There is a quiet tension hanging over the yoga studio. On the wall, a cursive decal reads, “Love the skin you’re in.” But as I glance around the room, I notice the uniform alignment of high-end leggings, the absence of visible stretch marks, and the way every water bottle looks like a piece of minimalist architecture.
The Wellness Trap: When Self-Care Becomes a New Kind of Shame
I am not arguing against exercise. I am not arguing against vegetables. I am arguing against the colonization of body positivity by the same perfectionism that diet culture ran on. Junior Miss Teen Nudist Pageant
This is the tyranny of the “wellness glow.” It takes the old shame of being fat and replaces it with a new shame: the shame of not being vibrant enough about it.
Suddenly, my feed was full of women my size doing pull-ups, running marathons, and posting before-and-after photos with the caption: “Your body can do amazing things if you stop getting in your own way.” There is a quiet tension hanging over the yoga studio
To be neutral. To move when you want, not when you’re supposed to. To accept that health is not a virtue and illness is not a sin. To look at the leggings and the green juice and the gratitude journals and say, gently, “That is a lovely practice for you. I will be over here, lying on the couch, perfectly fine.”
Body positivity taught us to say, “All bodies are good bodies.” Wellness culture taught us to say, “Listen to your body.” But what happens when your body is tired? Depressed? Chronically ill? What happens when listening to your body means ordering the pizza, skipping the run, and sleeping until noon? I am not arguing against vegetables
But in 2026, that marriage is showing signs of strain. And I am starting to wonder if we’ve just traded one rigid ideal for another.
We are here to practice wellness. But somehow, we are also performing it.
Wellness does not need to be a moral project. Your body is not a garden that requires constant tending. Sometimes, it is just a house you live in. Some days, you clean it. Some days, you let the dishes pile up. Both are allowed.