The global wellness industry is worth over €4 trillion and growing fast. With numbers like that, it’s no surprise we’re seeing the full spectrum – from the deeply healing to the deeply harmful.
I say this as someone who lives and breathes wellness. My morning routines are sacred. The work I do is rooted in embodiment, breath, nature, and healing. But I’m not here to defend the wellness industry. I’m here to talk about the parts that are broken. The parts that are toxic. And the parts that are making people feel worse, not better.
Let’s start with yoga.
Yoga – this beautiful spiritual practice from India – has been wildly appropriated, sanitised, and monetised. It’s now a brand. A look. A lifestyle. A sea of skinny white women in activewear (and yes, I was one once). And yet, at its core, yoga is about union. It means to yoke – to join body, breath, and soul. To dissolve ego. To recognise ourselves as part of the divine. Non-duality. Collective consciousness.
But when it becomes about perfect poses, social media selfies, and spiritual status – it’s no longer yoga. It’s performance. And it’s ego. The very thing yoga is meant to transcend.
And it doesn’t stop at yoga. Supplements that promise to save your life. “Clean” diets that quietly shame. Workouts promising spiritual enlightenment if you just buy the programme. Veganism vs carnivore. Raw vs paleo. Cold plunges vs cacao ceremonies. Everyone has a solution. Everyone has a system. And all of it – all of it – can easily become a cult.
There’s a brilliant podcast called Yoga is Dead that pulls the veil right back. I recommend everyone give it a listen. It’s raw, real, and it names what many of us have felt: this industry isn’t always what it seems.
Because here’s the thing – real wellness doesn’t sell. Accepting yourself as you are? That doesn’t make anyone rich. Learning to listen to your own body and intuition? That doesn’t create lifelong customers.
So instead, we get algorithms selling us the idea that we’re not enough – not fit enough, not aligned enough, not eating the right things, not vibrating at the right frequency. We’re being sold solutions to problems we didn’t have until someone told us we did.
And we need to talk about the power dynamics.
So many of the great yoga masters have been exposed – for financial abuse, sexual coercion, manipulation. Even posthumously, truths are coming out. This is not accidental. When people are hurting, when people are searching, they’re vulnerable. And vulnerability is food for narcissism.
I’m not going to throw around labels, but I will say this: narcissistic systems prey on emotion. And the wellness world is full of emotion – longing, loss, grief, trauma, hope. There are businesses out there built to exploit that. Built to draw you in, convince you they have the answers, and then keep you hooked. You hand over your autonomy without even noticing.
But good teaching – real teaching – doesn’t do that.
There’s a quote by Alexandra K. Trenfor:
“The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see.”
That’s the difference. A good teacher will guide you toward your own truth, not theirs. They will create a safe space – with strong boundaries – so you can go deep and explore, not follow. They’ll support you to access flow states, groundedness, intuition – so you can remember what you already know.
That’s what the best retreats do. That’s what the best classes do. They don’t hand you a script. They hand you space.
And yes – let me be transparent – retreats are a business. I run one. It keeps the lights on. But we work hard to keep the dogma out. To invite people into their own knowing. To never claim we have all the answers. Because we don’t.
So how do we protect ourselves in this noisy space?
We start by tuning in – not to Instagram, but to our bodies. When you see a teacher, a product, a class – ask yourself:
Does this feel light? Does this feel right? Or does it feel heavy, pressured, off?
Don’t ask your head. Ask your body. It knows.
And if you’re someone who’s just stepping into wellness because the conventional paths didn’t help – please, be gentle with yourself. Ask questions. Stay curious. Don’t give away your power.
Wellness should be about reconnection – to self, to spirit, to breath, to earth. It should be about slowing down, not speeding up. About clarity, not confusion. About integration, not influence.
And it can be. But only if we stay awake.