What We’re Really Talking About When We Talk About Wellness

Last Friday, we hosted our very first online ‘Meet & Align’ call - a new monthly ritual within the Brighton Wellness Festival Community, and it was nothing short of powerful.

What unfolded wasn’t just a conversation. It was a remembering. A real meeting of minds and hearts, where people came together not just to share ideas -  but to challenge the status quo.

This month’s theme? Challenge-  and it sparked some deeply honest, necessary reflections about the wellness world and where it’s lost its way.

Here’s just a glimpse of what we unpacked:

“Wellness has been over-commercialised.”

We’ve all felt it. The sense that wellness has become another product — something packaged, polished, and sold back to us in pastel colours and perfect branding. But real wellness isn’t for sale.

“Wellness is a birthright.”

It’s not a luxury. Not a privilege. It doesn’t belong to the elite, the algorithm, or those who fit the mold. It belongs to all of us — equally, unconditionally, and innately.

“There’s a lack of integrity in the wellbeing space.”

Too much of the industry is driven by aesthetics, trends, and surface-level content. But we’re hungry for something deeper — something that honours the full, messy, complex reality of being human.

“There is no magic pill.”

Wellness isn’t a quick fix or 5-step plan. It’s layered, lifelong, and asks us to show up — with curiosity, with care, and with the willingness to do the real inner work.

“Wellness must be rooted in community.”

Healing doesn’t happen in isolation. We need spaces of belonging. Spaces where we’re witnessed, supported, and celebrated in all our complexity.

“We need spaces that honour difference.”

No more one-size-fits-all advice. We need trauma-informed, identity-affirming, culturally competent care. Because real wellness is inclusive — or it isn’t wellness at all.

We’re looking forward to creating a new kind of wellness festival, with these beliefs at its core.