What's the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the word wellness?
Now think about what you'd say if asked that question 10 years ago... 20 years ago... is it different?
I personally remember when I began thinking of wellness. I was living in NYC at the time and had a roommate from LA, the city that thinks they invented the concept! He introduced me to juice cleanses and power yoga. At the time it didn't seem as much of a lifestyle as it was something that celebrities did so therefor, you wanted to do them too. We still drank, we still partied, we were still in our 20s.
Mental wellness wasn't really part of the conversation. I tried meditation once back then too, finding a small Zen Buddhist temple on the Upper East Side where I was not only the only woman there, but also the youngest by at least two decades.
"Are you here to write a report?" one of the men asked.
Honestly I wasn't sure why I was there, I was searching for something that was still intangible.
We've all seen the trajectory that followed. Organic food. Lulu Lemon. More yoga studios. More juice bars. Gwenyth Paltrow going from Oscar winning actress to running a wellness empire. Wellness is a trillion (yes, I said trillion) dollar industry.
Saying all this one can understand how the idea of wellness can sound daunting, but hey, let's take that word back 20 years ago. What is wellness? The actual definition is "to be in good health". Not just physical health, but mental health as well. When you think about it that way it makes wellness so much more approachable.
So now, let me ask you this... what does wellness mean to you?
It may still mean yoga, and for good reason! Wellness can also mean reading a book, working in your garden, even drinking a glass of water.
What I'm trying to say here is that wellness isn't a trickle down trend.
Wellness is here to stay, and it's whatever you want it to be.