What is Mental/Emotional Wellness in this Modern World?

  It seems like there is a wellness market for everything now. Some would speculate that our human realities are moving into “consciousness”.  There are wellness coaches, diets, lifestyle “hacks”, and a wellness product for just about everything.

Nevertheless, the symptoms of mental / emotional disease  such as depression, anxiety, and other hormonal imbalances are more prevalent than ever across all human demographics. 

 While there may be a many new found public and socially acceptable dialogues surrounding mental health (or lack there of) and generational traumas, just talking about and accepting it does not seem to be lowering the instances of suicide, addiction, and self-harm —> especially amongst younger generations where we would hope to see the shift. If anything, growing up in a “dying world” is often shrugged off as the new normal while another day goes by, facilitated by a variety of coping mechanisms. New movements looking towards to entheogenic practices, somatic therapies, and returning to Indigenous healing wisdom have been found to be extremely effective as least in the short term.

 
  This juxtaposition of the almost crippling amounts of self-help, wellness practices, and healing retreats next to the rising of mental and emotional health crisis amongst humanity brings me to the speculation that perhaps it’s time we recognize that our mass experience of mental disease is a gage of sorts (not to diminish it) in that while we continue to live in ways that are actively killing Earth and her creatures every day we will never be mentally or emotionally well. Our lives are largely overrun by convoluted constructs of the human species. It’s highly probable that we could seek as much medication, education, and healing as the world has to offer and still feel that angst deep inside until we change our ways of life on Earth back to fulfilling our purpose here on Earth as humans. 

  My late mother was the esteemed Doctor of Psychology, Dr. Lisa Michelle Wilson. After decades of wellness journies including diet, exercise, medications, and conventional + non conventional therapies she lost her mental/ emotional health battle and took her own life. I can still vividly recall being a little girl and screaming to my mom while she was in the midst of completing her PHD, “is your whole life - my entire childhood- worth a piece of paper?!?”. Now, as an adult, I feel awful for nay saying her dreams and drive. But the raw emotion was real, and I stand by it —> what is all of the mental health treatment and wellness practices worth if we aren’t living with Earth in ways that are deeply fulfilling to us as humans? Time in Nature, nurturing, crafting, storytelling, and spending our time with the relations we cherish is what gives humans a sense of fulfillment