Remember when wellness was as simple as losing weight with the latest fad diet and a session of “8 Minute Abs?” While health regimens like these used to be quite popular, they can seem a bit superficial compared to today’s routines, which might involve serving your spirit at Soul Cycle and replenishing your energy with local, organic beet juice. As millennials move the marketplace towards trends like these, the health and wellness industry’s focus is shifting beyond merely beautifying our bodies and onto activities that heal us more deeply. As a result, in 2019 our collective vision of health will expand towards total well-being. With total well-being, wellness isn’t just about healing our bodies. It’s about nourishing our minds, spirits, communities and environment through holistic practices that uplift everyone involved. We will begin to see more and more employers moving to support a paradigm of total well-being for their employees as well.
The Evolution Of Wellness
During the 1950s and 60s, the American public began waking up to the fact that exercise plays a major role in health. At this time, fitness legends such as Jack LaLanne attained stardom, urging the public to hit the gym. With this advice in the public’s consciousness, the first corporate fitness programs began as businesses started building fitness centers for their employees.
By the 80s and 90s, with the help of people such as Dr. Robert Atkins, we began to understand how the things we put into our body affect our health. With this new point of view in mind, employers offered biometrics and personalized health risk assessments to learn how to manage negative health outcomes. Programs to help people quit smoking, manage stress and eat better also popped up during this period.
Shifting Towards Total Well-being
As we moved into the 2000s, the rise of natural food stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s and a growing interest in natural medicine brought holistic wellness to the forefront. It was also during this period that dull aerobics classes gave way to practices like Zumba and yoga, which allowed us to have fun and connect to ourselves more deeply. Fitness trackers also seamlessly incorporated exercise and calorie cutting into our lives, leaving extra time to focus on other aspects of health such as stress, nutrition and detoxification.
Taking note of these trends toward preventative health measures, employers gradually began shifting their wellness tactics toward the holistic. Soon, employers began encouraging their staff to reach 10,000 steps each day with the aid of a pedometer, get their heart rate up with the help of a Fitbit and keep up with their preventative screenings and vaccinations.
As time went on, it became common for corporations to revamp their cafeterias to offer lunches that were both delicious and healthy, such as garden salads and fresh fish. Corporate yoga and mediation programs also exploded with apps such as Calm and Headspace. Now, we’re in a place where we’re ready to look towards the next big corporate health and wellness trends.
The Biohacking Craze
Movements such as biohacking, which lets us maximize efficiency and wellness simultaneously by fueling our bodies with foods and recovery methods that maximize our health, are on the rise. Techniques such as foam rolling, cutting sugar and meditation vastly improve our quality of life and longevity. Additionally, science is helping us maximize our workouts and recovery through practices like high-intensity interval training and cryotherapy, which boost our metabolisms, strengthen our hearts and build our willpower.
To capitalize on this trend, employers can start offering adaptogens in their break rooms, putting saunas and cryotherapy tanks in office gyms and providing the opportunity for employees to sequence their genes, which can help combat their predispositions.
Creating Wellness-Centered Communities
While the use of home gyms is decreasing, membership to fitness clubs and gyms is increasing. Boutique gyms such as Soulcycle, F45 and yoga studios all offer an element of tribalism that is missing in today’s increasingly disconnected society. This growing workout culture forces us to put down our phones and truly interact with our fellow humans, which helps us find a sense of belonging. Such communal engagement increases happiness and well-being by combating loneliness. In improving our individual health in this way, we’re also building strong communities and social support systems.
When it comes to corporate wellness, employers should think about hosting group fitness classes in their office gyms to explore team-building through exercise. Encouraging your staff to work hard together physically is likely to translate into better teamwork and performance in other areas as well.
The Benefits Of Wellness Programs
Studies have shown that wellness initiatives can yield a return on investment of around $6 for every $1 spent on the program. Furthermore, employees who believe that their company cares about their health and wellness show significantly improved health, stress and job satisfaction. The key to caring lies in providing incentives, investing in the latest trends and recognizing workers for their efforts. Overall, companies that care for their employees stand to see a superb return on investment (ROI) as their productivity improves and their health insurance costs drop.
The Future Of Total Wellness
With health and wellness industry influencers such as Dave Asprey aiming to live until 180 or beyond, it’s easy to see that in the near future, wellness will look entirely different than it did in the days of home workout tapes and low-fat diets. As brands continue to challenge doctors as our authorities on health, we’ll need to be increasingly careful about where we get our information. However, all in all, this trend brings us the opportunity to truly take health back into our own hands. As health and wellness grows into the next trillion-dollar industry, our office wellness programs could move us towards healing ourselves and our communities.
Source : https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeslacouncil/2019/04/18/total-well-being-the-wellness-trend-of-2019/#17d41ac020fd
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