The Lulu Essey Podcast
Welcome to The Lulu Essey Podcast — a raw, unedited space for honest conversations about building a life that feels deeply aligned with who you truly are.
Here we explore the full spectrum of well-being: mental fitness, emotional resilience, authentic confidence, and the courage to create a life on your own terms. Through lived experience and evidence-informed approaches, you'll discover that transformation is truly an inside job.
Each episode offers practical tools and tiny, consistent steps for navigating anxiety, uncertainty, and life's challenges. You'll learn how to build confidence from within, find calm in chaos, and deepen connection with yourself and others — one small, powerful action at a time.
Come as you are — no judgment, no quick fixes. Because creating a meaningful life isn't about perfection; it's about progress with self-compassion, acceptance, and the willingness to embrace both light and shadow on your journey.
The Lulu Essey Podcast
When Self-Care Becomes Self-Criticism: Breaking the Wellness Perfectionism Cycle
When self-care turns into self-criticism. From sleep score stress to fitness tracker guilt and the quiet weight of wellness burnout, this episode explores how health tracking and optimization can quietly become another form of self-attack—and how to reclaim self-care as compassion instead of a report card.
In this episode, I share why I returned my unopened Whoop band and how wellness perfectionism is creating health-tracking anxiety for millions. From sleep score stress to fitness tracker guilt and the quiet pressure of wellness burnout, discover why choosing self-compassion over optimization might be the most revolutionary act of self-care.
This isn’t about being anti-wellness. It’s about reclaiming your inner wisdom from the tyranny of metrics—and learning the nuanced art of balancing discipline with grace.
What You’ll Discover:
✨ Why I sent my Whoop band back unopened—and how this became a profound act of self-love
✨ The hidden wellness perfectionism trap that’s turning self-care into self-attack
✨ How sleep tracking can create more anxiety than actual rest
✨ Why fitness tracker guilt and self-care guilt are more common than you think
✨ The “Good Enough Revolution” why it’s actually radical in an optimization-obsessed culture
✨ The Kind Witness approach: practical tools for compassionate self-care
✨ How to balance discipline and intuition without choosing sides
💬 Powerful Quotes
“When our self-care comes with a big, fat side of self-criticism, it’s not actually caring for ourselves anymore. It’s just perfectionism with way better marketing.”
“I believe in BOTH discipline and intuition. Most people get trapped thinking they have to choose one or the other. The real skill is knowing when to apply which one.”
“Your wellness routine should feel like coming home to yourself"
“This isn’t about being anti-wellness—it’s about reclaiming your inner wisdom from the tyranny of metrics.”
⏱ Chapters & Timestamps
00:00 — When your smartwatch becomes your harshest life coach
02:25 — The Whoop band story: Why I returned it unopened
04:24 — The wellness perfectionism trap affecting millions
05:52 — Exercise shame, meditation guilt, nutrition criticism
06:48 — Sleep anxiety and sleep score stress
10:09 — When wellness routines become self-attack
13:29 — The Good Enough Revolution: Redefining self-care
14:28 — The Kind Witness approach to compassionate wellness
16:55 — Balancing discipline and intuition: The nuanced art
18:41 — Three Tiny Tools to break free from wellness perfectionism
22:33 — Your wellness journey: Permission to be imperfect
Join the Conversation: What’s your relationship with wellness data? Are you tracking to learn or tracking to judge?
💛 Remember: You are already enough, exactly as you are.
This is an inside job. Share this episode with those you love. 💛
Subscribe on YouTube for more content.
Let's Connect:
https://www.luluessey.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@luluessey
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucille-marie-essey/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lulu.essey
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lulu.essey/
Free Guide: Break Free from the Success Trap – https://www.luluessey.com/freetool
Thank you for being here. You are enough. ✨