For Stress Reduction, “Cyclic Sighing” Breathwork Beats Mindfulness Meditation

A new study from Stanford University compared different stress reduction techniques (each was done five minutes a day for a month): mindfulness meditation and three types of breathwork (cyclic sighing, with its greater focus on exhaling; box breathing, where inhaling and holding are done for an equal time; and one focusing on longer inhalation). They found that all three types of breathwork had a faster,…

Aging Consumers Will Soon Be the Top Market for Every Wellness Sector

Aging Consumers Will Soon Be the Top Market for Every Wellness Sector   By Thierry Malleret, economist For those wellness industry entrepreneurs and practitioners who take a somewhat longer-term view, demographics is about to bring momentous changes. Globally, a fast-growing aging population is going to make the wellness “imperative” ever more pressing.  In the next 15-20 years, the global population aged 65 and over will increase…

New GWI Research: Surprising Relationship between Wellness Tourism and Spa Spending and Health Outcomes

New GWI Research: Surprising Relationship between Wellness Tourism and Spa Spending and Health Outcomes     The GWI’s new report, “Health, Happiness, and the Wellness Economy: An Empirical Analysis,” is the first global study of how spending on wellness (at both the national and sector level) impacts happiness and health outcomes. A collaboration with a key author and statistician of the World Happiness Report, the study…

Happy Holidays and a Bright New Year!

Happy Holidays and a Bright New Year! At this time of reflection, we wanted to share insights from the GWI’s new research report, “Defining Wellness Policy,” that summarize the crucial ways that wellness has positively changed the world. The explosion of wellness into a multi-trillion-dollar economy has generated an ever-increasing array of criticisms of the “wellness-industrial complex.” Critics complain about wellness businesses preying on consumer…

Explore the CULTURE chapter of the new series

Explore the CULTURE chapter of the new series IN PURSUIT OF WELLNESS: THE ART & SCIENCE OF LIVING WELL  This extraordinary new series of films and stories produced for the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions explores wellness in a new way: its importance in every aspect of our lives, the science behind both ancient traditions and modern innovations, and the inspirational pioneers…

MUST-READS FROM THE WELLNESS WORLD ( November 30th, 2022)

Healthy aging for a healthy economy– CEPR, November 16, 2022 Having just crossed the eight billion population threshold, we mustn’t forget that global aging is the primary challenge we collectively face. As healthy aging promotes healthy economies, policy preparedness must focus on: (1) initiatives that facilitate disease prevention and early detection, (2) wider reliance on innovative healthcare technologies, (3) retirement and pension flexibility, (4) development…