wellness tips from a wellness fraud
plus, mining the wellness routines of Rick Owens and Rei Kawakubo in our elusive search for calm
Despite working at goop for the better part of a decade, I’m admittedly a wellness fraud. I reach for my phone as soon as I wake up, and it’s the last thing I look at before I go to bed. I’ve been told, on multiple occasions, that I have “New York energy,” and not as a compliment.
I know many of us feel the unsung pressure to be the immovable core of our families, have a purposeful career and deep friendships and passion-fueled marriages, and do it all to the standards we keep. Which leaves little time to actually be well, to have air and space and calm. Plus there’s the life-hack books, usually written by tech bros, that tell us if we just work smarter, we should be able to do it all in 10 hours a week.
For many of us in creative fields, there’s also the glorification of the ingenue. Of the flames that burn fast and bright, of new ideas and the subcultures that breed them. And I get it. The evening light glistening off Dimes Square is much more alluring than the hum of family dinner at six in the Palisades. But perhaps, when you examine a few masters of creative pursuits, the ones who’ve stuck around, there’s a secret toolkit nestled in their approach: a way to find both longevity and creative fuel.
Yesterday, I went to an in-progress tour of sculptor Oscar Tuazon’s installation for the Felix Art Fair, which is in partnership with Dover Street Market and is going to house a selection of Rei Kawakubo’s furniture pieces - a short lived, elusive collection she designed in the 80s, and abandoned. A curator and gallerist spent three years searching for the rarities, hunting down pieces in collectors’ homes, to moderate success (some of the original pieces were never found). This is the tao of Kawakubo: the temporality, the form over function, the enigmatic interpretation.
One of the Hammer Museum curators, Erin Christovale , aptly remarked that Kawakubo is a visionary who “exhausts the thought.” Instead of constant reinvention, often the fervor of the young, she hammers away at one idea, giving it fresh interpretations and mediums, tinkering away at its possibilities and its limits. In her rare interviews, she’s described her life as ordinary, her work a daily grind (sound familiar?). And though as a culture, we love reinvention (Madonna!) and second acts, perhaps the continual exploration of an idea, like Rothko and his colors, is when artists fall into their most prolific selves.
For many of us in creative fields, there’s also the glorification of the ingenue. Of the flames that burn fast and bright, of new ideas and subcultures that breed them. And I get it. The evening light glistening off Dimes Square is much more alluring than the hum of family dinner at six in the Palisades.
Tuazon mentioned a time that he was interviewed by Rick Owens, another artist whose work - whether furniture or art - revolves around one prevailing thought. Owens is a frequent subject of my fascination (and insomnia). And the truly wild thing about him is while his art is gothic and almost violent, he seems to live a relatively normal family life. Tuazon recalled Owens’ calming presence, and how it occurred to him that Owens was so in sync with his own creative process that he’d become the antithesis of a tortured artist. He’d achieved creative longevity, through the same well-documented tactics that many of us rely on when searching for wellness: he’s into afternoon naps, exercising, loves to garden (can you imagine Rick in asymmetrical leather gardening?!), savors quiet nights in with his family… Even Rick Owens has a wellness routine.
Though it’s often hard to dismiss the glorification of being busy, of doing, this year I’ve vowed to be, to succumb to calm. And after trying, and abandoning, most wellness practices and products, here are eight that have stuck (bonus: most are free):
Intermittent Fasting - I typically don’t eat until 1 PM, though I’ll have a coffee w/ a splash of nut milk (more than 35 calories of milk breaks your fast). I adopted this about 18 months post-partum, when it felt like the added weight would never fall off, and within a month, I was back to my pre-baby weight, with increased energy. With work dinners and a social life, I find it too hard to consistently eat early, but finishing a meal by 9 pm feels very doable. And 9 pm - 1 pm gives me the optimal 16 hour fast.
Sarah Wragge Wellness Alkalize - Detoxifying Green Powder - I discovered Sarah through my friend Marlien (subscribe to her excellent substack here) and this powder has been a game-changer for debloat and feeling light in my body. At dinner the other night, I even described my stomach as looking concaved when I do it three times a day (first thing in the AM, around the 3 PM slump, before dinner). I like a fact check so I had my nutritionist friend Mia Ridgen (her substack here!) look at the ingredients, and she signed off. I’ve tried AG1 and what feels like a billion other green powders, but nothing has made a difference like this.
Exercise, Every Day - it’s a cliche, but the older you get, you realize things are cliche for a reason. Just do something every day. A hike, a walk, park your car up a hill, lift some weights. And remember that exercise is deeply personal and it’s worth testing different practices. I hate weight lifting but it’s the number one thing that works for me. I have a friend who ditched her aggressive workouts for lots of walking, and she’s never looked or felt better. I love yoga but find that it’s much better for my mind than my body.
GEM Daily Vitamin Bites - First of all, these are delicious. I view them as an afternoon treat. Second, it’s the equivalent of taking a multi-vitamin but it’s real food, and because it actually tastes good, it’s quickly habit forming.
Eight Hours of Sleep - I’m very serious about my bed. I have a temperature control system that I use to heat up my mattress as if I’m laying on a spa table. If I don’t have a dinner, I put my daughter to bed and climb in shortly after, read for 30 minutes and am lights out by 9.
Therapy - Every Monday. It’s messy and non-linear progress, but every few months, I realize the things that used to make me spiral are now just floating instances, and instead of things happening to me, it’s given me the sense that I have influence over the inertia of my life.
HigherDose Sauna Blanket - 45 minutes of sweaty detox that feels just as cleansing as a stand alone sauna. 3x a week. Plus, it’s done wonders for my skin.
Hot Water w/ Lemon - My mother always drank this first thing in the morning, long before it was a trend. I now drink it periodically throughout the day, but it’s also my secret weapon after a few glasses of wine. I’m convinced a nightcap of hot water with lemon prevents hangovers.
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