Sometimes it feels like all I do is scroll through video after video of beautiful influencers starting their days at 5:00 AM with a green kale smoothie and an expensive bullet journal. More recently, I have noticed the sudden influx of health and wellness influencers on social media who are all talking about moving into the healing era. From matcha and meditation to aesthetic morning routines and Pilates, wellness has become a trend. So, as we see everyone romanticizing their wellness journey, is it genuine, or is this another money grab?
When Self-Care Meets Aesthetic
The “wellness aesthetic” exploded online when everyone was stuck at home due to the pandemic and has continued to grow ever since. Especially now, with the acceptance of focusing on mental health, the wellness aesthetic is a mix of the clean girl aesthetic and mindful practices to emphasize living a well-rounded life. On social media, the message is that taking care of yourself is not only good for you, but it’s also stylish.
Self-care is essential, and it is refreshing to see the shift of people embracing rest, therapy and slowing down. Seeing videos that show gentle routines like journaling, drinking tea or stretching reminds us to take a break. For many, wellness content motivates them to reach their goals and drown out the noise in a world that can be overwhelming. But recently, a lot of content is starting to feel performative, and suddenly, healing is no longer meant to help you grow; instead, healing is something to profit from.
The Price of Peace
Nobody was surprised when wellness, like most internet trends, eventually became commercialized. Instead of a process, “healing” became an aesthetic you could buy. Brands caught on quickly and started to sell crystals, $60 water bottles, “mindful” planners and supplements promising alignment. What started as self-care slowly turned into another wish list or way to compare yourself. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to feel good or treating yourself to something nice. But the problem begins when we start believing we need those things in order to heal. Wellness doesn’t require a sunrise alarm clock, a $40 candle or a premade green smoothie subscription. Sometimes, it’s just getting out of bed, cleaning your space or spending time offline.
The Performative Healer
The funny part of the wellness aesthetic is that it can make healing look almost effortless, which, in reality, it’s anything but. Real healing is messy, difficult, and typically private. It’s crying in your car, setting boundaries that people may judge you for and figuring out who you are without an audience. But online, “healing” often looks like soft music, skincare and gratitude journaling all wrapped in a sponsorship. This performative aspect can make people feel like they’re failing at healing if their life doesn’t look identical to those they follow on social media. Now more than ever, it is so easy to compare our lives to others’, and we often tend to forget that our lives are not meant to look the same, and healing is not identical. We don’t know what someone else’s life truly looks like, and who knows, maybe that influencer’s peaceful morning montage might have been filmed after a mental breakdown the night before. The wellness aesthetic gives the illusion of control and a curated calm that doesn’t always tell the full story.
Reframing What Wellness Really Means
The truth is, wellness shouldn’t be a competition or a content strategy. It’s not about being the most grounded, most mindful or most aesthetically pleasing version of yourself. It’s about embracing, learning, growing from your past and prioritizing yourself. Healing can look like reading your Bible and journaling every morning, or it can look like binge-watching your favorite show in bed after a long day. It can be early morning Pilates before going to class, or it can be crying, calling your friend and getting your comfort food as takeout. There’s no right or wrong way to care for yourself as long as it’s authentic and you put away time for yourself. So instead of trying to look like we’re healing, we just focus on healing. Put your phone down, go for a walk, breathe fresh air, laugh at the squirrels around campus and remember that wellness is something you experience, not something you post.
Authentic Over Aesthetic
I do believe that the wellness aesthetic can be inspiring since it encourages people to slow down and prioritize themselves. But we have to remember that real healing isn’t always what is shown online because the best kind of wellness doesn’t need a ring light or video editing. Prioritizing wellness and healing is not going to look the same for everyone, so it is important for us to remember that being authentic is more valuable than being aesthetic.