All’s Not Well with “Wellness Syndrome”

In their new book “Wellness Syndrome”, authors Andre Spicer and Carl Cederstrom take aim at the wellness movement and claim that the “world’s wellness obsession has gone too far.”

The book perilously strings together random research to create a damming criticism of wellness. It argues that focusing on our happiness doesn’t make us any happier, workplace wellness programs are a waste of money and our wellness mania has turned us into moralizing health fanatics. (I can already imagine our LA friends gagging on their cold pressed juices about now.)

(Photo credit: Wellness Syndrome)

Well!

While the authors make some interesting points about the current wear-tech craze, the rest of their arguments feel like a flimsy paper boat against the tidal wave of evidence supporting the case for wellness (www.wellnessevidence.com).

They go on to say that wellness has become a “moral demand” and “ideology”

that stigmatizes those who don’t conform. That’s an entirely separate philosophical argument. An ideology, by nature, is dogmatic. Wellness doesn’t advocate extremism. It’s about equilibrium.

(Photo credit: Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas)  

If “wellness” has become a commoditized buzzword appropriated by everyone, that’s the case with anything that enters popular culture. But far from being a fad, the pursuit of wellness has been around since ancient times. It’s compellingly stood the test of time.

But what really bothers me about this book? Herein lies the rub (pun intended!):

Ultimately, the authors make a sardonic statement about the over commercialization and ubiquity of wellness, which ironically enough, they stand to profit from with this book.

Catherine Feliciano-Chon