Happiness and feminist wellness named key 2018 industry trends

Happiness is one of the defining wellness trends of 2018, according to the Global Wellness Summit

Healthy eating, feminist wellness, a clean air-focus and extreme wellness are some of the key wellbeing trends of 2018, according to the Global Wellness Summit.

The predictions were made as part of the 2018 Global Wellness Trends Report, released by the Global Wellness Summit (GWS) – pinpointing eight defining industry trends for the year ahead. The 2018 trends are:

1. Mushrooms emerge from the underground
Mushrooms, both magic and “regular”, are predicted to become big in 2018. There is, the report states, growing research highlighting “the unique medicine they provide our brains and bodies and a surge in medical evidence that they reset the brain”. In step with this, mushrooms will, the GWS suggests, increasingly be used to treat conditions such as anxiety, stress and depression.

2. A new era of transformative wellness travel
The often disjoined wellness experience that sees a lack of connection between fitness, nutrition and spa in hotel, resort and destination environments will, the report comments, increasingly become a thing of the past. Instead, classes, treatments and experiences will be joined up, with “more wellness destinations using wellness circuits to create linked wellness experiences rather than disconnected itineraries”.

3. Reframing the first 1,000 days
This year the world will, the report anticipates, more and more focus on the initial 1,000 days of a child’s life, including epigenetics. This is the science of how lifestyle and environment can alter the gene expression, passing this change on to our offspring. According to the report: “As more research is released, expect to see new guidelines that that go far beyond ‘no smoking or alcohol during pregnancy.’ And these recommendations will include dads as well as moms.”

4. The wellness kitchen
Going forward consumers will, the GWS states, purchase more and more fresh fruit and vegetable, and less processed food, as the focus on a healthy diet and organic produce, continues. Kitchens will be places for socialising, as well as cooking, and will increasingly also be used to grow vegetables.

5.Getting our “clean air act” together
Consumers will continue to focus on pollution and the importance of clean air, taking matters into their own hands. This will include buying air-purifying plants for their homes, investing in devices that also help purify the air and using technology, such as apps and sensors, to monitor indoor air quality. The beauty market will continue to emphasise the need to combat the detrimental impact of pollution in its product and treatment offering.

6. Extreme wellness
“The power to become the best we can be has never been more attainable and the pursuit of wellness has never been more extreme,” the report concludes. Signs of this trends are, the GWS explained, hyper-personalised wellness – including DNA and microbiome testing – and more people embracing extreme wellness. “The focus: building a better brain and hacking the body’s basic makeup through precision medicine and wellness."

7.Wellness meets happiness
Long considered vague and difficult to measure, there is now a rising level of research and science on happiness, including the annual World Happiness Report. A wider concept than wellness, happiness not only incorporates physical wellbeing but also factors such as income, trust in the government in the country you live in, and the strength of your social network. “The happiness science lessons are clear: the wellness world needs to put a greater focus on happiness generally – and on driving social connection and technology disconnection specifically,” the report states.

8. A new feminist wellness
In the wake of feminism being named the word of the year for 2017 and factors such as the impact of the #MeToo campaign, the GWS predicts “new intersections between women’s empowerment, feminism and wellness in 2018”. We will, the report states, see a stronger women’s empowerment message this year, and a broader definition of what wellness for women means. This will include the continued rise of femtech: technology focused on products and service catering for women. In the wellness world, this comprises apps centred around fertility, hormone tracking and contraception, among other things.

To read the full report, click here