PoB Hotels reveals top 10 spa & wellness trends for 2023

Wellness in 2023 is a holistic and all-encompassing term that touches on many more facets of life, from mental wellbeing to sleep, hormone health to tracking technology. For people who want to ‘get well’ there are many paths to travel and many rabbit holes in which to get lost. Drawing on some of the most exciting new experiences and recent health breakthroughs, we have rounded up our top wellness trends for 2023, to help you navigate the ever-expanding wellness industry and design your own wellness journey to make this one your healthiest year yet, from the inside out.

It may sound obvious to say that our bodies are not consistent year to year, month to month, or even day to day, but often our health and wellness routines don’t reflect the fluctuations in our bodies, our moods, and our hormones. For women especially, hormone cycles can and should dictate workout routines, and accordingly there has been a recent spike in popularity for working with the body rather than against it, listening to its monthly cycle and responding. In addition, eating for hormone health can affect your overall wellbeing and impact your energy levels and responses to certain foods. Glucose-tracking in particular has been touted as the next big trend for those trying to personalise their diet and exercise according to their cycles, with companies such as healthtech start-up Ultrahuman creating a wearable device to assist tracking, allowing us to work in conjunction with our bodies more easily than ever before.

While CBD and medicinal cannabis has been on the wellness radar for a few years now, with spas introducing CBD led treatments and products, wellness companies are now focusing on other natural ingredients that ignite natural highs and calming effects. Enter: the humble mushroom, set to match CBD and collagen in popularity and demand this year. Not only are mushrooms popular ingredients for vegetarians, vegans, and sustainability trailblazers, but increasingly for wellness companies, who are utilising shrooms alongside other adaptogens in order to enhance their stress and burnout reducing qualities, and boost energy, relaxation, immunity, and more. Whether it’s a mushroom latte, shroom teas, or a full on psychedelic retreat, it’s time to embrace those natural highs.

Complimenting the ever-widening search for these natural highs and anxiety reducing ingredients is a boom in sober travel as a part of wellness experiences, and a general shunning of alcohol. While a glass of fizz during a relaxing spa day never goes amiss, sobriety is certainly being taken more seriously and sampled in the mainstream. With the rise in non-alcoholic alternatives such as No-Secco and Seedlip gin, sober samplers are spoilt for choice, and sobriety is suddenly just as fun as indulging in a large glass of wine, not to mention much healthier. Non-alcohlic pairing menus and mocktail menus are ensuring this wellness trend stays firmly on the map.

The rise in conversations about mental health taking centre stage is a seriously positive development in the wellness world over the past few years. Now, mental and physical therapists are coming together to offer collaborative workshops that target both the brain and the body simultaneously. While people have been working out in order to change the shape and size of their bodies for centuries now, the ability to change the shape and structure of your brain is still little known, and little explored in the mainstream. Neuroplasticity proves just this: by opening up to new experiences and learnings, you can train your brain to work in different ways, so it’s no surprise therapists are ushering in this new attitude to mental health that has been part of our approach to physical health for so long. Long live the brain trainers!

Since going through the years of the pandemic, many people are turning inwards and looking to take their health into their own hands. One of the big trends evidencing this is the desire to learn how to reset your own nervous system. Stress and trauma can cause the nervous system to become dysregulated, which often leads to pain, fatigue, and depression. Somato-emotional release techniques are being touted as ways to identify and release negative emotions that have become trapped in the body and caused the dysregulation. These techniques include a variety of breathwork, vocal work, and self massage, which allow people  to reset their own nervous system and guide themselves through the toughest of times. To kickstart your nervous system reset, many spas now offer sessions to guide you through these techniques for the first time, including Seaham Hall’s Serenity Spa, where a targeted hypnotherapy session is sure to set you on the path in a sensitive and supportive environment.