The Performance of Wellness is Exhausting
Healing is the new hustle. Same pressure, different colour palette.
Now if you say you’re not okay, people act like you skipped a step in your morning routine.
People ask if you've tried journaling, like you just forgot.
Or they send a reel with a voiceover that says something like "you are not your thoughts," and expect that to fix whatever you're going through.
It’s like everyone’s a soft-spoken therapist now. But with no license.
We’ve aestheticized healing. Burnout has a brand. Wellness is something you’re supposed to show.
And I hate it.
It’s like people want proof that you’re healing—so they can validate it before you even feel it.
Real Journals Don’t Have Gratitude Boxes
I’ve kept journals since I was a teenager. Not the cute kind.
Not those templated ones with daily affirmations and gratitude boxes and prompts that ask, “What’s your intention for today?”
My journals are rants. Chaos. Rage. Reflection. Delusion. Some entries aren’t even legible.
They’ve been written in the dark, in tears, in complete silence. And they’re real. That’s the whole point.
But people don’t journal like that anymore. They treat it like a performance. Like they’re scoring wellness points.
They film it. They post it. They write affirmations they don’t believe because it looks good in their morning routine carousel.
And I know that sounds petty—but when did honesty get replaced by aesthetics?
Healing Shouldn’t Need a Highlight Reel
It’s not just journaling. It’s everything.
People are exhausted, and instead of letting themselves be exhausted, they try to brand it into something productive. Something useful. Something cute.
I hate that people feel like they’re not “doing the work” unless they’re also performing progress.
That if you’re not announcing your boundaries or posting your peace, it doesn’t count.
Healing isn’t always pretty. Sometimes it’s disassociating at 2pm with your phone on airplane mode.
Sometimes it’s saying nothing because you’re too tired to text back. Sometimes it’s feeling absolutely nothing at all.
When Burnout Needs to Be Inspiring
But nobody wants to hear that.
People want your burnout to be inspiring. They want your rock bottom to be a pivot.
They want to know you were crying in the shower but now you have a self-care routine and a cute robe and a greens powder subscription.
I’m not saying don’t take care of yourself.
I’m saying stop pretending that healing is linear, photogenic, and optimized. Most days, healing is repetitive and boring and not even close to something you’d share.
And honestly? That should be enough.
The Quiet Parts Are Still Progress
We don’t know how to rest without feeling guilty. We don’t know how to feel without explaining it. We don’t know how to be without branding it.
And I think we’re all more tired than we admit.
So if you’re not glowing. If you’re not rising. If you’re not thriving in your timeline of self-healing. That’s okay.
You’re not behind. You’re just human.
You don’t have to rise from the ashes on schedule. Some days, it’s enough to just not catch fire.