The Cult of Wellness
September 25, 2024 at 01:01AMToronto has been a fertile ground for wellness brands, and in this Toronto Life story, Olivia Stren spends time with the entrepreneur-gurus behind two companies, Nutbar and Othership, who are expanding their empires and riding a big wellness wave in the city. Think ice baths, wholesome bathhouse parties, sauna performances, nut milk and passion-flower-and-rose-petal tea, and transformed clients who have found inner peace. It all might sound ridiculous or exhausting to some readers, but Stren witnesses firsthand that the community seems happy, even ecstatic. Isn’t that what really matters? Dive into this piece and decide for yourself.
The language of Othership is heavy on therapy-speak and the vocabulary of trauma. If Carl Jung had a podcast and a smoothie practice, this is how he’d talk, I think but don’t say out loud. Because jokes, a close relative of judgment and irreverence, require a distance, yanking you out of the moment. They don’t really land here—unless you’ve come for Comedy Night, when stand-up comedians perform in the sauna. (I’m not kidding.) In any case, I can joke, or judge, but the joke’s on me. I have an aversion to self-seriousness that is both temperamental and generational, and this is a hyper-earnest place. Yet everyone here seems so profoundly at peace with their bodies, their life choices and themselves that I can’t help feeling like I’ve locked myself out of the secret. Maybe it’s time to evolve? I remember how Kate asked me, searchingly, “Why does changing your morning routine feel out of reach for you?” “Umm,” I replied. My mind was blank—and not in a serene way.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2024/09/24/the-cult-of-wellness/
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