Personal wellness has evolved as a significant global trend in recent years, and it is widely diffused over areas such as health, exercise, nutrition, appearance, sleep, and mindfulness. The trend is projected to continue in 2023, with an increased emphasis on self-care and emotional well-being.
In an interaction with ABP Live, RoundGlass, a worldwide Wholistic Wellbeing firm, identified cutting-edge wellness trends that will be transforming the way we live, heal, and flourish in 2023. Whether it's using meditation to relieve pain or cold-immersion therapy to treat migraines and mood problems, Prakriti Poddar, Global Head of Mental Health and Wellbeing at RoundGlass, and Dr David Vago, Lead Research at RoundGlass, have highlighted the following, as well as many more exciting wellness trends to look forward to in the next year:
- Mind-Body Therapies: Some of these have lingered on the fringe of wellness spaces but are now gaining credibility with new evidence supporting their impact on health and wellness.
- Float tanks: Remember Stranger Things' "sensory deprivation" tanks? They're having a good time. These tanks contain water combined with Epsom salt, which allows bodies to float in them and can help you enhance your mental health. After one hour of floating, participants reported significant reductions in stress, muscle tension, discomfort, despair, and negative affect, as well as a significant improvement in mood, according to a study from the Laureate Institute for Brain Research.
- Cryotherapy and cold-immersion therapy: For years, athletes have utilised ice baths to treat inflammation and muscular problems. Recent research indicates that they are also efficient at reducing cardiovascular strain, blood flow, and tissue metabolism. Cold immersion therapy is being utilised to treat migraines and mood disorders, as well as to reduce dementia and boost immune system responses.
- Rise of Rest: The year 2023 will be about slowing down and pausing. People will prefer restorative yoga and relaxing sound baths over HIIT (high-intensity interval training) sessions and the hustle mentality. Sleep is also becoming more valued as the ultimate form of self-care. If technology has robbed you of your sleep, sleep technology, with its aids and gadgets, will assist you in getting eight hours of undisturbed slumber. Choose from a wide range of applications that include sleep stories and sleep meditations and download them to help you rest, reset, and revitalise.
- Plant-Forward Eating: People will be eating more plant-based diets as they are good for our and the planet’s health. Plant-based milk sales are on the rise, and consumers are eager to integrate more plant-forward foods into their weekly diets. This is reflected in the increasing number of vegan eateries in India, as well as popular individuals who have adopted veganism, such as cricketer Virat Kohli, actors Aamir Khan, and Neha Dhupia, among others.
- Meditation for Physical Wellbeing: We all know that meditation improves our mental health, but a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that it might also help people manage pain and physical ailments. A recent study published in the journal PAIN in July 2022 discovered that mindfulness meditation disrupted the connection between brain areas involved in pain experience and those that form a feeling of self. In the theorised process, pain signals continue to travel from the body to the brain, but the individual has less control over those painful feelings, resulting in less pain and suffering.
- “One-Stop Shops” for ‘Wholistic’ Wellness: This trend is gaining traction. Integrated approaches to wellness are becoming more popular, with a greater emphasis on several areas of wellbeing rather than the "life of the solitary mind." Wholistic health encompasses our bodily and emotional lives, as well as our intellectual and social lives, as well as our interactions with the environment and the larger world. The number of wellbeing apps that target all of these many components of well-being is rising.
People are becoming more conscious of what their bodies and minds require to live their lives to the fullest. People are becoming more in touch with their inner selves through innovative interventions such as guided therapy, nutritional plant-based consumption, and current technologies. In the new year, health and wellbeing will be less of a duty to check off our lists and more of a daily practice that becomes an integral part of our everyday lives.