When the costs of tuition, rent and bills keep on climbing, the cost of wellness is forcing some students to rethink what self-care truly means.
Social media often glorifies wellness through images of fitness studios, relaxing spa days or personalized nutrition plans. But behind the filtered posts, a wellness recession may be underway.
As economic pressures heighten — from rising housing costs to job uncertainty — the commercialized way society views wellness is changing. It doesn’t mean caring less for your mental health, but rather questioning what wellness can look like when the price tag gets too high.
A recession refers to a sustained period of decline when prices rise, economic growth stalls and people begin to cut back on spending. The last major global recession happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, when lockdowns shut down businesses and unemployment rates spiked.
After the pandemic, social media helped fuel the wellness industry’s widespread popularity, driving demand for products that promised quick stress relief. But now, wellness, as it’s marketed, can be out of reach for many due to the high cost of living.
“Wellness is sometimes combined with some blatant materialism,” explains marketing professor and Dancap private equity chair in consumer behaviour, Mark Cleveland. “We want to join the nice, best gym. We want to be able to have the best spa treatment.”
But he says some wellness services can act as antidotes to materialism, providing healthy ways to cope with stress.
“Certain types of wellness, you know — engaging in experiences rather than accumulating material goods — that’s what a lot of people do,” says Cleveland.
Tiana Terblanche — a second-year English student — explained how Dance Force, a club she’s a member of at Western University, is a form of wellness for her.
“The price of the club is kind of an expense, but I feel like it’s worth it — for what I get out of it,” says Terblanche.
Carys Clad, a second-year English student, says wellness has become more commercialized, as people turn self-care into a form of overconsumption.
“This idea of self-care has really been taken over and turned into something they could kind of sell back to you,” says Clad. “A form of overconsumption that doesn’t actually make you feel better at the end of the day.”
While keeping up with wellness is essential for self-care, Cleveland says commercialism has turned it into a social currency. He explains that it gets worse as people begin to receive peer influence in their adolescence.
All photos are from the 2025 Do Not Disturb Issue photoshoot, Oct. 10, 2025.
“You’re looking at your friends’ social media posts,” says Cleveland. “They’re not really posting the real version of themselves — it’s more of an idealized version.”
Cleveland explains this constant comparison often feeds into the idea of wellness as something to buy, rather than something to build for yourself.
“When we’re exposed to that, it makes us want to emulate that — we engage in a process called social comparison,” he said. “It has a lot to do with a person’s mental well being.”
In 2022, Canada’s corporate wellness market size was valued at $2.4 billion USD and is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 4.42 per cent from 2023 to 2030.
Despite economic and political concerns, Canada has seen a surge in wellness participation. Across the globe, wellness tourism is expected to be valued at $9 trillion USD by 2028.
Cleveland says there are many different ways to go about wellness in your day-to-day life — but it’s the pricey ones that will be affected once a recession hits.
“Right now, the index of consumer sentiment is very low … if people feel pessimistic about their economic prospects, they start changing their spending patterns,” says Cleveland.
Amid a sea of expensive wellness services, some consumers may begin to rethink what is truly worth their money when it comes to self-care.
“A lot of these wellness things are not necessarily defined as necessities,” Cleveland says.
Though it’s almost a reflex to give your money to a cause for your well-being, finding the balance between self-care and sustainability seems like the sweet spot in the long run.
“I think self-care is supposed to be accessible to everyone,” says Clad. “Sometimes the way it’s promoted online is a little bit unrealistic — not everyone has time to go to a pilates class, if they’re super busy.”
Terblanche also expressed similar attitudes toward high-end wellness services.
“You can get that same feeling, of recharge and feeling good about yourself, without spending a ton of money,” she says. “Just kind of listening to you and your own body.”
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