Self-care and wellness trends for 2021 that will help people heal: Jennifer Moss

Humans need to constantly adapt to survive.

That might mean learning how to hone new skills, develop new tools, make our weapons sharper. We learned a lot from natural disasters — how to prepare for floods and fight fires. 

The same can be said about how we adapt psychologically and mentally in times of crisis. 

When tested, humans are pretty resilient, and each time they are faced with extraordinary circumstances, for the most part, it increases our mental fortitude. We create solutions in the moment and beyond to cope with our surroundings. 

Last year, we took on new ways to battle boredom, feel productive, deal with social isolation, handle uncertainty. With that came self-care tools that will carry through into the years ahead. 

Here are four 2021 wellness trends to expect from the survival skills we leveraged in 2020. 

Baking and breaking bread

In 2020, we were bored. Like, really bored a lot of the time. In the early days we fought boredom by making bread. It was one of the many trends to develop out of a necessity to do something with our time. 

But that also led to the slowing down movement. It takes time to watch bread rise! It's not a quick process. And yet, it gave so many of us satisfaction and pleasure to slow our lives down and prioritize more mindful moments. 

It also made us more connected to our food and sitting down to eat together. Those points of connection were healthy for so many of us. I continue to hear from people that they are committed to maintaining that time with family around the table in 2021. 

Falling in love with the great outdoors?

As a former anti-winter person, I fell in love with winter this year. Being forced outside was very healthy for me, and having a puppy to take out and walk in the forest trails also helped. But, I wasn't alone with my new-found love of nature.  

One research study out of the University of Vermont found that 26 per cent of people visiting parks during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic had rarely — or never — visited nature in the previous year.

Citizen science websites have seen an uptick in data — the Cornell Lab that founded eBird reported a 29 per cent increase in reports from last year. NestWatch, another Cornell Lab website that encourages people to track sightings of bird nests, saw a 41 per cent increase year over year. SciStarter, a website that connects citizen scientists with active research projects, recorded a 480 per cent increase in contributions this year over last.  

We also saw an uptick in gardening — gardening is obviously nothing new, but the pandemic caused a huge surge in people growing their own food — and this is a trend we expect to stick around. Google searches for gardening normally peak in the early spring. In 2020 they doubled compared to 2019. Seed companies reported selling eight to 10 times more seeds than they typically do. The act of gardening is healthy on its own — it can help lower stress, build muscle and boost your mood — and it also helps you eat more vegetables. 

The benefits of being outside for our well-being are vast — including overall life satisfaction, heart health, and lifespan. So, this is a well-being trend I'm happy to see stick. 

New ways to access healthcare

Telemedicine options skyrocketed during the pandemic. Before COVID-19, Canada was way behind other countries in adopting telehealth options, but we were forced to step up in 2020. 

Now that both health practitioners and patients have tested it out and removed the fear of adopting this new technology, it's not going away. 

Patients for Patient Safety Canada conducted a small-scale national survey in mid-May to gauge Canadians' experiences with remote health care in the early days of the pandemic. They found that 90 per cent of respondents reported a positive experience, noting they appreciated the reduced exposure to infectious disease, ease of access for those in remote regions, and the ability to receive timely, individualized advice from a known care provider. 

There was also a massive spike in teletherapy. Prior to COVID-19, 63.6 per cent of respondents did not use virtual sessions at all. After the onset of the pandemic that figure plunged to just 1.9 per cent. Conversely, before COVID-19 hit, only 2.1 per cent reported using tele-psych. During the pandemic that figure has soared to 84.7 per cent. 

The technology promises to get even more advanced, and it can reduce burnout for practitioners who can take calls with more flexibility. 

Well-being at work and home

As a result of the work-from-home/live-at-work shift that occurred in 2020, employers had to react. Many of them shifted their policies to meet the needs of struggling parents. Discussions surrounding mental health were much less stigmatized, and more supports were provided. 

This has to be our expectation from employers to carry forward into 2021. 

If we don't see more supports for parents, particularly women who were impacted disproportionately by the pandemic — we'll see burnout continue to rise. To offset that, I predict we'll see more childcare options and flex schedule offerings, more subsidies for daycare, and onsite and virtual mental health counselors for those who need it. 

Last year forced us to confront our mortality and our vulnerability and made us all reflect on our real priorities. We've been working at unsustainable levels for years, and this last year had a hugely negative impact on the workforce. Burnout is terrifyingly high. 

It wasn't easy, and because of that, we had to build in solutions to get us through. We had to adapt and survive. But in all the bad, I am hopeful we can still find the good. Last year's pain is now giving us the self-care tools to heal in 2021.