There’s a very specific kind of exhaustion that comes from trying to “do wellness properly.”
The perfect morning routine.
The right supplements.
The correct way to eat, move, rest, regulate, optimise, bio-hack your way into becoming someone who finally has their shit together.
And underneath all of it, there’s this quiet implication:
If it’s not working… it’s you.
But what if that’s the lie?
What if the reason wellness feels overwhelming isn’t because you’re failing…
but because you’ve been handed a system that was never designed to fit you in the first place?
Recently, I sat down with Miriam Latif - herbalist, practitioner, mum, and business owner running a community for herbalists, nutritionists and naturopaths - called The Root Network.
She is someone who is very much not interested in playing along with the more polished, palatable version of “wellness” we’ve all been sold.
And what emerged wasn’t a list of hacks.
It was something far more useful.
A reorientation.
A new narrative.
A palette.
There is no neutral in wellness.
Everything you’ve been told works is built on someone else’s body, someone else’s life, someone else’s priorities.
And yet, we’re encouraged to follow it like doctrine.
Miriam spoke about the importance of questioning what’s presented as “normal” or “best practice” - not from a place of rebellion for the sake of it, but from care.
Because being discerning with what you adopt into your life?
That’s not resistance.
That’s self-respect.
You don’t need to fit yourself into a framework that doesn’t account for your capacity, your neurotype, your season of life, or your values.
You’re allowed to ask:
Does this actually work for me?
Do I even like this?
Who benefits if I believe I need this?
That last one tends to be particularly revealing.
Individual responsibility gets pushed hard in wellness spaces.
Your habits. Your discipline. Your consistency.
Your fault, your fix.
But humans don’t actually work like that.
We regulate in connection.
We sustain change in community.
We stay the course when we’re seen.
Miriam created her own space - The Root Network - because she saw how fragmented and isolating the industry had become, especially for practitioners trying to reconcile clinical knowledge with real human lives.
And it raises a bigger point:
If your environment doesn’t support the version of you you’re trying to become…
it will quietly pull you back into who you’ve always been.
You don’t need more willpower.
You might just need better proximity.
The wellness industry has mastered a very particular sleight of hand.
It rarely tells you outright that something is wrong with you.
Instead, it offers you a solution… that only makes sense if you assume there’s a problem.
Your body is fine… until there’s a program to “fix” it.
Your eating is normal… until there’s a protocol to optimise it.
Your routine works… until there’s a better one you should be following.
It’s subtle.
And it’s incredibly effective.
Miriam spoke about the conversations that aren’t happening in wellness - the gaps, the contradictions, the commercial incentives driving what gets amplified.
Because when you start questioning the narrative, you realise:
A lot of what’s marketed as empowerment is actually just dependency in better packaging.
There’s a version of discipline that gets glorified in this space.
Rigid. Intense. All-or-nothing.
And for a while, it can look like it’s working.
Until it doesn’t because anything that requires you to override your capacity long-term will eventually collapse.
Sustainable habits are not the most exciting ones.
They’re often slower. Simpler. Repetitive.
They don’t rely on motivation.
They don’t require perfect conditions.
They don’t fall apart the second life gets messy.
They’re built to be returned to.
That’s the difference.
Not “Can I do this when everything is aligned?”
But: Can I come back to this when everything isn’t?
This is the one that tends to land the hardest.
Because most of us were taught to approach our bodies like problems to solve.
Something to control. Improve. Fix. Minimise.
But a body you’re constantly trying to outmanoeuvre is not a body you’re in relationship with.
It’s a body you’re at war with.
Miriam spoke about how becoming a mother shifted this for her - how it brought her closer to listening, rather than overriding.
And that’s the work.
Not just knowing what to do.
But being able to hear what your body is asking for in the first place.
That takes practice.
It takes patience.
And it takes unlearning the idea that your body can’t be trusted.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by wellness…
It might not be because you need more information.
It might be because you need less noise.
Less optimisation.
Less comparison.
Less pressure to do it “right.”
And more space to figure out what actually fits.
Not perfectly.
But sustainably.
Not impressively.
But honestly.
The goal was never to become the most disciplined, optimised, aesthetically pleasing version of yourself.
The goal is to build a life - and a body - you can actually live in.
And, one you can love.
If this hit something in you, go and listen to the full episode with Miriam.
We unpack all of this in a way that’s a little less polished and a lot more real - from the state of the wellness industry to autonomy, identity, and what it actually looks like to build something sustainable in your body and your life.
And as always,
when nothing is certain, anything is possible.
You’ve got this.
And I’ve got you.
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