary wellness is that we are told to listen to our bodies, but we are warned not to be complacent with them. <strong>A culture that promised peace and safety also led to a space filled with anxiety and stress.</strong> A culture that promised peace of mind encouraged guilt. A culture that told us to trust our bodies pinned them as our enemies. The most alarming part is its deceivingly gentle perception. </p><p>Modern wellness trends rarely say “You are not enough”; rather, it whispers “You could do better”.</p><div> </div><div><strong>The Reset</strong></div><p>The answer is not to abandon wellness altogether. Sleep, hydration, nourishment, therapy, rest, and meaningful connections do bring purpose and comfort to our lives. The problem was never about self-care to begin with. It only becomes problematic once this very culture responsible for care turns into an exhibition.</p><p>Maybe a true reset begins once we let go of the pressure of becoming and start focusing on things that make us feel whole. <strong>Are these practices supporting me, or controlling me? </strong>Is this bringing me peace or anxiety? Am I caring for myself or am I trying to prove that I am worth caring for?</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib fr-rounded" style="width:700px;display:block" width="700"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1785727642277Is Wellness Making Us Unwell 4.jpg" style="width:700px" class="fr-fic fr-dib fr-rounded" width="700"/><span class="fr-inner">Are these practices supporting me, or controlling me?</span></span></span></div><p>True wellness should not take shape in any way of punishment, performance, or a never-ending subscription to self-optimization. It does not need to be aesthetic, niche, posted, or perfected. <strong>Sometimes, it is just ordinary. Rest without guilt. Moving without pressure. Eating without consciousness. Simply being human–being still.</strong></p><p>Because if wellness starts to make us feel guilty, burnt out, and anxious, then maybe what we need is not another ground-breaking practice, but permission to stop treating ourselves like a project–and start remembering that we are enough and that we were never something to fix in the first place.</p>

<p>We have punctured the true meaning of wellness—finding peace and comfort in who we are–and replaced it with a culture of perpetual improvement: one that demands that we heal more, regulate more, and exist in a state of relentless, exhausting optimization.</p>

We have punctured the true meaning of wellness—finding peace and comfort in who we are–and replaced it with a culture of perpetual improvement: one that demands that we heal more, regulate more, and exist in a state of relentless, exhausting optimization.

Is Wellness Making Us Unwell? Living in an Era of Exhausting Health Optimization

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Is Wellness Making Us Unwell? Living in an Era of Exhausting Health Optimization

Chloe Herrera

Published August 03, 2026 11:00 AM PHT

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Updated August 03, 2026 11:28 AM PHT

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