The Future of Wellness in 2022 admin April 10, 2022

The Future of Wellness in 2022

Industry Insight | Wellness Trends in Health and Home

Wellness in health and home is essential, however it has never been more relevant than in this past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and it is now simply at the fore of everything we do. In recent months, we have seen a growing demand for wellness products at home, such as workout equipment, beauty products and vitamin supplements.

The Global Wellness Summit has been taking place since the early 2000’s and is now an international event where leaders across the globe gather to encourage the importance of the wellness world and discuss current trends that are shaping the future.

In this article we look at some of the biggest trends we’ve identified in the current wellness world that impact our health and environment.

Sleep

Sleep is one of the most popular and spoken about topics, and even more so over this past year. This is because sleep difficulties have escalated over the course of the pandemic due to isolating for extended periods of times, losing real life connection and lacking movement. A sleepless night can affect your mood drastically, it can make you angry, irritable and short-tempered as well as induce mental illness like anxiety or depression. This is because sleep deprivation plays a significant part on your mood and many studies can prove it.

Our team at Recipe have explored the connections between sleep and emotion by looking into how our homes could improve sleep and productivity. Soove, conceptualised and designed by the Recipe team, is a home monitoring device that captures facial tracking and audio technology by recognising the key signs of stress in our facial expressions and analysing the sounds around us. It reacts intelligently and empathetically by picking up on changes in the home environment that can positively impact and influence our sleep.

Read more about Soove and how it uses our unique approach to Meaning Centred Design™ here.

Breathwork

Breathwork, another popular wellness trend, is the ability to practice breathing in various ways to help positively influence the individual’s mental, emotional and physical state. Throughout this past year and like many others, this trend has been influenced by the virtual world. Virtual breathwork has now been made through apps and technology to help guide you through the process. Today, top medical schools have conducted clinical studies that now scientifically prove breathwork has a deep impact on our physical and mental health.

Apps are starting to incorporate breathing sessions into their content; the wellness app Calm, has added a series led by a speaker to help guide you through your practice. Beyond apps, physical devices are now evolving; the Airofit Pro is a smart breathing training device that measures your lung function and helps build your lung capacity by training your breathing muscles. Although breathwork has always been accessible, the virtual platforms and new technology will only make this practice more mainstream, especially given the positive side effects it’s proven to deliver.

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“Whilst primarily for physical health benefits, the Airofit device is one of the few non-medical options that offers direct respiratory feedback, and therefore could very easily be adopted for mental wellbeing as much as it is for physical wellbeing. It wouldn’t surprise us if similar products become available operating in the same consumer space that apps like Headspace and Calm focus on.” – Tom Provan, Senior Strategist at Recipe Design

Fitness

The impact the pandemic had on the fitness industry, in spite of gyms being closed, created a shift in the way people work out. Brands soon picked up on this as customers suddenly turned to at home equipment and virtual fitness classes. Our Senior Industrial Design Manager, Lee Twycross, has discussed how brands must react to this sudden shift in the industry and how the world of connected fitness will only continue to accelerate.

In the first article, How Brands Can Conquer Connected Fitness, Lee discusses how companies must fully embrace and adjust to a connected mentality by creating a systematic approach to understanding mindset, guiding movement, imparting expertise in maintenance and implementing a visionary map. Creating Opportunity In Connected Fitness is about the ways in which brands can best support their users’ goals, whilst responding to changing needs and meaningful shifts in the market.

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“Brands can target and manipulate the tipping point, but to inspire long term change, a brand must have a deeper understanding of our mindset. Without this core foundation, they cannot offer knowledge to guide movement or impart expertise to maintain our bodies, it is the brands with a balanced and adaptive approach to each phase and those with a clear strategic map that will help us achieve our goals and ultimately keep us connected with the products and services on offer to us” – Lee Twycross, Senior Industrial Design Manager at Recipe Design in Creating Opportunity In Connected Fitness

Circular Economy

Circular packaging plays a meaningful part in wellness as it increases in value by positively impacting the consumers and the environment. It is a worthy solution, but one that can be difficult to implement into the mainstream. Recently however, companies are starting to realise that it is possible and still valuable to their brand to make these changes. With customers becoming more ‘carbon conscious’, brands can now offer a similar premium experience that consumers are accustomed to, without causing detrimental impact on the environment. Circular packaging helps brands to achieve and communicate their sustainability goals, whilst providing sustainable choices to their consumers.

Zero-waste skin care and nutritional supplements brand Ace of Air, who features in the Global Wellness Summit, discuss their circular packaging model – Select, Swap and Send. This method allows consumers to continue to receive new products without using single use plastic and consuming more waste. Circular packaging is no longer just a concept, it is now a proven system for a more sustainable world.

For more insights on this topic, check out our newsletter Meaning Monthly as we look into the circular economy and discuss how big named brands are trialling efforts to make an impact on the environment.

The pandemic has proved our physical and mental wellbeing is becoming top priority, and the fast-growing nature of the wellness sector means that brands must adapt quickly to the shift in demands of the consumer.

Next month, we delve into CES 2022 and discuss topics like food technology, e-sports, smart homes, digital health and more.

If you’re a brand with an interest in the wellness industry, a business leader thinking about how your proposition needs to evolve or if you would like a copy of our new e-book ‘The Ultimate Guide to Home & Wellness Innovation’, then please get in touch with our Client Services Lead Natasha French.

This article was first published in December 2021

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