Upcoming health and wellness trends

The Global Wellness Summit launched its annual trends report and you might find it interesting to know what’s in store for health and wellness over the coming year. From microbiomes to technology, wellness real estate to sustainability, here’s what the world of wellness has in store…

Connecting with nature - literally

For 99% of human evolution, people lived deep in soil—as foragers and farmers. Now we’re soil-deprived, no longer bathing in all that bacterial and fungal richness. Mounting research indicates that the soil and human microbiomes are anciently connected, and that soil exposure has an eye-opening impact on everything from immune to mental health.

There’s research to suggest that the green fingered amongst us have something of a wellness advantage, as getting your hands dirty in the garden can increase your serotonin levels, courtesy of contact with soil and a specific soil bacteria, which triggers the release of serotonin in our brain.

This is interconnected with a growing trend for self-sufficiency as more of us take joy in things like foraging and growing our own veg at home, fuelled by a desire to get into the garden, an awareness of the cost of living, and our growing interest in sustainability.

Digital health

There’s something of a disconnect when it comes to tech and wellbeing. There are so many apps, fitness wearables and smart home gyms available, all promising us the world, but at the same time our constant connectivity can be stressful and harmful. So the world of wellness is changing the game, placing health at the centre of how—and how often—we engage with technology at large.

Intergenerationality

We need to have a chat about ageing. There’s a push to change the way we talk, think and address getting older as our expectations of age change, with more intentional intergenerationality. The Global Wellness Summit said:

“This goes back to "days of yore," when people were not so transient, and communities stayed organically intergenerational. Such old-school intersectionality still exists in the world’s Blue Zones—places like Okinawa, Japan and Sardinia, Italy—which also happen to be among the places where people live the longest and age the healthiest.”

Affordable wellness 

We’re all so much more aware of wellness as a long-term and sustainable part of our lives (or at least, trying to make it sustainable), post pandemic. So, from renovated bathhouses featuring thermal suites (saunas, steam rooms, pools) to large-scale wellness water resorts and public parks where nature meets art and wellness, cities around the globe are making the pursuit of wellness more accessible, affordable and inclusive at all ages.

Certified health and wellness coaching

Remember how nice it is to talk to your spa therapist? How much chatting to them can be as therapeutic as the massage or facial that you’re having? Well, those therapists are now being recognised for the role that they play in emotional support as well as physical wellness, as coaching and mentoring becomes more formalised and certified. For example, Jennifer Young Training recently launched her Hormonal Wellness Mentoring and Coaching so therapists can provide greater support for women going through menopause. The net result? Your spa therapist just became even more of a superhero.