Wellness trends that made headlines in 2023

From silent walking to the emergence of menopause retreats and ashwagandha becoming a hot topic, here's a wrap of 2023's wellness trends

- Mahalakshmi Prabhakaran

2023 was the year where the drug Ozempic dominated conversations and had you wondering if your favourite celebrity who’d suddenly lost tons of weight was on it. It was also the year where the long-winded whole-food, plant-based diet became a byword for healthy eating and self-care took the form of spa treatments that went beyond getting a regular massage. Lounge looks back at the wellness trends that were conversation starters and piqued our curiosity enough to write about them. 

WALKING GOT A GLOW UP

Can an activity that’s just about putting one foot in front of the other be made more interesting? 2023 showed that you could. This was the year that walking, the most basic form of movement, was given a creative spin by youngsters who probably weren’t satisfied with the original form. So, while Hot Girl Walk® continued to inspire, the year saw new trends emerging like weird walking, where the goal is to ‘go on a long walk until you find something weird or odd along your route’, and the ‘analogue walk’ where you take in the sounds and sights of your surroundings — minus any digital distractions, and document it using analogue tools like a journal or a film camera. The latest TikTok trend that’s got Gen Z fired up is the ‘silent walk’. Created by influencer Mady Maio, this viral trend involves going for a daily 30-minute walk and practising mindfulness by paying attention to what is happening in the moment.

POTENCY OF PLANT-BASED DIETS