A little disco for your Friday? The Pet Shop Boys’ “Dreamland” is a wholesome party song, not about sex or drugs, but sleep. You know the respite of slumber, don’t you? Fall asleep and you can leave all your worries behind! You don’t need a visa or an airplane; a relaxing oasis is inside you already. If sleep had a propaganda team (besides Arianna Huffington and the Casper crew), this would be its first product, and it would work (by getting you hyped about sleep, that is. This is not a relaxing piece of music).
Is the world over, or is this just how things are now? TBS is getting ready to air an unscripted show about people going on obscure wellness retreats with people they’re struggling to relate to. Per TBS, “At their breaking points and fed up with traditional Western therapies, they’ll experience everything from rage rituals and shamanic cacao ceremonies to orgasmic dance. But the drama only intensifies between sessions as this motley crew hooks up, breaks up and opens up in ways they’d never expect.” Or anyway, that’s the public line. A show exec added, “Wait until you see the lengths people will go in their quest for happiness.” Kind of makes you wonder: when do we go off wellness and back to straight debauchery?
Having exhausted all other permutations of boutique fitness, the wellness industry is offering something adjacent: stretching. Fancy stretch studios are popping up all around, offering classes on yoga mats where you just extend parts of your body under supervision. Yes, this is expensive, and no, it is not exercise, which appears to be why all sorts of people love it. The reporter tasked with trying out wellness trends at the New York Times is pro because stretching gets her more in tune with her body, and the beautiful studios make her feel nice. What her review misses, though, is that there probably *is* room in fitness culture for more concerted recovery. Remember when everyone was getting rhabdo from CrossFit and SoulCycle? As any athlete will tell you, recovery is key. But it’s not about athletics, now, is it.
As you may recall from previous issues of this newsletter, Evryman is an organization that helps men learn to talk about their feelings. In February, they’re running an online Fundamentals course on accessing your emotions and you’re invited. Through live webinars, the 6-week program will work on defining your relationship with yourself, expressing your needs to others, opening up to meaningful relationships, and finding a sense of purpose. If that sounds good, learn more here and spend the rest of your life avoiding reality-show-level drama. (But be quick, the program starts Tuesday.)
