What will wellness look like in the next five years? Will more brands embrace the idea of going outside and touching grass? How will mental health treatments integrate with artificial intelligence (AI)? All of this and more was unpacked in Spate and the Future Snoops' (FS) "The Future of Wellness — A Five-Year Forecast" webinar recently.
With expertise from Mallory Huron, director of beauty and wellness at Future Snoops, alongside Taryn Hoffman, senior strategist of beauty and wellness at Future Snoops, and Yarden Horwitz, co-founder of Spate, the webinar dissected the biggest trends set to shape the global wellness market over the next five years.
The Spate and Future Snoops team compiled a report on "The Future of Wellness", leveraging FS's trend insights with Spate's TikTok and Google Search data.
Let's dive into the five biggest wellness trends.
1. Decentering work: Prioritising work-life balance
A remnant of Covid-19, consumers are increasingly decentering their careers. However, Huron cautions that they aren't trying to slack off and not work; instead, they want to work in ways that don't erode their health and identity.
"Burnout rates are at an all-time high, and it's turning work from a source of pride, which it once was, into a veritable health and wellness risk, to which the only rational solution is to find ways to decenter work as a centre of our personal solar system," says Huron.
According to Spate's data, the search term "burnout" generated 24.8 million engagements across TikTok, Instagram, and Google Search combined every month.
She adds that while consumers still value effort and ambition, they're rejecting performative productivity and systems that reward exhaustion over a sustainable work-life balance.
Younger members of the workforce, Gen Z and youthful millennials, don't have a dream job because they're not dreaming of working.
Instead, they're looking for what journalist Simone Stolzoff wrote about in her novel The Good Enough Job: menial jobs with good pay, decent benefits, and, most importantly, good work-life balance.
Career breaks or mini retirements are also becoming more normalised. Some global companies are even encouraging extended breaks.
The Boeing Company, for example, offers a "holistic paid workforce re-entry and support programme" called Return Flight.
Given the extended time spent at work, whether in the office or remote, consumers also want to foster community and friendships outside of work.
Swedish pharmacy group Apotek Hjärtat launched a pilot "friendcare" scheme in which participants are given 15 minutes a week, or an hour a month, during working hours to strengthen existing friendships or make new ones.
Through these programmes, employees feel more valued and connected, while employers benefit from higher morale, stronger performance and a more resilient workforce.
2. Touching grass: Reconnecting with nature
If you've been online for a long enough time, you would've come across the phrase "touch grass", advice often given to people who are out of touch with reality and too chronically online.
This is reflected in consumers unplugging from excess digital stimulation, while intentionally reengaging with the healing power of nature.
The biggest culprit is, of course, that "damn phone", and nature offers neurological regulation.
"It will come as no surprise that mobile phone screens are a particular offender here, as they have highly addictive properties that are unique to this tech, medium, short-form, high-velocity content is neurologically rewiring our attention span and the way we think," says Huron.
Countries are introducing policies to curb phone use.
Australia, for example, introduced its landmark ban on social media for children under 16 last year, and countries such as Spain are planning to introduce similar bans.
"It's truly instinctual, and nature is the original driver of our well-being. This is a call to harness nature as a functional driver of well-being made possible by moments of accessible and seamless natural connection," adds Huron.
Brands are locking in.
Visit Sweden's The Swedish Prescription wellness initiative allows doctors to recommend nature-based activities — such as forest bathing, foraging, and sauna rituals — to combat stress, burnout, and improve mental well-being.
As an outdoor clothing and gear brand, The North Face launched a "touch grass" campaign to remind people to log off and experience nature firsthand, instead of on a screen while scrolling.
Hoffman adds, "This push to log off shows a growing demand for real-world experiences that brands can capitalise on by creating products, campaigns or activations that help consumers step outside and engage with the world directly."
Outdoor wellness is becoming top of mind for consumers; they're increasingly aware of its benefits and are looking for ways to incorporate it into their daily lives.
It’s particularly popular on Instagram, with users sharing their meditation in nature, in which some of them are literally touching grass.
3. Energy flow: Ancient practices become modern wellness
If you've scrolled TikTok recently, you’d see that people are increasingly adopting traditional Chinese techniques for wellness.
It's part of a shift towards integrative wellness that respects both measurable systems and cultural intelligence to help consumers feel aligned, energised and balanced.
As consumers become increasingly curious about and comfortable with their physiology that transcends physical definitions, consumers are showing interest, especially on TikTok, in lymphatic drainage, Reiki healing, Tai Chi and more.
