“Raphael notes how wellness culture offers opportunities for stress relief, but some offerings come with excessive pressure on women to perform high-intensity workouts and achieve perfection.”
If Raphael is correct, we can expect segments of the wellness industr y to continue to cater to the spiritual and religious inclinations that most Americans, especially women, have. “Atheism, in our overly optimistic society, feels too final,” she declares. “Too negative. A real Debbie Downer. They want to believe in something.” Atheists and secular humanists might have different ideas about being a Debbie Downer.
Raphael inter viewed Don Ardell, who—perhaps unbeknownst to her—is a nonbeliever, promoter of healthy skepticism, and critic of religious superstition. Ardell is one of the architects of the modern wellness movement and author of the groundbreaking 1977 book High Level Wellness. Raphael notes that voices such as Ardell’s get lost amid the noise. He told her: “ Wellness was never meant as an advertising gimmick, a brand, a treatment, a market, industry, or ser vice. Making a decision that you want to live a healthy life is not the same as being able to do it. If you don’t have a supportive culture—f riends, family members, and your environment … your chances are next to zero to be able to pull [it] off ” (310–311).