Latham Thomas | Advocate Now 

Thomas shares that many modern wellness practices are often derived from other cultures, which can lead to cultural appropriation as companies profit off of a community's rituals. She adds that there are "too many products" pushed on consumers in the wellness space. In reality, some of the most beneficial wellness practices are completely free.

"We have to look at like what capitalism does when it's part of the wellness machine," she tells Sonia Baghdady of Advocate Now. "There's ways to practice and engage in wellness that are not expensive. I think there's ways to practice and engage in wellness that help to ground you in your own traditions ... And I don't think those things have to cost anything."

Thomas adds that the production of certain goods can be detrimental to the workers making them. While a vegan lifestyle assures animals are not harmed in one's diet, the fruits and vegetables they then rely on are supplied by underpaid and mistreated laborers, many of whom are immigrants.

"Us having to have access to a super food year-round, and what that does to an economy and to a people, that [is] outside of our daily purview. It's actually making them unwell. It's creating political strife," Thomas explains, adding, "We have to think about what it means to engage in an ethical way in wellness, what it means to engage in a way where we're not appropriating or siphoning or colonizing tools of other peoples, and practices of other peoples."

According to Thomas, there are many self-care practices that are both accessible and ethical, including daily movement. While she favors dance, she says that "self-care is really something that's individual."

"It's not taking a moment to escape your life," she adds. "It's really checking in on a moment-to-moment basis and asking yourself, what do I need to move through this moment?"

For more interviews like these, watch Advocate Nowon The Advocate Channel.