Wanting Wellness: The Booming Business Of Self-Care

Why are we so obsessed with self-care?

No, seriously. Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness company, Goop, is worth $250 million.

One potential reason could be that, according to a recent poll, Americans are the most stressed people in the world.

From The New York Times:

Last year, Americans reported feeling stress, anger and worry at the highest levels in a decade, according to the survey, part of an annual Gallup poll of more than 150,000 people around the world, released on Thursday.

And it’s not just thin white women sitting in a steam room, if that’s what you’re picturing.

Critic and activist Audre Lorde reimagined the concept in the late 1980s, writing that, for marginalized groups, “caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

But how accessible is that? Is living well something that is just for those who are well off?

Produced by Jonquilyn Hill.

GUESTS

Amanda Mull, Staff writer, The Atlantic; @amandamull

Elisa Shankle, Cofounder, HealHaus

Jen Gunter, OB/GYN; author, “The Vagina Bible: The Vulva and the Vagina — Separating the Myth from the Medicine;” @DrJenGunter

For more, visit https://the1a.org.

© 2019 WAMU 88.5 – American University Radio.

Copyright 2019 WAMU 88.5. To see more, visit WAMU 88.5.