The Wellness Syndrome

As stated in the “The Wellness Syndrome” written by Carl Cederström and André Spicer, dedication to wellness is in fact an indulgence on oneself.  What does this mean exactly? Well, between eating healthy, exercising, maintaining enough sleep and so on, "wellness" is not necessarily something that is easy to achieve.  The article refers to it as syndrome because as discussed in my last blog post, it has become a standard of society that must be met to fit in.  People are beginning to feel that wellness is an ideology, especially noticeable in “the prevailing attitudes towards those who fail to look after their bodies. These people are demonised as lazy, feeble or weak-willed. They are seen as obscene deviants, unlawfully and unabashedly enjoying what every sensible person should resist”.  Words such as lazy and weak-willed such not be used to describe those who are not choosing to dedicate their life to wellness. These words are so hypocritical because often people don't have time to make sure they are eating right, exercising, and getting enough sleep, yet their focus remains on other things. If you talk to any graduate student, they will tell you maintaining a state of wellness is almost impossible with their course load. For those who do try to pursue the standard of being well, it is all about time management; entailing set times to prepare healthy meals and eat and strict exercise and sleep schedules. This societal ideal has become known as the wellness syndrome because wellness is being treated like there's no way around it. Wellness should be something you are constantly striving for in life. This is absolutely not true because it's not like it will kill you if you don't eat right or exercise enough but it does lead to a somewhat better lifestyle with the energy it is capable of giving you. Wellness is not something worth getting caught up in to the extremes; just because it is being portrayed as the "social norm" doesn't mean that's what's best for you in particular.  Wellness can be considered an indulgence because of the effort it entails.  It is a lot of work living up to societies standards! This article considers it to be such a negative thing because it is becoming so normal to want to have this lifestyle that people are putting off other things important in life just to meet the standard. Many people in today's day and age actually keep this as their number one priority which is most definitely considered self-indulgence. The level of wellness they are trying to achieve can almost be considered obsessive.  Trying to maintain a nice body while doing so in a heathy manner requires a lot which is such a good argument made by the authors of this article.  Why be so obsessive about this level of wellness?  This was a very interesting read and there is a book mentioned that I feel would definitely be worth reading because it goes into depth on this subject and before this article, I have never really thought of the ideal “wellness” being a bad thing.

Confidence

In his article “Why Confidence Is So Important (and How to Improve Yours)”, Eric Ravenscraft says the two main benefits of confidence are “confidence can be more important romantically than physical attractiveness” and “confidence early in life can mean upwards mobility at work”.  It is obvious that both of these categories are two things that will influence the rest of your life so having confidence, especially in these areas, is extremely advantageous.  The article further goes on to show many different aspects of your life where an improvement in confidence is pliable.  Some options include working out, dressing better, learning how to power poses, practicing how to explain things well, competing in things you know you can succeed in, fixing things you don’t like about yourself and more.  Reading this article made the concept of confidence seem very easy but in my opinion, it is something that takes time and practice; the more you are able to develop your confidence, the more it will benefit you.  In Eric’s definition of confidence, he also includes that moderation is necessary. “Confidence is knowing what you're good at, the value you provide, and acting in a way that conveys that to others. Contrast this with arrogance which typically involves believing you are better in a particular area than you are, or low self-esteem which involves believing you're less valuable than you think. The closer your self-assessment is to that reality in the middle, and the more you behave accordingly, the closer you are to displaying healthy confidence”.

In today's society, confidence is especially important because the world we live in has become so fixated on the concept of social shaming.  Although it is slightly improving, the media has only portrayed one kind of "perfect". Most often, appearance has the largest effect on one's confidence. We have grown up knowing that skinny, tall, clear skin, long hair, makeup, large breasts, etc. are standards we must meet to fit in but this is not true!  Why so many young girls spend so much time trying to live up to these unrealistic attributions to their appearance can solely be blamed on models, actors, the music industry, magazines, and other means of physical displays. The industry has however started to realize this problem and has initiated a change by incorporating models with freckles, red hair, "bigger" bodies, down syndrome, and different races. Overtime I believe this will help to increase the confidence level of many, especially young girls who so heavily base their life off of what other people think. At such a young age, it doesn't seem like there is any other option so they get dragged into the world of what society thinks and therefore have a low confidence level.  Because of society’s standards, the rate at which people must see counselors and psychologists is at an all-time high and it is usually a result of a lack of confidence.  The judgement people receive for not reaching social standards is in direct relation to their confidence level which is even further portrayed in the outside world, thus effecting relationships and future jobs as Eric said.  Confidence impacts a chain of events which is why it is so important.  Any break in the chain impacts the entire rest of the chain, just as in life, any negative impact on one aspect of your life is able to destroy your confidence as a whole.