Day 28 Wellness isn’t Health; or, Unlearning Helplessness in Exchange for Joy

You might know this, or you might not, but every day I post a spiritual haiku to Instagram. Here is yesterday’s:

The health of the world
depends upon the health of each
one. How could it not?

Today is United Nations World Health Day—
say a prayer for the health of everyone in the world—no exceptions!

Uncanny. I wrote it weeks ago. That’s how it goes for intuitives sometimes.

All the more reason, then, when I read Amanda Hess’ “Health Is in Danger. Wellness Wants to Fill the Void” in The New York Times, I thought it was, quite frankly, grotesque.

A monument to fear-based marketing so egregious that, whilst I agreed with Mx. Hess, “There is something ghastly about these efforts. Even when a pandemic is not raging, the very idea of a person advertising a 14-day fast makes me want to call the police.”

There are persons who fast because they have nothing to eat. It could be any one of us sooner rather than later.

Another article had a fact that stunned me. “Three billion people are unable to wash their hands at home, making it impossible to follow sanitation protocols.”

3/7ths of the world has no running water? Or no clean water? Or both? How did I not know that?

Anu Garg’s Word-A-Day spouted this Billie Holiday quote, “You’ve got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body’s sermon on how to behave.”

“[T]he wellness evangelists have intuited a real paradox in this moment: As our health care system buckles under the strain of the virus, and citizens are isolated at home, self-care has never felt more urgent.” Honestly, Mx. Hess didn’t go far enough.

A client of mine recently complained to me that her clients think personal development is eating a salad. I laughed at the time, but then I saw this Health vs. Wellness article, and it sickened me.

There will always be those who want to and will take advantage in any crisis. This isn’t the first time that has happened and it won’t be the last. That’s not what’s bothering me about what these wellness entrepreneurs are doing.

It’s morally scandalous, yes, but what bothers me even more is that there are citizens in the country where I live so emotionally incompetent that they will not only buy, but will invest in, these sorts of scurrilous quackeries just to avoid their own helplessness.

Financial columnist Paul Krugman lamented America’s “learned helplessness” just yesterday. He credits “decades of conservative attacks on the idea that government can do anything good.” Perhaps this is so. Certainly the idea that powdered mushrooms in my tea should make me feel like I’m helping in a public health crisis is ludicrous, but that’s what the conservative idolatry of the markets has led us to as well.

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power writes, “When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted on including ‘Wuhan virus’ in a recent G-7 statement instead of generating constructive action from major powers, the United States was leading—signaling to others that this emergency was yet another vehicle for competition rather than coordination.”

That’s the message of overdependence upon the markets and their behaviors. Compete, don’t coordinate. In fact, implicit is ... even if you try to coordinate, it cannot be done.

Wait, just wait. There’s gotta be another way.

Helplessness is the least of the emotional responses to the Trump Pandemic. I don’t have to name the other feelings either. You know what they are.

Emily Esfahani Smith writing in “On Coronavirus Lockdown? Look for Meaning, Not Happiness,” cites the ever-wise Viktor Frankl who coined the phrase “tragic optimism.” “Tragic optimism is the ability to maintain hope and find meaning in life despite its inescapable pain, loss and suffering.”

“In fact, Mr. Frankl specifically said that tragic optimism is not the same thing as happiness.

“‘To the European, it is a characteristic of the American culture that, again and again, one is commanded and ordered to ‘be happy.’ But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to ‘be happy.’”

Personally, I think a lot of entrepreneurial wellness is about happiness.

Have a facial, and feel happy that you’re being good to yourself. It’s retail therapy, really, in health’s clothing. Not only does it not work, but even when it feels like it does, it never works for long. Happiness is fleeting.

Our Declaration of Independence, as battered as it is, doesn’t guarantee us happiness as so many Americans like to assert. No, it offers “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

I’m with Mr. Frankl. Happiness, bluebird mascot and all, is an elusive mistress. There’s a good reason for it. Happiness comes from happenstance, or circumstances. It’s situational. I like what he says enough to repeat it, “[H]appiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.”

There is an alternative, one that seems far from us right now, but could return at will if we’ll invite it. That’s joy.

The difference between the two is that joy arises from within out for no reason. Joy is usually the result of intangible experience. Not the crocus growing up through the concrete—that’s happiness, for what it signifies. Joy is the fleeting sight of mother-love on a mom’s face when she wipes a runny nose for what you know is the umpty-illionth time. It arises in your heart.

The heart. So much of this pandemic seems to return me to the heart, and qualities of the heart. That’s where joy resides. In the heart of each one of us.

Amanda Hess closed her edition of Critic’s Notebook with, “Health may be scarce, but wellness is still in stock.” Not really.

I know there are lots of people who are ill, but there are far more who are healthy. There are lots of us who feel helpless, but there are far more who are being helpful. There are lots of things to be worried about, but there are a whole lot more things causing joy.

The Buddha famously said, “Life is suffering.” So it is, but it is also a madcap adventure. If we’ll take Mr. Frankl’s advice and learn “to creatively turn life’s negative aspects into something positive or constructive,” we’ll have more than enough joy to go around.

P. S. Here’s a little joy. “In New Zealand, ... the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced on Monday that the Easter bunny and the tooth fairy were considered essential workers.”

Dr. Susan Corso is a metaphysician and medical intuitive with a private counseling practice for more than 35 years. She has written too many books to list here. Her website is www.susancorso.com

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