Earlier this year, the Global Wellness Summit (GWS) released its much-anticipated annual wellness trends report, illustrating the new directions in wellness that the organization believes will have the most meaningful impact on the industry and people worldwide.
Mindbody also rounded up 2022’s wellness trends and says the future of health and wellness is being redefined.
In June, we celebrated Global Wellness Day and saw more companies than ever participate in an event to practice yoga or meditation with their employees.
What we know is that the past few years have each been unpredictable in their own way and if there’s one thing we learned, it’s that the definition of wellness is changing.
From forest bathing to the Metaverse, we’ve rounded up 5 of the biggest wellness trends we’ve seen so far in 2022.
1. Corporate Wellness Steps Up
It’s not so long since ‘corporate wellness’ simply meant a free fruit bowl in the office kitchen. But wellbeing initiatives in the workplace aren’t just a tick-box exercise.
So, as more employees return to offices full-time, they will also be demanding more from their employers. A recent study revealed that 77 per cent of employees believe it’s ‘important that their employer provides affordable wellness options,’ and many said it affects their decision about whether or not to join a company.
A survey by the American Psychological Association found that an overwhelming 91 per cent of employees working in companies that support wellbeing say this motivates them to deliver their best.
2. Wellness Welcomes the Metaverse
Wellness is now front and center in consumer’s minds—and at the forefront of business and government strategies around the globe—and the world is seeking new technologies that can far better engage and impact the health of many more people. From virtual reality and augmented reality to merged reality and haptics, the coming wellness metaverse will create vast opportunities for each sector of the $4.4 trillion global wellness economy. This trend explores everything from the trending medical and wellness experiences now being created for the metaverse to how wellness companies should look at the future opportunities.
3. Finding Calm Through Forest Bathing
A rising interest in forest bathing as a meditative exercise will continue to be big this year. What began in Japan in the 1980s as a psychological practice (called shinrin-yoku), has influenced the rest of the world, and risen as a solution for giving ourselves space from our tech-heavy days. “You don’t have to live in the woods to benefit from forest bathing,” Taylor explains. “Forest bathing can be done in your backyard, a local park, or in any pocket of nature. The goal is to be still, breathe and soak it all in.” Benefits of soaking up the natural silence? Decreased stress, boosted immunity, and an increase in serotonin levels.
4. From Wellness Tech to Technological Wellness
Between fitness wearables, telehealth apps and smart home gyms, there is no shortage of technologies promising to make us well. But the truth is that most technologies (that make up the majority of our screen time) are harming our health, not helping it. That’s where the need for a new technological wellness comes in: a kind of wellness that doesn’t just remedy the toxic toll that tech takes on our minds or bodies, but rather puts health at the very center of how—and how often—we engage with technology at large. The future: pausing, developing everyday technologies with wellbeing in mind, and treating our tech intake more like our food intake.
5. Regenerative Travel
Different from Sustainable travel, regenerative travel is shaking up the travel industry in more ways than one. Sustainable travel focuses on minimizing a tourist’s impact on the environment, regenerative travel instead aims to reinvent the entire tourism industry.
Regenerative travel is all about giving back to the system we benefit from. It has gained awareness as eco-friendly practices and environmental responsibility become more of a priority to travelers and local communities. Increasingly, top spas, resorts and hotel destinations are highlighting connections with nature. The result is also a catalyst that generates social, economic and environmental wealth.
To read a full version of the report annual wellness trends report, head to the official GWS website.