Mental Wellness Initiative

2025 Trends

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TREND 1: Longevity Mental Wellness

The intentional curation of environment for positive human exposome.

The convergence of Physical and Mental Fitness in different Wellness environments are providing clues to the organic nudging of behavioural shifts for positive lifestyle choices across the lifespan and highlight a holistic approach to mental health and wellness.

Resistance training, stretching, mindfulness practices together with cardiovascular activity are being programmed into models to support holistic mental health and wellness and healthy ageing. This means an opportunity to integrate these activities in everything from Fitness to Hospitality – seamlessly. There has been a plethora of published research in the last 3 years reviewing the positive effects of exercise on mental health. Everything from the effects of yoga on people with schizophrenia, the improvement of sleep quality to alleviating alcohol dependence because of its tendency to decrease cravings. There also is persistent evidence to suggest that physical exercise improves depression and anxiety symptoms.

Translating all the evidence of the benefits of physical exercise on mental health into clinical practice, Fitness, and wellness environments is of paramount importance for long-term positive impact.

There is a need for greater recognition of the financial cost of NOT addressing brain health. At DAVOS 2025, brain health/ brain wealth was a key theme, where it was noted that brain health is no longer just a health issue, it’s an economic emergency.  The McKinsey Health Institute estimates brain health disorders cost the global economy $5 trillion annually. “By investing strategically in brain health, we can build the foundations for future prosperity, without this we risk economic decline and wasted human potential”.

TREND 2: Resistance training found to be crucial for brain health

a focused approach informs us that this form of training (particularly in later life) enhances cognitive function, improving memory, and even reducing the risk of age-related brain degeneration. Resistance training promotes blood flow to the brain, which is essential for delivering nutrients and oxygen to brain cells.

Resistance training can stimulate the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that plays a crucial role in brain cell growth, learning, and memory. It can also have a positive impact on mental health, helping to reduce anxiety and depression and to improve sleep. Look for resistance training to take a front burner position in programs to enhance brain health and mental wellness.

TREND 3: Gut-brain research is becoming more granular

in linking specific bacterial groups with different mental health conditions. In studying a cohort of prisoners convicted of violent assaults and a matched group of non-impulsive prisoners from the same facility, researchers found that impulsive offenders had a higher presence of Bacteroides and Barnesiella bacteria, while non-impulsive individuals had greater levels of Catenisphaera. The researchers suggest that Bacteroides, in particular, may play a role in regulating serotonin, a neurotransmitter linked to impulse control and aggression.  This opens possibilities of tailored nutritional, probiotic, and gut microbiota-based treatments to manage specific mental health and behavioral conditions.

 

TREND 4: Combatting microplastics in the brain

Twenty years of investigation and over 7,000 research papers have examined the effects of microplastics in the environment and on the human body – including smaller particles of microplastics in our lungs, livers, kidneys, blood and reproductive organs. Microplastics have crossed protective barriers into our brains and hearts. The concentration of microplastics has been found to be about six times higher in brain samples from people who had dementia. As part of a wellness lifestyle routine, these steps are being highlighted to prevent or get rid of microplastics in our bodies:

i. Prioritize a plastic-free diet and plastic free cooking implements.

ii. Avoid plastic takeout

iii. Avoid heating food in plastic containers.

iv. Avoid plastic water bottles – research shows that in some cases bottled water

contains up to 22 times more microplastics than tap water.

v. Boiling water may help remove up to 90% of microplastics

vi. Use high-quality filters like reverse osmosis or activated carbon to reduce

plastic contamination.

vii. Eat a fiber-rich diet to support digestion and excretion of microplastics.

vii. Choose fresh, organic foods over packaged and processed options.

ix. Regular sauna sessions to eliminate toxins through sweat.

x. Use natural fiber clothing to minimize synthetic fiber shedding.

xi. Probiotics. In published January 2025, researchers found that specific probiotics adsorbing and excreting microplastics show potential gut health benefits. They found that the probiotics, Lacticaseibacillus paracasei DT66, a major probiotic well known for its anti-inflammatory properties, and Lactiplantibacillus plantarum DT88, commonly used in the food industry can effectively adsorb and facilitate microplastic excretion. Nutritional and naturopathic wellness treatments are likely to evolve as therapies for removing around microplastics from the gut and, via the gut-brain axis, from the brain.

Expect procedures such as microplastic removal for brain and body health to become front burner offerings in the medical wellness space. 

TREND 5: The evolution of the Social Mind, Combating Loneliness while promoting Conscious Living, Part 2

Last year, we talked about combating loneliness through new design approaches in Hospitality and this year we continue the theme and focus on Mental Wellness activities that build connectivity and strengthen social cohesion and wellness.

According to Oxford Academic, “Social cognition is how we encode, analyse, store, and use information about the people we meet and the relationships that define us.” Having an interest in society, specifically: actively interested in social welfare or the well-being of society as a whole is also referred to as the Social Mind. The World Happiness report 2025 reports that “Sharing meals proves to be an exceptionally strong indicator of subjective wellbeing – on par with income and unemployment. Those who share more meals with others report significantly higher levels of life satisfaction and positive affect, and lower levels of negative affect.”

Bathing traditions and the Social Mind/We space are examples of Social Wellness in the continuing evolution of millenary bathing traditions from Onsen, the Russian Banya to Finnish Sauna that bring people together to bond, as well as Japanese forest bathing traditions (Shinrinyoku) and provide fulfilling and engaging ways to come together and build cohesion while nudging people into Mental Wellness.

TREND 6: The Evolution of Self-Care: Self-Awareness, Self-Responsibility and Self-Care

With a myriad of wearables available, measuring all sorts of different biomarkers, we are becoming increasingly disconnected from ourselves relying on external clues to pay attention to ourselves, while possibly getting increasingly anxious about our results.

Self-Awareness will be more important than ever to learn how to listen to our body instead of relying mainly on devices.

As we are responsible for our own mental wellbeing, Self-Responsibility will play a crucial role. By being conscious of what our body is crying out about, once we are tuned in, we are unable to stop listening. We will need to act, with Self-Care being a direct result.

Self-Care, as a deliberate decision, will become more exploratory and will include multisensorial elements and experiences – social, emotional, physical and intellectual – to support it.