Flourish Health & Wellbeing eMag - Latest Edition - Flipbook - Page 10
BODY
Over
Optimisation
OF Health
THE
WHEN WELLBEING STARTS FEELING LIKE A SECOND JOB
BY CHRIS RABBA
There’s something a
bit ironic happening in
modern wellness. Never
before has health been
so measurable, yet it
can feel more mentally
demanding than ever.
We are scoring sleep,
graphing glucose,
tracking ageing and
collecting insights like
they’re Pokémon cards.
In the process, health can
stop being something
we sense and start
becoming something we
perform correctly.
This is not an argument
against science or
technology. Tools can
be genuinely helpful.
The issue is when
optimisation becomes
the goal, rather than a
support. What began
as empowerment can
quietly slide into self
surveillance, where every
decision feels like it
needs a metric, a rule,
and a justi昀椀cation.
Welcome to the era of
over optimisation, where
wellbeing can look
like an endless to do
list, and doing
everything right still
feels oddly exhausting.
How we got here: data
is helpful, until it starts
driving the bus
Wearables and apps have
done a lot of good. They
can nudge people to
move more, sleep better,
and notice patterns they
might otherwise miss.
But there is a tipping
point. As the volume of
