"I joined the wellness set just like Kate Moss. Am I woo-woo too?"
When fashion鈥檚 party girl swaps spirits for spirituality, you know something is afoot. Can Jane Mulkerrins ditch her cynicism to embrace the 拢4.4 trillion wellness industry?
Excerpts
A quick, curious scroll through the ticket portal Eventbrite reveals a world of woo of which I was previously unaware. Any night of the week, within a mile or two of my flat, I could participate in all manner of meditation, mantra and breathwork classes, shamanistic healing, vibration healing, vision board making, moon circles, women鈥檚 circles and cacao circles, body positive pottery-making and so many bloody sound and gong baths, I鈥檓 surprised the people of East Sussex can ever hear themselves think. This 鈥渕ore comprehensive sense of wellness that takes in not just the body, but mind and spirit as well鈥� is 鈥渇ulfilling a need that we鈥檙e not getting elsewhere鈥�, says Colleen Derkatch, author of Why Wellness Sells.
鈥淟ife has become so empty of pleasure these days and it feels good to feel good. And it feels good to feel like you鈥檙e doing something good for yourself,鈥� Derkatch says. Many of the wellness devotees she interviewed were 鈥渁 lot more circumspect about wellness than I had expected鈥�, she says. 鈥淭hey were open to the idea of a placebo eQect, but they wanted to feel better, so they were willing to try things.鈥� Surprisingly, she found, 鈥渘obody expressed blind faith 鈥� like the person in church who has doubts, but they still go and they do want to believe.鈥