Wellness… it started as a fad that’s grown into a money-making business of industrial proportions. But the pursuit of wellness could be damaging your health.

Looking after our physical and mental health is a good thing, but people are beginning to question if the self-improvement really is making them any happier, because the pursuit of happiness, of wanting more, of striving to live the perfect life, of trying to have the perfect body, is actually breeding discontent and unhappiness…

The fact is, trying to create a bubble of ‘positive mental attitude’ and cutting out food groups in an effort to eat ‘cleanly’ could actually be damaging your mind and body. The truth is that a positivity overload — pretending everything is ok when it isn’t and trying to ignore life’s ups and downs — can have a negative impact on mental health.

There’s a new condition and it’s called ‘Toxic Positivity’, sold to us by so-called influencers and the media. Those who tell people it’s okay not to be okay while wearing a new ‘good vibes only’ badge is merely sending people mixed messages and worse, stopping people facing up to difficult matters.

Silly ideas such as ‘good vibes only please’ or ‘I choose to surround myself with only positive people’ might sound positive, but ignoring stress and pain simply because it’s inconvenient is to deny the realities of life… the kind of realities that have to be faced up to sooner or later.

Life is not all good vibes… it’s hard, complicated, tiring and unfair from start to finish! Pretending it can be all good vibes is actually stupid. This kind of toxic positivity inevitably leads to more unhappiness and anxiety and pain. It’s normal not to be super positive all the time! It’s normal to face the trials and struggles of life.

Everyone struggles from time to time — it’s called life and you have to deal with it.

As long as society and social media pushes toxic positivity, the message to those who aren’t okay is that no one wants to hear about it, which makes people feel inadequate.

People start to feel inadequate the moment they’re confronted with images of what ‘wellness’ and ‘happiness’ is supposed to look like. Social media is the prime offender, closely followed by by an army of snake oil therapists who promise everything and deliver less than nothing. Their platitudinous promises are unattainable because of the makebelieve situations bear no resemblance to reality.

On social media, creating the right image can take hours, even when it’s just a position on a yoga mat or a plate of food. But this kind of marketing wilfully ignores the fact that most people can’t afford classes or high quality ingredients.

Sharing pictures of a ‘healthy’ lifestyle with ‘healthy’ food, ‘healthy’ exercise or a ‘healthy’ positive mental attitude to life and making ‘healthy’ time for yourself makes promises that cannot be fulfilled. They are a fantasy because they are unattainable for most people — which is why they feel sad and inadequate when they try to add wellness to their lives.

The main problem is that wellness has nothing to do with real health and happiness — it’s to do with the perception of it… and that’s something very different.

The pressure of leading an active, healthy lifestyle can be detrimental to real wellness. Socalled ‘Clean eating’ is but a trend, a fantasy, and could be depriving your body of the essential nutrients. ‘Clean food’ such as a bland chicken and broccoli diet which focusses on food as fuel can make people believe that rather being part of life’s pleasures, eating is a chore with guilt attached! Being deprived of the vital vitamins that your body needs will not only take the pleasure of eating away, it will make you ill.

He latest trend of ‘high protein snacks’ are plastered all over social media. Top of the list are high protein foods such as yoghurts and drinks allegedly packed with protein and low amounts of calories.But they are often also high in sugar and this is likely to raise insulin levels. Plus, the protein content doesn’t always come from a full complete protein source such as milk protein.

If you spike your insulin levels, you need to make sure they back down to normal levels before they crash, leaving you wanting even more sugar to help stabilise your blood sugar.

The words ‘high protein’ or ‘high in protein’ are used to make you buy these products. The real truth is that a McDonalds burger contains more protein, but Ronald McDonald doesn’t claim it’s a high protein burger! If you feel like something sweet it’s ok to treat yourself to a bar of chocolate!