Vol 20: The Wellness Industry Has Been Making Us Unwell—It’s Time to Talk About It.

I know the world continues to be the most. Bright colors help.

I am trying something new this week where I have recorded a voice over of me reading my article out loud for all of you. Candidly, I had the idea to do this late one night so I just got out my phone and recorded a voice note for all of you. It’s fairly rough but I enjoyed the process so I hope it supports some of you. Full written post is below!

---

For much of last year, I spent a lot of time feeling like there was another level of liberation that I was meant to talk about but I didn’t understand how or even what that fully was.

All I knew was that I had just gone through some of the most intense chapters of my health journey, which is saying a lot, and I had changed in so many ways.

Not because I tried some fad, or a crazy supplement, or even had a big breakthrough, but because I became way more committed to being the most healed version of myself than the sick version of myself and I was willing to put in the work to get there.

After living for decades with debilitating psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, only to get a third diagnosis that rocked my world in an entirely new way, it was clear that whatever I thought I was doing well in my life just simply wasn’t working.

I found myself more sick than ever and was completely blindsided that I was even at this point in my life, because I was certain I had been doing so much right. Not to mention I am the Founder of Chronicon, where I have focused on my health in such a significant way, I couldn’t understand how things had taken this kind of turn.

After getting diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis (a rare neuromuscular disease) in 2022, the only thing I knew was that if I wanted a different life I needed to live my life completely differently. The biggest issue was that I had almost no idea how to do that.

There are a lot of things that I could share with you about this period of time but the most important thing I want to share with you is that it led me to learn about how my nervous system was impacting every single thing about my life.

I was truly in a desperate place and willing to try anything, so when someone I trusted recommended I try some nervous system work, I figured I had nothing to lose and I signed up immediately.

What has happened since my first session, is not a miracle, but it is truly remarkable.

Week after week, session after session, I find myself in more of a rest and digest (parasympathetic) state and less in fight or flight (sympathetic) mode. But why does this matter?

Well, in the fall of last year I started to really dig deeper into my questions around the work that I am doing and what it is that I am meant to share with others. The one thing that came through for me was around the conversation of healing.

I have always sort of hated the word, concept, and even privilege that surrounds this word so I have mostly avoided it my whole life. I spent a lot of time in my 20’s and 30’s steeped in wellness culture, surrounded by self-help authors, and attending countless seminars that often preached being able to heal you or get you to a fully healed state.

Well, after a while, I called bull shit.

I became so disenchanted and angry at all of patriarchal and supremacist culture that was embedded in the self-help and wellness industries and instead of feeling healed, I felt taken advantage of.

I was also furious that there were so many so-called gurus and teachers manipulating people who were deeply sick, traumatized, and in pain, for their own benefit, without really doing the work and walking the walk.

I have been holding that in for so many years, only sharing that in private conversations and small circles, but it is one of the greatest truths I know.

Healing is not something that we should be capitalizing on, it is something that everyone deserves and it should be available to everyone.

That is why I want us to take back the word.

This is just the beginning and it doesn’t inherently change anything to do this, but we have to start somewhere.

What I realized in digging deep this past year and going on my own journey is that healing means something so different from what we have been told.

Here is what I believe healing stands for…

To Heal means you are Here to Embrace All of Life.

Without going into every aspect of this in one post, I want to simply ask you one thing. With this new definition in mind, do you think you are in a state of healing in your life?

There is no wrong answer. I promise you.

When I started this chapter of my journey I absolutely thought I was living a life aligned with deep healing. It was only when I was brave enough to face all of the unhealed parts of myself, or the places where I wasn’t willing to embrace all of myself, that I realized that.

At first I was ashamed and even angry at myself for not being able to know and do better. Now, I have so much compassion for the parts of myself that just didn’t know how.

So now I want to hear from you in the comments. What does this bring up for you? Have you ever felt disenchanted by the wellness world or by the word healing? Do you feel any resistance coming up? Please let me know below and let’s explore it together.

With Love,

Nitika

Please know that if you’re reading this just via email and not on Substack’s website or app, you can like the post by clicking the ❤️ at the top of your email and it still very much counts. This makes a huge difference for me and I always feel so encouraged whenever I see your likes and engagement, so thank you!

---