Traditional concepts of health, fitness, and well-being revolve around exercise and nutrition. You should eat more protein than carbohydrates and less processed sugar than natural sources like fruit. Also, you should engage in a workout routine that burns fat and increases cardiovascular endurance.
While these and other views are still popular, we are at a much more advanced stage, one that focuses more on psychology than physical science. With that in mind, let us explore three trends in the health and wellness industry.
Self-Image and Perception
If you were born in the early or late eighties, you probably remember at least a handful of the top supermodels in the world. After all, names like Cindy Crawford, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, and Kate Moss ruled not only runways across the globe but also pop culture in the Americas, Europe, and even Asia and Africa.
Even if these women were quite thin compared to the average female in the United States, they still portrayed an image of health, youth, and exuberance, an ideal for millions of girls to follow.
The end of the century brought with it a new trend, one that has continued for at least the last 20 years. It introduced the concept of self-acceptance and personal value regardless of body shape or a little extra skin under your arms or in your midsection.
Of course, many people are dissatisfied with how they look in the mirror, and plenty of young boys and girls suffer from eating disorders. If you happen to know one of them, the best solution, in this case, is for them to engage in a bulimia or anorexia treatment plan to help them get through it.
Nevertheless, we have come a long way, and being beautiful is not just about how small a pair of jeans is or how tight a shirt you can fit in.
Mental and Physical Health
If you ask one hundred different people to define what being happy is, chances are you will get one hundred different answers. For some, happiness is about financial stability and personal wealth. If you don’t have to worry about where you will sleep, what you will eat, and how you will pay for your children’s education, you won’t get upset that often.
For others, happiness is a choice, a decision you make daily. You either choose to be happy no matter the circumstances around your life, or you choose not to be and see the negative in every corner you turn.
Finally, a third group would define happiness as both the intrinsic and extrinsic value of having fruitful relationships with family, friends, and colleagues. When people know they are not alone, it is harder for them to give up.
Regardless of what definition you have in your mind, today, we fully acknowledge the importance of finding a balance between physical health and mental well-being. For most, a chiseled, perfect body is no longer enough to grant them satisfaction. Neither is an optimistic mindset when you dislike what you see in the mirror.
Spirituality, Religion, and Alternative Medicine
Different people believe in different things. While most people belong to one of the many chapters found in Christianity, many others conform to Buddhist, Hinduist, Taoist, Confucianist, or Judaist practices.
This is nothing new. Religion is as old as humanity itself. There are few records in the history of civilizations that did not conform to any higher being either in heaven or in nature.
Still, what we see today is vastly different. We live on a planet where human beings can choose to believe in different things simultaneously. Not only that, but they are also incorporating these credences into their health and wellness routines.
For example, I can be a Christian but at the same time follow Buddhist practices as it pertains to spirituality, internal balance, and inner peace. Alternatively, I can follow the teachings of Confucius and Chinese Traditional Medicine and trust Western doctors’ knowledge and modern scientific developments.
In essence, what we see today is the advent of spirituality concerning overall health. It comes then as no surprise that more people are practicing yoga now than at any other moment in history, and things like Feng Sui are at an all-time high.
From a psychological perspective, three important trends in health and wellness are issues of self-image and individual perception, the never-ending search for balance between our bodies and our minds, and the rising popularity of alternative beliefs and concepts that only belonged to certain cultures in the past.
As we continue to discover more not only about our human anatomy but also our brain and our culture, few believe their influence will diminish in the years to come.
