Wellness in the Age of Covid: 5 Trends for 2021

Trying to figure out how to stay healthy during Covid-19? In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, health and wellness became radically more important overnight. Susie Ellis, the CEO of the Global Wellness Institute says the pandemic has made wellness more of necessity than a luxury.

“The pandemic has definitely shone a spotlight on wellness. And it has become more of a necessity, more of a have to rather than want to. More and more people are interested in -- and that’s a good thing -- taking care of themselves because the pandemic has gone on long enough where people recognize there isn't going to be a quick fix."

Susie says wellness is self-care.

“Doing my part for taking care of myself, body, mind and spirit. And that is a distinction between healthcare. Healthcare you do when you need to cure something, you need to take a medication maybe, there's surgery. There's things that the medical world does. And I think with Covid, it's a good example. I mean, if you Covid and you need to go to the hospital, you are with the health-care system. But what about self-care? What about taking care of yourself, wearing the masks, doing social distancing, keeping your immune system strong, going to bed and having a good night's sleep. So that is a lot of wellness. So, any activities that contribute to your self-care, to me, that's wellness.”

And Susie has a surprising tip people can do to help boost their wellness.

“One thing that we're seeing that people are needing more and paying more attention to now, or should be, is connections with other people. It's really important for people to stay connected with a few people and having deep conversations. It's not as obvious as something that needs to be done for wellness as the exercise and healthy eating and stress reduction.”

The Global Wellness Summit unveiled its top nine wellness trends for 2021. Susie takes us through five of them.

1. Hollywood and the entertainment industries jump into wellness

“TV, the music industry, Samsung Smart TV has a whole portal for free wellness and fitness classes. We just see that big media, the apps, online screens, music, there's a lot of interest in wellness and we think that's going to affect a lot of people in a very positive way because it'll democratize who's able to participate in wellness.”

2. Immune Health: Stop boosting, start balancing

“Boosting your immune system is actually not a good idea. What we need to do is balance it. Maybe strengthen it. The emphasis is going to be on the metabolic health, understanding the microbiome and personalized nutrition. Those are the three areas that are going to have more attention and especially the microbiome, because 70 % of our immune system is affected there. Look for the word immunity to be everywhere and hopefully for us all to learn more about it and become much more familiar with true balancing of immunity.”

3. Spiritual and Numinous Moments in Architecture

“This is about architecture contributing to our spiritual and therefore our body, mind, spirit well-being. We're no longer just with architecture providing basic architecture or even the self-esteem McMansion. Now, we're looking at architecture for more of that self-actualization. And some interesting things are happening in that arena.”

4. Just Breathe

“You know, there's breath festivals and there's a lot of classes. There's a lot of books. The difference now is that breath is not just the woo woo yoga, you know, here's some yoga breathing. This is about some real science that shows the value of learning and doing exercises in breathing that can really help your health. And the pandemic has brought that to light also.”

5. Bringing diversity to wellness

“It's a very sobering written trend by a Black researcher, one of our research team, actually, about what it felt like to be a Black person and go to some of these spas, wellness places, retreats, which has not always felt very comfortable. And I hope it will spark a lot of not only learning and education, but a lot of movement for doing more to expand wellness for all, especially for Black and Brown communities.”

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