We've Reached Peak Wellness. Most of it is Nonsense.

Published: Fri, 01/28/22

I equip people to serve God and others in a way that is both fruitful and sustainable. I do this through teaching, writing, and coaching. This newsletter is part of that work.

January 28, 2022

1. Personal Update

2. Articles -- We've Reached Peak Wellness. Most of it is Nonsense.

3. Quote of the Week

1. Personal Update

In this newsletter, I'm including a written article, but no video. I'm in the process of developing an exciting -- and hopefully important and helpful -- program for men to enhance their well-being and deal with today's tsunami of fake sex. Thanks to those who participated in a focus group to talk about this program ... it was really helpful.

As I'm developing this program, I may be publishing fewer YouTube videos. We'll see. :-)

In today's issue, I'm including an article that touches on two issues of great importance to the work of Renew Resources:

(a) the multi-faceted nature of our mental health challenges, and thus the importance of seeking "well-being" in a variety of areas of our lives as part of our recovery

(b) how even secular sources are acknowledging the essential nature of a "vital and healthy spiritual life" to our well-being ... while also being rather unhelpful in how they talk about it.

Have a great week!

https://markbrouwer.com

2. FEATURE ARTICLE: We've Reached Peak Wellness. Most of it is Nonsense.

I came across an article in Outside magazine this week, and I loved it so much -- especially the title! -- that I wanted to share it with you, along with some thoughts about it. There are three reasons I think this article is worthy of our attention:

It speaks about the issue of "whole life wellness" which people are struggling to find and maintain these days. But it's not just a trendy topic, it's an exceedingly important one. We are interconnected beings, and as a pastor I recognize that our spiritual wellness is integrally tied to our physical, relational, and mental well-being. Also, in my work as a recovery workshop leader and coach, the multi-faceted nature of recovery has been at the heart of my message (see this video, for example), and the article in Outside magazine emphasizes this point.
This article is yet another example of how people in secular settings -- Outside is by no means a religious magazine -- are acknowledging the importance of the spiritual dimension of peoples' lives. While the article drifts into vague generalities and advocates a kind of "whatever spirituality works for you" mindset -- as many do -- at least it's a start, and it demonstrates why the Christian message is so important and helpful today.
And finally -- not as important, but sill fun -- the article does call out the BS and nonsense that seems to have taken over the "wellness" craze in our culture. The article seeks to connect each recommendation with some credible research.

The author is Brad Stulberg, a performance coach and columnist for Outside. He is also bestselling author of the books The Passion Paradox and Peak Performance.

So if the health and wellness field is rife with misinformation and marketing spin, what DOES work? What do most experts agree on? Here are the six key strategies ... and I encourage you to read the full article to find out more about each one:

Physical: Move Your Body and Don’t Eat Crap ... but Don’t Diet Either
Emotional: Don’t Hide Your Feelings, Get Help When You Need It
Social: It’s Not All About Productivity; Relationships Matter, Too
Cognitive: Follow Your Interests, Do Deep-Focused Work
Spiritual: Cultivate Purpose, Be Open to Awe
Environmental: Care for Your Space

What This Means for Recovery From Addiction

This article supports what I believe is THE bottom line principle that people need to keep in mind, if they're dealing with any kind of emotional and mental health struggle:

We will not find lasting recovery unless and until

we are able to create a life that works --

in the various dimensions we're talking about here.

I've sometimes put it another way -- a little more crudely -- in recovery workshops:

"It's hard to stay sober if your life sucks."

Lasting recovery can only be found when we do the hard work of building wellness in the various dimensions of our lives. This doesn't mean that we have to be doing great in all dimensions all the time ... nobody can create, let alone sustain, a perfect and problem-free existence. Rather, we've got to find a life that works. Here's how Addicts Today puts it:

What This Means for the Spiritual Life

I really appreciate it when various sources -- especially secular sources -- acknowledge the important role that spiritual well-being plays in peoples' lives. As I've said before, this issue is at the heart of the multi-dimensional mental health crisis we're having in the developed world today.

If people are not able to adequately deal with the fundamental reality of the Universe -- the Divine -- of course they're going to have trouble with depression, anxiety, addiction, and a host of other ills!

I made a video about this, part of a series which talks about a meta-study from the Center for Healthy Minds, and gets into this topic in more detail. Spoiler alert: the meta-study also talks about the importance of spirituality, but downplays it ... and I get into some of the reasons for this oversight -- and the terrible damage that it's causing.

But in this article by Outside, there are a couple interesting points made that emphasize what a colossal mistake is being made by downplaying the importance of spiritual well-being. One of the core issues that our spiritual life settles is making sense of our purpose, and thus meaning in our lives. Listen to this:

A study published earlier this year in JAMA Network Open found that people without a strong life purpose—defined as a sense of feeling rooted in your life and taking actions toward meaningful goals—were more than twice as likely to die between the years of the study (2006 to 2010) compared with people who had one, even after controlling for things like gender, race, wealth, and education level.

Speaking to NPR, Celeste Leigh Pearce, one of the authors of the study, said, “I approached this [study] with a very skeptical eye, [but] I just find it so convincing that I’m developing a whole research program around it.” Alan Rozanski, a cardiology professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York City, says that purpose is “the deepest driver of well-being there is.”

And once again -- to reiterate -- finding purpose is one of fundamentally spiritual questions of life.

Later, the article goes on to cite the late David Foster Wallace, one of our generation's leading literary voices, who tragically took his own life a few years ago. Here's what the article says:

What won’t lead to spirituality and true well-being? Trying to find meaning in all the stuff that modern-day wellness implicitly and explicitly promotes, such as beauty, wealth, anti-aging, and sex appeal. As David Foster Wallace said in his famous 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College:

"Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship … is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already—it’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness."

What is Still Missing in all This

While I hope we can all applaud the recognition in articles like this of the importance of the spiritual dimension of life ... I have to add one final thought:

Not all spiritual "answers" are helpful.

Not all spiritual paths are equally valid.

The advice of "just pick whatever 'spirituality'

you like because anything will work"

is disingenuous and misleading.

Witch doctors, cannibals, extremist terrorists, and racist nationalists are just a few extreme examples of people who build their spiritual identity around things that are not life-giving, and fundamentally oppose the laws of the universe. Embracing those kinds of "spirituality" doesn't make people healthier, or higher functioning ... it makes their lives worse.

Here's an analogy: Sometimes in recovery circles people will talk about the importance of getting out of isolation, and into community. Very true, very valuable. But what if a person gets out of isolation and into a really dysfunctional network of abusive relationships? They'll be worse off than before!

This is not the place for me to argue about how Christian spirituality is superior to others. Rather, I would like for us to at least establish -- and be ready to make the case with others -- that, not only is it essential to come up with answers to life's spiritual questions ... it's essential to come up with GOOD answers to life's spiritual questions.

3. Quote of the Week

“You want to live—but do you know how to live?

You are scared of dying—and, tell me,

is the kind of life you lead really any different

from being dead?”
― Seneca