"Anyone who has read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or seen the recent adaptation on Netflix knows that the lymphatic system was the real key in that story to bringing Frankenstein's monster to life as it was seen as the energy pathway, not only for the physical body, but the soul as well, consumers are now embracing a similar vision as energy evolves from something abstract into something very tangible, with felt results that are validated by growing research surrounded surrounding the importance of lymphatic health for everything, like immunity, inflammation, vitality," says Huron.
She adds that consumers are resonating with these ancient practices because they're gentle, gradual, and simple daily rituals that are accessible and easy to incorporate. When practised consistently, contributes to a daily feeling of wellness and balance.
An interesting way brands are incorporating this is through wearable patches.
Esker's Lymphatic Drainage Dots map out lymphatic drainage points on the body to encourage the body's natural clearing process.
"This merging of skincare supplements and body mapping education, through which wearables turn daily routines into really intentional wellness rituals and make brands central to consumer self-care practices," says Hoffman.
Another way is through apps. Targeting Gen Z's mobile mindfulness and the need for on-the-go wellness, the Moment App offers one to 20-minute vibration-raising and energy-shifting audio sessions.
Furthermore, there's a rise in ancient energy-shifting exercises on TikTok — which gives users a full-body reboot in five minutes with movements that drain stagnant fluids, awaken the muscles and boost circulation.
4. Spirituality and tech: A new era of personalised guidance
We get almost everything from our tech, health, recipes, and even spiritual enlightenment.
"This has evolved in a myriad of ways over the years," says Huron, "throughout these reports, we see consumers increasingly seek out spiritual guidance through tech, whether this is the astrology app in your phone, a good luck spell ordered from an Etsy witch, or AI-powered Tarot advice before an important day."
She adds that spirituality itself is undergoing a platform shift, as consumers increasingly seek flexibility with soulful reflection — moving from temples, texts and gurus to apps, algorithms, and always-on digital companions, with traditional houses of worship across all major religions having Zoom livestreams of services.
Additionally, we're living in an era of overwhelming global uncertainty, loneliness and decision fatigue, which has created a demand for instant, personalised and digitally embedded spiritual guidance.
Huron cautions that consulting an AI-powered Tarot app about a big interview is not grounded in delusion or fantasy escapism.
She says, "This is a thoroughly modern response to complex and often upsetting realities.
"It's offering frameworks for sense making and using tools like ChatGPT, not as mystical authorities over all we do, but as the ultimate mirror to prompt reflection, explore intuition and make sense of an increasingly nonsensical world."
She warns that care needs to be taken when adopting digital spirituality, and calls for responsibility, saying that this opportunity mustn't aestheticise or commodify belief.
She also cautions against automating meaning or replacing human judgment, but says it can be used to shape ethical digital tools that balance transparency, cultural respect and emotional care.
Consumers are searching for these tools on Google, so Horwitz says brands can fill the gap by guiding them.
She adds that it is a trend mainly being driven by Instagram, but consumers are also turning to TikTok for it.
5. Optimal nourishment: Personalised nutrition and food tech
Food is no longer just something to ingest; it's a precision tool for health.
Consumers are using nutrition to create various desired responses and results — from increasing muscle mass and collagen, lowering cortisol and stress levels, reducing inflammation, increasing energy, balancing menstrual cycles and encouraging fertility.
"If there's a health or wellness issue you want solved, I guarantee you there's a resource on the internet with suggested foods and nutrition guides to address it through food," says Huron.
With the possibilities of food tech, consumers are increasingly seeking ways that food can meet their personalised health and wellness goals. In response, brands are moving beyond basic functionality to deliver food and beverage solutions that feel personal, proactive and purpose-built.
This is reflected in the beauty industry with South African brands like Vitality launching a beauty-focused vitamin line that combines nutrition, wellness and beauty goals.
Brands are adapting nutrition to meet consumers' very specific medication needs. For example, Millbio's Panvivo GPL1ve Bread Concentrate is formulated with advanced fibres, sprouted cereal grains, pulse flour and enhanced protein sources to meet the needs of consumers on GLP-1 medications.
Melding AI with hydration needs, the Medi Water AI 2.0, showcased at CES, delivers personalised water and supplement dosing by analysing individual health profiles — integrating fingerprint recognition with medical history, medication use, sleep, diet, and activity data.
Allergies are on everyone's mind, which is why food will be optimised to support immune training.
This can be seen in products like GrowHappy's Allergen ImmunoButters — which are designed to gradually introduce common allergens to kids, helping train a child's immune system while supporting the development of a healthy gut microbiome.
