The Wellness Industry Creates Too Much Shame

I receive a lot of personal mail, including from some of you. Thank you. I mean that.

It keeps the connection of writing these newsletters more real, to know a little about some of you through your mail.

Forgive me that I cannot write back. I do take the time to read the mail, even if sometimes it has to be a few months later. But I also need to leave room for the work I am called to do and to live at a pace that supports my wellbeing and peace. Hence why I just read your mail and then send you love and thanks, or a prayer if it sounds needed.

(My assistant filters out any mail where people are just inviting debate. I don’t have the energy for that!)

I also receive a lot of messages via social media, which my assistant also filters.

This week there was a particular one about how all I need to do is … blah, blah, blah… to heal rheumatoid arthritis. My goodness! These unsoliticed messages of advice are not only time wasting but they are also exhausting!

And, regardless of how well-intended they may be, they are also disrespectful.

They don’t take into account my own wisdom and experience, and what the journey has taught me, how the challenges have actually supported my soul through teaching me how to make self-kindness an art to live by, and what my own individual soul is here to learn.

I’ve touched on this topic before so I won’t go on and on about my personal situation, other than to say, please read my FAQ page on my website fully and/or my book, Bloom, before considering offering unsolicited health advice. (This recent message received was all about healing ancestral patterns etc. Yep, been there, done that!)

What I do want to touch on instead is the shame that can be created by those fully blinded by the wellness industry.

I was once too, I admit it. Totally blinded by it. (Although, as far as I can recall, that younger version of myself didn’t preach uninvited to people with an ailment!)

If I hadn’t been blinded by all the hype and dogma of the wellness industry, I may still have use of my finger joints to play the guitar. I might have taken medication sooner and (maybe or maybe not) stopped the rage of disease in my dear joints back then.

There is a lot of great advice shared through the wellness industry. I’m not a total cynic!

It’s the shame that can be planted from it that really needs addressing.

God works through scientists too and while it may not be the dream or ideal to depend on pharmaceutical medications or surgeries, they do have their role.

So do the teachings of more rest, better sleep, less screens, more connection, more movement, and less processed food from the wellness industry.

No one should be made to feel ashamed or judged as a failure if their soul’s journey continues to be accompanied by disease - or dis-ease as the wellness industry calls it.

(I don’t mind that translation of dis-ease as prioritising ease has turned out to be a fabulous tool for me to enjoy a better-quality life.)

Not every herb or green smoothie will help every person the same way.

Not every ritual or yoga class helps people the same way.

Not every energy healing session works for all.

We are complicated beings with highly intelligent bodies that have registered every heartache, environmental toxin, trauma, effort, positive choice and moment of joy.

So if you’re going through a health crisis at the moment - and let’s face it, none of us get through life without our body teaching us something significant along the way - do what you have to do to get through your life with as much ease and loving kindness to yourself as possible.

(The same applies if life is testing you hugely in another area, not your health: Do what you have to do to get through your life with as much ease and loving kindness to yourself as possible.)

And when someone spouts some “shoulds” at you, usually laced with social media wellness industry advice, just love them for their intention and their inability to trust in your own wisdom to be led by your own body.

Do not consider yourself a failure or take on any shame.

Your health crisis may turn out to be one of the greatest gifts you could ever receive.

Sometimes there is absolutely nothing else as perfect - to teach us what we need to learn, to deepen our love for ourself and compassion for the world.

Shame is toxic. Don’t give it power. Trust your own judgment.

With love,

Bronnie.

PS. If you’d like to prioritise ease for a little while, make yourself a cuppa and join me for Episode 36 of the vlog. It’s called Randomness and Routines.

As spring starts fading into summer, I reflect on routines that support my joy while my heart remains open to the randomness that sharing these acres with wildlife brings. There are new creatures to meet and change is constant.

I hope you enjoy it. There’s a lot of natural beauty to absorb.

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