Kerri Kelly | The Myth of Wellness & How We Truly Heal
Good Life Project
Jonathan Fields / Acast
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 July 2022
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We’ve all heard the call to self-care, some have even heeded it. But what if, beyond the core concept of taking care of your physical, emotional, and spiritual self, there was a deeper engine of discord and exclusion at play? Wellbeing is, no doubt, key to living a good life, but wellness - as a concept - over the years, has become an industry, and along with that has come both incredible benefits and also a host of co-opted, problematic ideals, offerings and structures.
A look under the hood often reveals an arguably toxic industry with deep cracks in its foundation that threaten to reveal the inequitable, exclusionary, shame-driven, perfection-aspiring, and, on occasion, even predatory side of wellness culture. But, it doesn’t have to be that way.
That’s what we’re exploring in today's episode with community organizer and wellness activist Kerri Kelly. Kerri is the founder of CTZNWELL, a movement that is democratizing well-being for all. As a descendant of generations of firemen and first responders, Kerri has dedicated her life to kicking down doors and fighting for justice. She's been teaching yoga for over 20 years and is known for making waves in the wellness industry by challenging norms, disrupting systems, and mobilizing people to act. Kerri is the author of the forthcoming book American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal, and through her work and her advocacy, she's been instrumental in translating the practices of wellbeing into social and political action and working in collaboration with community organizers, spiritual leaders, and policymakers to transform our systems from the inside out.
Today, I get the pleasure of chatting more about her ideas, activism, and all the ins and outs of wellness culture through her lens. And in this conversation, you'll hear us talk about the aftermath of 9/11 and how loss and grief pushed Kerri into the world of wellness; we explore wellness as we've come to know it today and its transformation into a symbol of luxury, the divisiveness of the movement, the deep systematic problems that plague its culture, and what we can do about it. So excited to share this conversation with you.
You can find Kerri at: Website | Instagram | CTZNWELL | CTZN Podcast
If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Aviva Romm, MD about women’s health.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey super fun, Cher. If you have been wondering what kind of work makes you come alive, my book |
| 0:05.7 | Spark is the perfect power tool to answer this question, especially as we head into the |
| 0:11.2 | New Year and for today only that's Monday, November 28th. The ebook version is on sale for only |
| 0:18.6 | $2.99. That's an 80% discount at major booksellers everywhere. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple |
| 0:25.9 | Books, Cobo and Beyond. So grab your digital copy of Spark for only $2.99 and remember the 80% |
| 0:32.4 | discount is good today only. So go live for Spark on your favorite ebook seller now. To make it easy, |
| 0:38.1 | you'll find a link in the show notes. People need to stop seeing themselves as allies or as paying |
| 0:45.5 | their privilege forward or like doing the right thing for other people. People of privilege |
| 0:51.1 | actually have to start to see but they have skin in the game that they too are vulnerable inside |
| 0:56.7 | of this system and that their lives are also being threatened and I feel like if people don't |
| 1:00.7 | actually wake up to that, they're never going to be all in for the change that we need. |
| 1:07.2 | Okay, so yes, we've all heard the call to self-care and some of us have actually heated it in some |
| 1:12.8 | way. But what if beyond the core concept of taking care of your physical, emotional and spiritual self? |
| 1:19.8 | There was a deeper engine of discord and even exclusion at play in the well-being industry. |
| 1:26.2 | So wellness or well-being, no doubt, is a key element of living a good life. But wellness as a |
| 1:32.4 | concept over the years has become a bit of an industry, maybe even more than a bit of an industry. |
| 1:38.0 | And along with that has come both incredible benefits and also a host of co-opted problematic |
| 1:44.4 | ideals, offerings and structures. And a look under the hood often reveals an arguably even toxic |
| 1:51.3 | element of the industry with deep cracks in its foundation that threatened to reveal the inequitable |
| 1:57.2 | exclusionary sometimes shame-driven perfection as spiring and on occasion even predatory side of |
| 2:04.0 | the wellness culture. But it doesn't have to be that way. That's what we're exploring in today's |
| 2:09.6 | episode with community organizer and wellness activist, Kerry Kelly. So Kerry is the founder of |
... |
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