MIAMI—The Global Wellness Summit (GWS) released its annual wellness trends report, the new directions in wellness that the organization believes will have the most meaningful impact on the industry and people worldwide. The 110-page report goes in-depth on the major shifts ahead in nutrition, wellness travel, wellness real estate, women’s health, men’s wellness, healthcare, technology, sustainability, and spas. The trends were unveiled at the first Global Wellness News media event in New York City.
10 Wellness Trends for 2022
- Dirty Wellness: The health of the world’s soil—and the impact of soil exposure on human health—become far more important (Think: “soil-bathing”).
- Toxic Muscularity Comes Clean:How bulging biceps and rippling abs have had a negative ripple effect on male body image.
- From Wellness Tech to Technological Wellness: A fresh take on digital health.
- Senior Living Disrupted: A wrinkle in time no more.
- Wellness Travel: Seekers, Welcome: Post-pandemic travelers are ready for adventure and engagement.
- Innovative Tech Closing the Gender Gap in Medical Research: Artificial Intelligence, apps, and wearables collect data for a wide range of women’s health conditions.
- Urban Bathhouses & Wellness Playgrounds: Affordable wellness is coming to a city near you.
- Next-Gen Naturalism: The return of self-reliance.
- Health & Wellness Coaching Gets Certified: Coaches trained in the art and science of motivating healthy changes have been the missing link in both healthcare and wellness.
- Wellness Welcomes the Metaverse: Health & wellness are attractive to the Metaverse which needs to diversify beyond gaming.
“If it’s always daunting to predict trends in the fast-moving wellness space, it’s especially so two years into a pandemic where the long-promised ‘post-pandemic world’ is becoming visible but is repeatedly delayed,” said Susie Ellis, GWS chair and CEO. “One thing that this forecast makes very clear is that the future of wellness will be anything but a ‘restart’ of 2019. What consumers need most, what they perceive as ‘true wellness,’ has profoundly changed.”
A few themes emerge in the trends report. With new awareness of the radical fragility of life and the planet, a “survivalist wellness” is emerging: More people are seeking resilience and self-reliance (see: “Next-Gen Naturalism”) and they’re now keenly aware that their own wellbeing is inextricable from the planet’s (see: “Dirty Wellness,” on how restoring the world’s soil and our connection to it become a major focus.)
Additional Themes Addressed
Another theme is tackling the glaring gaps, missing links and underserved populations in both healthcare and wellness: from male body issues finally getting the attention that women’s have to innovative technology closing the women’s health research gap to “senior living” getting a dramatic rethink to the rise of professional wellness coaches dedicated to solving that great unsolved issue in both healthcare and wellness: motivating behavior change.
With the pandemic further subsuming us in a digital world, the future of wellness and technology is complex: The metaverse will plunge us into evermore immersive health and wellness experiences while a new “technological wellness” will have us interrogating and limiting our relationship to tech as never before. As always, the report covers the cool, new experiences rising in wellness: from pandemic-weary cities being reimagined as accessible “wellness playgrounds” to destinations answering the call of a new purpose-seeking wellness traveler, with experiences that help them grow intellectually, spiritually, and creatively.
This is the only wellness forecast based on the insights of hundreds of global executives of wellness companies, economists, doctors, investors, academics and technologists that gather each year at the GWS. The trend authors—top journalists, analysts, and wellness experts—bring each trend to life with numerous examples of the innovators and companies that are pioneering each concept.
