PARIS, July 9 — Prism is on a mission to help fight anxiety and depression by the power of email. This newsletter, published by the American start-up Parallel, focuses on issues relating to well-being to help make them more accessible and less guilt-inducing.

Surprisingly, the founders of Prism don’t really like the word “wellness,” even if they seem to be outnumbered online. The #wellness hashtag is mentioned in more than 58 million posts on Instagram, while it counts 5.7 billion views on TikTok.

These numbers attest to society’s fascination with wellness, the concept that directs us to take care of ourselves and take responsibility for our happiness.

But Prism has another approach to wellness. “At Prism, wellness isn’t just about the individual, it’s also about the health of the greater community and our world. Because we believe it’s all connected. We’re all connected,” reads the newsletter’s website.

The Prism team shares this inclusive vision in newsletters, or “parcels” as it calls them.

Each one contains articles and personal essays written by various journalists. Prism’s first newsletter focuses on feeling better emotionally, mentally and physically. And it’s not about detox diets and miracle tricks, but rather about the need to slow down.

“While the word balance (and all it implies) may make you roll your eyes, it’s actually essential for our health and happiness to weigh how we’re spending our time — and make sure we’re not going too hard in one direction or neglecting another,” reads one story in this first missive.

Making wellness more accessible

According to Jocelyn Florence, a partner at Parallel, Prism’s goal is to educate as many people as possible about wellness, and not just fans of turmeric lattes and self-help books.

“If wellness content always feels like medicine, you’ll get a core group of people who self-identify that they pay a tonne of attention to what they eat, or they work out every day, etc.,” she told the specialist publication, Nieman Lab.

“But if you’re trying to bring wellness to people who don’t necessarily always think about it, making content that’s a little bit more entertaining and a little bit less judgmental, a little bit more open-minded, is an important part of that.”

To this end, Prism calls on the talent of journalists who are not necessarily specialised in health fields.

Their articles and essays can be read by subscribing to Prism’s free newsletters. They are also published on a dedicated website a few weeks after arriving in readers’ mailboxes. Good news for posterity. — ETX Studio