2022 Wellness Trends

Every year, there are new health and wellness trends centered around youth, longevity, and movement and it can be hard to sort through which new practices live up to the promise of improving your lifestyle. Here are some trends that are worth trying this year.

Face Yoga

Instead of just focusing on skin, face yoga targets the muscles under the skin and uses exercises that invigorate the face, and the lymphatic system. Facial yoga routines can target different concerns for different people.

Many people enjoy facial yoga for its ability to reverse the effects of aging around the face, neck, and chest. By strengthening and relaxing the appropriate facial muscles, wrinkles begin to smooth over, and fine lines fade. Exercises can focus on addressing crow’s feet, forehead creases, and frown lines. The massage elements of face yoga can focus on reducing stress, relieving puffiness around the eyes, improving sleep, and reducing anxiety.

Another benefit of face yoga is that it can be done almost anywhere without requiring a membership or instructor.

Slow Travel

If you’ve recently heard the term “slow travel” you may be wondering what exactly that means especially in a world of quick weekend trips. Slow travel is about taking your time during the course of a trip both physically and spiritually. By focusing on intentions and consciousness, you have time to establish a connection with your destination and experiences. When you slow travel you are more likely to give yourself time to connect with people and local culture instead of rushing to see main attractions in one jam-packed day.

In addition to providing a more meaningful experience, slow travel can help you stay within a reasonable budget by placing less emphasis on tourist attractions or trendy places to visit. Slowing down your trip also gives you time and space to relax and avoid the exhaustion that some trips can cause.

 

Mindful Eating

Whatever your eating preferences are, there’s always a new term to describe your habits. Two new methods for mindful eating styles are flexitarianism (“flexible” and “vegetarian”) and reducetarian (making a choice to eat less dairy, meat, and eggs). Both methods focus on eating fewer animal products. These eating styles have become increasingly relevant as one third of Americans and almost half of Europeans say they are now consuming less meat than a year ago. This means the plant-based market is seeing success, and it’s easier to find alternatives to animal-based foods.

If you are still eating animal products you can practice mindful eating through reducetarianism and whole-food, plant-centric diets like the Nordic diet which place emphasis on high-quality food and sustainable animal products, like wild-caught fish and pasture-raised eggs. A plant-forward mentality with eating can not only improve health, but it can also help our planet.

 

Breathwork

Breathwork uses various techniques that center your mind on intentional use of your breath. You can learn to use simple deep breathing and more advanced techniques to balance your mind and your body.

When we take time to breathe consciously, our mind slows down and becomes more connected with our present state and experience. The sense of relief that comes with this kind of pause helps us return to our day feeling focused and clear-minded.

One simple way to practice breathwork is through Deep Abdominal Breathing. This method starts by fully filling the body with air. Start from the belly, expand up to the chest as you breathe in. When the breath is released let your chest fall, pull your ribs in, and pull in through your navel. A fully engaged abdomen allows you to experience the complete capacity of breathing and sends a signal to your whole body and brain to relax.

 

Mindful Stress Coping

It can be easy to just react to stress as it presents itself throughout the day, but a mindful, proactive approach to addressing stress allows you to take control of what may cause anxiety and avoid some of its negative effects.

• Identify Triggers: Learning what triggers stress can help you be aware of problems beforehand and come up with ways to solve them ahead of time. Even if you can't avoid every triggering situation, being prepared can help. Spend time reflecting on events and feelings that might increase your stress.
• Organize Your Time: Making some adjustments to your day can encourage a sense of control and help your challenges feel more manageable. Remember to make sure you are not trying to accomplish too much at once and make lists to keep your tasks organized.
• Address Chronic Causes: Although there are many things in your life that may cause stress that you cannot eliminate, there might still be ways to manage or improve issues that are present long-term pressure. Look for resources for managing family relationships, work-life balance, and finances.
• Embrace What Cannot Change: While easier said than done, accepting that sometimes you cannot make changes to some stressors will help you focus your time and energy on things you can change and achieve.

 

Bodywork

In holistic practices, bodywork uses indicators from facial skin, to determine what's happening internally. Puffiness might mean lymph and circulation needs regulation. Newly formed asymmetries can indicate that our body needs alignment. A tense jawbone can be an indication of a tight fascia. Instead of viewing all of these as signs of aging, addressing the root cause through bodywork can help restore balance to the face.

When you need to address the lymph and fascia, massages are an accessible way to treat your concerns. This type of bodywork speaks to some of our greatest needs: to move and flow freely, to achieve balance in our lives, and manage stress. While massage bodywork has long been viewed as an infrequent indulgence, regular massage therapy services allow you to care for your body and mind and supply you with energy to maintain and enjoy your busy life. Massage can improve sleep, increase circulation, and allow you to address specific bodily aches.

Massage Heights memberships allows you to make bodywork a regular part of your self-care routine and include complimentary aromatherapy, exclusive pricing, customizable services at no extra charge, a rewards program, member pricing at any location, and flexible scheduling.

Learn more about membership today.