There has never been a better time to keep ourselves strong, our minds sharp and our stress levels down.
So, hurrah for the inventive wellness industry, which has devised many ways to keep us on top of our game this year. So what will we all be trying?
Don’t be surprised to find yourself belly boarding, slugging sticky vitamins or putting mushrooms in your coffee.
Here are six new wellness trends you will soon wonder how you ever lived without.
Tap into your moods
Victoria Woodhall reveals six new wellness trends available in the UK for keeping ourselves strong, minds sharp and stress levels down – including Rapid Tapping adapted by former TV executive Poppy Delbridge, 38 (pictured)
If you start seeing people tapping their heads, don’t be alarmed. No longer a sign of madness, it’s a new two-minute mood changer that promises to banish negative thoughts and feelings, while inviting in positivity, joy, love and even money.
Based on the tried-and-tested trauma therapy Emotional Freedom Technique (fans include Oprah Winfrey), Rapid Tapping is a speed version adapted by coach and former TV executive Poppy Delbridge, 38, so you can do it anywhere.
Simply drum your fingers on acupuncture points on the head, temples, cheek and chest while asking yourself out loud how you feel.
Owning up to your feelings while you’re communicating with the body stops you bottling them up, apparently, making you less anxious, snappy and stuck. Want a pay rise? Tell yourself you’re worth it while you’re tapping.
Poppy is now sharing her technique via her website houseofpossibility.com and a Rapid Tapping podcast, which went straight into the iTunes Top 20.
Gooey detoxer
Nutritional therapist Daniel O’Shaughnessy revealed glutathione can be used to prevent disease and ageing. Pictured: Altrient liposomal glutathione
Are hangovers about to be a thing of the past? You may not have heard of glutathione but your liver certainly has, because it uses this super-powered antioxidant to break down toxic compounds from alcohol into carbon dioxide and water.
But the older we get and the more we are exposed to stress and toxins such as pollution, the more we use up our glutathione stores, which may explain why hangovers get worse as you age.
‘Glutathione is known as the master antioxidant to prevent disease and ageing,’ says nutritional therapist Daniel O’Shaughnessy.
The best way to take it is in a sticky ‘liposomal’ gel.
It doesn’t taste great, so is best knocked back quickly with water. We’ll be seeing more of this turbo-charged liposomal technology in 2021, as consumers seek the most powerful supplements.
Altrient liposomal glutathione £79.99 per box, 30 sachets abundanceandhealth.co.uk.
Why not eat pegan?
Respected physician Dr Mark Hyman has designed the pegan diet to help us live longer, lower inflammation and slow climate change
Just when you had mastered going vegan and the concept of ‘Veganuary’, now it’s all about the pegan diet — a portmanteau of paleo (a ‘caveman diet’ of meat and veg, but few carbs and no dairy) and vegan.
How does it work? The regime, cooked up by respected physician Dr Mark Hyman, started off as a joke when he found himself in the middle of a debate between a paleo dieter and a vegan. He soon realised that his own healthy diet took the best of both.
It’s a yes to abundant veg (except corn and white spuds), and yes to high-welfare protein (organic, meat and eggs from pasture-raised animals, wild or sustainably farmed fish) with limited carbs and healthy fats, such as nuts or avocado.
Out are grains (apart from quinoa), dairy (other than grass-fed butter and ghee) and sugar.
The ‘food as medicine’ way of eating is designed to help us live longer, lower inflammation and slow climate change.
If you struggle with veganism and want to do your bit for your body and the planet, this is the diet for you.
The Pegan Diet: Combine Paleo And Vegan To Stay Fit, Happy And Healthy For Life by Dr Mark Hyman (£14.99, Yellow Kite) is available to buy from today.
Home-school help
Nutritional therapist Amelia Freer (pictured) has created a course to help you become more confident about cooking from scratch
Move over cookbooks and self-help manuals, this year we’re going back to school with online wellness courses and master-classes beamed by experts into your home.
Think Netflix meets Open University. Victoria Beckham’s nutritional therapist Amelia Freer ditched bringing out yet another cookbook in favour of a 30-module online course called The Joy Of Healthy Eating (£127, createacademy.com).
It’s a deep-dive nutrition course to help you become more confident about cooking from scratch with hours of friendly video lectures filmed in her kitchen, worksheets and cook-along tutorials.
Botanist James Wong’s course on becoming an expert indoor gardener is available on the same platform next month for £127.
And, for the 42 per cent of us in the UK whose sleep has worsened since the Covid outbreak, leading sleep expert Dr Guy Meadows has launched a Sleep School programme via the App Store and Google Play. It features a seven-day ‘Sleep Essentials’ foundation course, followed by a range of 30-day multimedia courses, plus the chance to book in with a Sleep School doctor.
Come ply with me
Belly-boarding is expected to increase in popularity on British beaches, offering the same benefits as open-water swimming
These 4 ft-long pieces of plywood are like the original British surfboard dating to the 1920s and are set for a major resurgence.
With staycations likely to be our default getaways in 2021, this heritage pastime gives us all a way to access the immune and mood-boosting, brain-fog banishing benefits of open-water swimming.
The UK’s original belly-boarding company, Dick Pearce, saw online sales grow 350 per cent in 2020.
Expect to see more bellyboards on British beaches this summer as hire points appear around the country to encourage holidaymakers to forgo plastic boogie boards, which break easily.
Bellyboards last for generations and, between leisure trips, they apparently make very good shelves.
From £50, dickpearce.com.
Sharpen your brain
Mushrooms are prized for fighting stress and supporting the immune system
Fancy starting your day with a cup of mushroom coffee? Well, you might once you hear that one member of the fungi family, lion’s mane, can make you sharper without the jitters of coffee or the post-latte energy crash.
‘Functional mushrooms’ (i.e. mushrooms with benefits) such as reishi and cordyceps are prized for their ‘adaptogenic’ ability to fight stresses and, with their high concentrations of compounds called beta-glucans, support the immune system.
However, it’s brain-boosting lion’s mane that’s really having a moment, says Daniel O’Shaughnessy. He recommends it as a powder or coffee blend to some of his clients.
‘Stress levels are so high right now that we’ve reached the point which psychologists call “surge capacity,” ’ he says. ‘Our brains are so overloaded that we can’t think straight.’
The mushroom extract is like a breath of fresh air for the fogged-up brain. Try Four Sigmatic Mushroom Ground Coffee with Lion’s Mane, £22.64, amazon. co.uk, or new Centred Organic Lion’s Mane Mushroom Extract Tablets, £32, cultbeauty.com.