Bullshit free wellness books coming out in 2022
The wellness industry is a cult, and also a billion-dollar industry. A new pill for this, a tea for that, it’s all wrapped up to present to us gullible consumers, attempting to tell us that we should be spending money on new shiny things, that may (or may not) help our physical or mental health.
Next to lotions, and workout gear, comes a huge selection of books, mostly consisting of individualist approaches to mental and physical health. They neglect to reference the systemic issues that cause our health to decline, focus on individualistic responses to crises and if food is concerned, will be repackaged diet culture for the internet age.
Instead, here are 5 wellness-focused, bullshit-free books to pre-order in 2022:
Tell Me the Truth About Love, 13 Tales from Couples Therapy by Susanna Abse
Therapy books can often get a bad rep, and for good reason. Therapy won’t solve all our problems, nor is it accessible for everyone. It is now common advice to see a therapist, for any mental ailment, but there is still a kind of secrecy surrounding what actually happens once you enter their office. That is even more true for couples therapy - something that seems to only ever be depicted negatively in media. In Tell Me the Truth About Love, Abse shares over thirty years of therapeutic experience to show readers the most common experiences her clients have had.
Out with Penguin Books 19th May
The Yoga Manifesto by Nadia Gilani
Nadia Gilani is perhaps better known online as the yoga dissident, sharing her life as a yoga teacher in a whitewashed industry, swimming in wellness bullshit. The Yoga Manifesto is a culmination of the 25 years of yoga practice Gilani has clocked up, always motivated by its original principles, and a desire to create a truly inclusive practice, even in today's industry. It blends personal experience with a history of western distortion of the practice to explain to teachers and students alike, what has gone so wrong with yoga, and what must be done to change it.
Out with Pan Macmillan on the 26th May
Who is Wellness For? by Fariha Roisin
A true deconstruction of the bullshit, Fariha Roisin investigates the double standard of the current wellness trends. Growing up in Australia as a young South Asian woman, she was ostracised for her family’s traditions: turmeric, ghee and meditation practice. She moved to the US as an adult and noticed everyone (the same kinds of people who mocked her) were now happily paying double prices for those same things. Who is Wellness For? Illustrates the origins of these practices, most often built on the histories of Black, Brown and Indigenous people, and how they must be reclaimed to revolutionise self-care as a truly inclusive set of practices.
Out with Hachette on 2nd June
How to Survive the Modern World, Making sense of, and finding calm in, unsteady times by The School of Life
The School of Life makes beautiful books. Books that look gorgeous on your shelf or coffee table. They are tactile, often naked hardbacks with exceptional imagery on the front. Luckily, there are not just pretty accessories, The School of Life has a modern philosophical approach to life that lends itself to a bullshit-free approach. School of Life considers community and human connection vital. It may not be a detailed tome of a read, but it will make for a perfect pick me up on a bad day.
Out with The School of Life books 7th June
I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek SeHee
Suicidal ideation is still misunderstood and shrouded in shame for so many. It’s also context-specific to the places we live and work. Baek SeHee’s therapy memoir tells the story of their experience with a psychotherapist over a twelve-week period, as a young woman living in Korea. SeHee carefully unpicks self-destructive behaviour patterns, and cycles of depression and provides an insight into the ways a person may cope with extremely poor mental health. Sometimes we do not need self-help advice, just seeing (or reading) someone going through an experience that mirrors our own, is enough.
Out with Bloomsbury 23rd June
