Happy and You Know It

by Laura Hankin

And in general, the whole wellness craze was a load of crap. According to the wellness ideology (as far as Amara could tell), people—but mostly women—had the potential to be so much healthier and happier (and thinner) if only they shunned processed sugars and most of Western medicine and got back to all-natural basics, which, not coincidentally, cost a lot of money.

thoroughly weighing an action makes choosing to take it even more rewarding.”

The Internet goes wild for beautiful young moms who make all the regular moms feel hopeful. Whitney is an achievable unicorn to them, like if they just drink enough kale smoothies and meditate for ten minutes a day, they’ll wake up in her perfect life,”

Could a person get addicted to wellness like cocaine and have to keep doing more and more to get the same high?

That was one of the strangest things about motherhood. You could love your baby to pieces, be thankful every day for his ten tiny toes and his piercing wail and his all-consuming existence, and yet still mourn the life you’d had before. And somehow

It struck her that bringing a kid into a marriage was like getting a huge promotion, but with no raise and still having to do all your old work of being a good partner too. Despite the promise of fairy-tale weddings, marriage was work. But she’d gotten very lucky with her coworker.

Because even though fathers stamped children with their last names, the world didn’t ask as much of them. No one really expected fathers to consider giving up their careers to put their children first, to stop managing a company and start managing a household.

Women had to grapple with a choice that men never did while remaining uncomplaining and generous so that they didn’t nag their husbands straight into the arms of less complicated lovers.

And now moms weren’t even allowed to acknowledge how much work it all was anymore. Modern women of privilege had to claim that their manic exercise routines were about strength, not a body ideal; that their beauty regimens were all natural, designed for emotional balance ...