Somewhere along the way, wellness stopped being something we looked forward to and turned into one more thing on the to-do list. Another routine, another set of rules, another box to tick before you're "allowed" to feel good about yourself. It stopped being about taking care of ourselves and turned into a marketing trap, a never-ending, ever-growing checklist that amounts to one message: fix yourself. And we got tired of it.
Turns out, we're not alone in feeling this way. Forbes recently reported that self-care has become a billion-dollar industry, and professional women are still exhausted, not occasionally tired, but "structurally tired," the kind that comes back after a holiday. The article points to a 2019 study published in JAMA that found employees on workplace wellness programmes saw almost no meaningful improvement in their actual health. In other words: we've been sold more and more maintenance, and it isn't fixing the thing it's supposed to fix.
Tired of the 10-step skincare routines that make you feel like you're failing if you're not layering a serum, an essence, and three different oils before 7am. Tired of the unrealistic "shred" and transformation content that edits out everything real about a body and a life, and leaves you comparing your Tuesday to someone's highlight reel. Tired of "booty creatine" being marketed like it'll build the body you want, when (let's just say it) you need to squat for that, not scoop a supplement into your smoothie.
We're clearly not imagining this pressure, either. A global survey of 16,000 people, covered by Therapy Fitness, found that 60% of people feel pressure to appear "well," and almost half reported experiencing full-on "wellbeing burnout," exhaustion from the pursuit of feeling good. As the article puts it, "the more pressure there is to feel well, the harder it is to be well." That's the trap exactly: wellness stopped being something that supports your life and became one more performance to keep up.
And don't get us started on the hormone stabilizers. Suddenly, every brand has a product that's "supporting your perimenopause journey," whether or not it actually does anything at all. Everything is positioned as the thing that's going to improve you, fix you, optimize you. It's another item on an endless list of self-improvement, dressed up as self-care.
Here's the truth: wellness isn't a checklist. Wellness is a cup of tea. Wellness is a bath. Wellness is a boxing class that lets you get all your feelings out on a punching bag. Wellness is a glass of champagne with your friends. Wellness is a music festival. Wellness is a thousand different things, and it's different for every woman, in every season of her life. It was never supposed to feel like homework.
You can get glowing skin with a three-step routine. You don't need ten. And the constant pressure to do more, buy more, fix more is exhausting, and it's not making women healthier. It's just making us feel like we're never quite enough as we are.
So we started Rytual to do it differently. We partner with products and brands that actually do what they say they're going to do: no empty promises, no vague "supports your journey" language, just things that work. And we believe a woman should be able to choose her own rituals, built around whatever stage of life she's actually in, not a one-size-fits-all routine some algorithm decided she needs.
That's it. That's the whole point. Real products that work, real rituals that fit your real life, and permission to stop treating wellness like a chore you have to get right.
Ready to build rituals that actually fit your life? Explore the Rytual range or join The Ladies Club for real connections - because connection is wellness
Are you a brand?
If you have a product, technology, or service that actually helps women through their wellness journey, we want to hear from you. We're always looking to partner with brands and people who do real wellness for real women. Get in touch at info@rytualwellness.co.za.
