Personal growth and mental well-being have grown into a huge industry today. Life coaches, self-help books, motivational speakers, online courses, and apps promise happiness, success, and inner balance – of course, not for free. So, the question arises: do we really need to pay for our mental well-being? Or are we just falling for a well-crafted marketing trick?
Few things have been better for humanity than the recent shift toward consciously caring for our mental health – and let’s be honest, humanity has made plenty of mistakes lately, so this little victory is well deserved.
Terms like mindfulness, attachment styles, or "me time" have entered everyday language in recent years. The stigma around therapy is only now starting to fade.
I truly believe that we hold great responsibility for our own well-being. I feel incredibly lucky to live in a time and place where we can focus on this—not just fighting to survive, but actually living.
But do we really need money to achieve mental well-being?
In some ways, yes. A good therapist can be an essential support for many in processing past traumas or understanding and honoring their own needs.
From this perspective, mental well-being remains a luxury many still can’t afford or can only access with great difficulty.
Sure, there are cheerful mountain shepherds at the foot of Everest who live in full zen without ever picking up a self-help book, but it’s important not to downplay the serious fact that many still need professional help to maintain or restore their mental health and don’t get it.
But there’s another side we need to talk about
The personal growth industry generates billions globally each year. Books, workshops, online courses, and countless apps lure us with promises of a "better life." The term "life coach" is no longer new. These experts can charge tens of thousands of forints per hour. Often without any formal mental health training behind them.
So why do we pay so much to feel better? Partly because of consumer culture. People chase an ideal "better self," amplified by perfect, filtered lives on social media. The personal growth industry taps into this desire: the feeling that we’re never good enough and always have room to improve.
In other words, while the industry promises a happy life, it must create problems to survive: if a self-help book truly made us feel satisfied, we’d never buy another one—and that’s not in the interest of a consumption-driven society.
You can’t buy the work you put in
While more and more promise quick fixes through apps, books, or miracle methods, the truth is that inner work can’t be skipped no matter how much money we throw at the problem.
So yes, the harsh truth is that maintaining our mental health often requires serious investment—just like we pay for fresh veggies, fruit, or running shoes to take care of our bodies.
But if we let the apples on the kitchen counter wither and the running shoes gather dust in the closet, we haven’t really done anything.
Similarly, while some techniques can help us "get our life together," the insights and realizations, the inner work can’t be avoided. There comes a point when our toolkit is ready—and it’s up to us what we do with it.
