Wellbeing’s in the Zeitgeist: What Does That Actually Look Like in Younger Generations?
The under-40s are growing up in a world full of challenges and uncertainty, fraught with the potential for catastrophe to come knocking at any moment. With the climate in crisis and AI rattling the job market to its core, the growing interest in physical and mental wellbeing among Gen Z and Millennials is understandable.
Crucially, your mind and your body are two things you have complete control over. So, it makes sense to invest in improving them. But what’s behind the wellness trends we’re seeing at the moment, and how are younger generations responding to it?
Health Over Wealth
Older generations had a work obsession, and for good reason. You could expect to leave education and enter the professional sphere, expecting your hard work to be rewarded with career progression and good pay.
Since the 2008 financial crisis, all that has gone out the window. Young people don’t have the same justification for burning themselves out in an office job, because wages haven’t kept pace with inflation, and housing costs make property ownership a pipe dream for many.
In this context, prioritising wellbeing has its perks. And more than that, it’s much more accessible than in the past. Cost-effective gym memberships and online therapy sessions mean you can invest in whatever part of your physical or mental health needs attention, and see positive outcomes in the short term.
Likewise, for youngsters who like the party lifestyle, help is available when things go too far. Being able to invest in ketamine detox services, for instance, enables non-judgemental support of a kind that simply wasn’t on hand for older people.
So, anyone who’s too young to be able to invest in housing or other traditional assets has an incentive to invest in their own wellbeing. And there’s enough choice to make this process completely bespoke.
Aiming For Longevity
Another unique conundrum facing younger generations is that, with improvements in healthcare, their prospects of living longer than their parents and grandparents are significant. The double-edged sword of this reality is that knowing you’ll likely live into your 80s, 90s, or beyond is no guarantee that the quality of life at this point will make it worth living.
Thus, the fact that health and wellness are perpetually in the zeitgeist partly stems from the understanding that making good choices today is important so that your body and mind can continue working optimally for decades to come. While there are billionaire tech bros obsessed with biohacking, and their methods aren’t accessible for most, even something as simple as using a fitness tracker to keep tabs on your activity and hit daily movement goals as a person in their 20s and 30s can demonstrably improve wellbeing in later years.
Not every young person has wellness as a top priority, and even those who do may not be in a position to fully realise the potential of their body and mind at the moment. Despite this, the size of the wellbeing market means there’s a commercial incentive to keep it in the public conversation. So expect to see it regularly dissected, even as Gen Z enters middle age and Gen Alpha comes of age.
Amélie is a health and wellness junky. Certified yoga instructor with Yoga Alliance in the Vinyasa and Ashtanga styles, she has a Yoga Instructor Certification – Level I (300 hours) and Yoga Instructor Certification – Level II (200 hours) under her belt. She also has a certified Open Water Diver certification with PADI and SSI Scuba Schools International Freediving Level I certification with SSI Scuba Schools International. She’s been vegan for over 15 years and is obsessed with anything wellness-related.