HOW DID WELLNESS BECOME OUR NEW RELIGION?

"In place of religion, we now have spirituality (or pseudo-spirituality). Instead of church, we do elaborate #selfcaresunday rituals. We get baptized at Burning Man. We pay tithings to yoga studios." 

I own exactly one product from Goop. It’s called Emotional Detox Bath Soak, and I have no idea what it does.

All I know is that when I use this product, supplied to me by Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness juggernaut, my bath smells as if the well-tended rose garden of a chic English countess exploded inside it, and I feel I am doing something for myself which falls into the vague realm of “self-care.”

This is an activity that, if you spend any time on Instagram, you already know is as popular as a Museum of Ice Cream full of Kardashians. Which is to say: extremely popular.

So why was I moved to shell out $35 plus $5.95 shipping to own this product?

And how did Paltrow build a lifestyle empire —now valued at $250-million, as we recently learned in a New York Times Magazine profile — by selling us Emotional Detox Bath Soak and countless other products like it?

Before you rush to answer —and inevitably pile on the judgement of a brand espousing philosophies and products you might perceive to be wackadoo —I’d ask that you pause for a moment to look at the bigger picture.

Until earlier this year, I ran lifestyle partnerships at Facebook. This means I worked with social media influencers, brands, and publishers in food, fashion, home, health, travel, and of course, wellness, to help them tell their stories on Facebook and Instagram...read more