The Global Wellness Summit (GWS) has released its annual trend report for 2022. 

The report, entitled The Future of Wellness, was unveiled during the GWS’s first Global Wellness News live and virtual media event, hosted by GWS CEO and chair Susie Ellis and GWS executive director Nancy Davies in New York City. 

The 110-page report, authored by several leading industry experts including analysts, journalists and wellness specialists, reveals the organisations’ top 10 health and wellness trends for 2022. 

A comprehensive summary of the trends can be found below: 

1. Dirt-y wellness: The health of the world’s soil and the impact of soil exposure on human health

Highlighting the importance of soil health and its subsequent impact on human health, this trend is based on mounting research indicating that soil and human microbiomes are ‘anciently connected’. 

Soil exposure can have a significant impact on our health, including our immunity and mental health. However, according to the report, modern humans are ‘soil deprived’, as we are no longer ‘bathing’ in soil as farmers and foragers, and therefore not receiving the health benefits. 

Regenerative agriculture using new techniques that restore the soil’s biodiversity is big news in farming and is set to become a huge wellness and food trend, with foods grown in regenerated soil expected to bear labels such as ‘Regen’ or ‘soil-certified’. Similarly, wellness and skincare brands will pivot towards regen-farm-sourced ingredients.

Within this trend, gardening and foraging will also continue to gain popularity.

“The world is waking up to the dire need to rewild the world’s soil and to the soil-human microbiome connection,” the report says.

3. From wellness tech to technological wellness: A fresh take on digital health 

From fitness wearables to health apps and smart home gyms, we are constantly bombarded with technology that promises to make us well. However, this tech, which makes up the majority of our screen time, can foster an unhealthy dependence and actually be detrimental to our health. 

Technological wellness is the answer. Placing health at the centre of how – and how often – we engage with technology, technological wellness mitigates the ‘toxic toll’ tech can take on our mind and bodies. 

According to the report, the approach would need a collaboration between the tech and wellness industries, and attitudes towards tech would have to change.

“[By] developing everyday technologies with health in mind, we can create a better kind of world: One where we treat our tech intake more like our food intake – taking greater care to understand how it affects our mind, body and overall being,” the report says.

GWS CEO Susie Ellis said: “People are not going to totally disconnect these days so most spa and wellness destinations are now offering hybrid models to give balance and allow people access to their technology.”

 “In reality, we can’t say ‘no technology’, as it also helps us live our lives. It’s about finding a balance. The wellness world has to be part of that conversation now. It’s time for the wellness world to get involved. Let’s be part of the process of helping this go in a good direction.”

4. Senior living disrupted: A wrinkle in time no more!

According to several ageing experts, including the Cleveland Clinic’s chief wellness officer Michael Roizen, MD, an exponential increase in longevity is expected in the next decade. This jump will see 90 becoming the new 40, meaning people will retire later and will focus on active and engaged ageing. 

“Healthier, more youthful, and more active than their cohorts in previous generations ,this incoming senior class doesn’t ‘feel old’ and doesn’t want to be defined by age, nor socially segregated by it,” says the report. 

This trend will see new models of inter-generational living, including ‘pocket neighbourhoods’, that aim to increase social connections, decrease loneliness and improve health and wellbeing for all residents.

5. Wellness travel: Seekers, welcome 

Travel experiences in 2022, will be all about intention, tapping into a sense of purpose and a desire for creative and intellectual growth in new environments. 

According to the report, the pandemic highlighted the need for self-care, taking breaks and meaningful experiences. 

Intentional travelers, known as Seekers, will head to destinations offering local experiences, such as art classes, citizen science programmes and learning to grow their own food.

“In 2022, it’s clear the thread of wellness is so braided into the travel world that nearly every trip is an opportunity for travelers to reclaim their lives, improve their health and discover their purpose,” the report states.

7. Urban bathhouses & Wwellness playgrounds: Affordable wellness is coming to a city near you

Wellness is set to become more accessible, affordable and inclusive with the advent of wellness playgrounds, public playgrounds combining nature, art and wellness, while man-made beaches with scenic boardwalks and pop-up wellness classes are becoming available in cities such as London, New York, Paris, Sydney, Madrid and Tokyo. 

Additionally, an urban bathhouse renaissance, inspired by European and Asian bathing cultures, is taking place around the world. New and renovated bathhouses, featuring hydrothermal experiences such as saunas , steam rooms and thermal pools, as well as large-scale wellness water resorts are opening across the globe.

8. Next-gen naturalism: The return of self-reliance

The report predicts that the ‘collective reckoning of the fragility of our planet and the instability of our supply chains’ will see a return to self-reliance, with the looming threat of global upheaval forcing us to change our ways.  

Driven by Gen Z and described as the ‘self-seficiency boom’, evidence of this trend is already building on social platforms such as TikTok with hashtags such as #ecohacks trending. 

This trend, the report says, aligns itself with back-to-basics wellness, with an emphasis placed on the natural world and ‘ancient practices’, and will require a ‘Marie Kondo-esque’ simplification of our lifestyles and consumption habits.

“It’s a no-frills kind of wellness that forces us to rethink how we use our natural resources, how we source our food, and ultimately– how we prepare for a shaky future.”

9. Health & wellness coaching gets certified 

The advent of health and wellness coaches is upon us, with certified health and wellness coaches (HWCs) becoming more central to all primary health care and wellness. 

According to the report, HWCs are healthcare professionals devoted to helping people make healthy lifestyle changes. More time-rich than medical doctors, HWCs are trained in evidence-based, nuanced conversational techniques to develop motivation and confidence, and can spend the time – anywhere between 50-minutes and three months – to help people hit realistic wellbeing goals. 

These coaches, the report says, are “poised to explode” with rigorous training and certification programmes in place. Additionally, ‘care team models’ are becoming more and more prevalent in public health care providers and primary care start-ups, with the UK’s NHS offering Personalised Care Plans, while in the US more and more insurance providers are covering this kind of medical wellness intervention.

10. Wellness welcomes the Metaverse 

With the metaverse is something of an inevitability, the Wellness Metaverse is also inevitable. With wellness at the front of most consumers minds, as well as at the fore of several business and government strategies around the world, thanks to the pandemic and several other social factors. 

The trend will see the development and integration of new technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and haptics), that will be well placed to better engage and positively impact the health of more people.

Several wellness sectors including beauty and spas will introduce new technology, such as virtual reality, to create immersive experiences and ‘radically transform how wellness is delivered to global consumers.’

“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.

“One thing that this forecast makes clear is that the future of wellness will be anything but a ‘restart’ of 2019. What consumers now need most, what they perceive as ‘true wellness,’ has profoundly changed.”