Life
In case you missed it, Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle company Goop hosted its second annual wellness summit in New York over the weekend on Mar. 9. Dubbed “In Goop Health,” the summit took place in Manhattan’s Seaport District, offering wellness acolytes an entire floor of workshops, panels, and a retail hall filled with Goop-approved products like facial serums and candles. As Women’s Wear Daily reports, the 600 attendees were predominantly dressed in athleisure, ready for everything their $1,000 all-access tickets had to offer.
Though the products and health information Goop endorses have come under fire in the past, both in lawsuits and by medical professionals, many people in the industry see these summits as early trend reports on what's going to be big in wellness in the coming months. From psychic medium readings to unlimited kombucha, the event was a wellness fan’s dream. The summit explored topics like plant-based medicine, financial health, and how to beat burnout with a variety of authors, researchers, doctors, and wellness professionals (think mediums, acupuncturists, and “healers”). Considering Paltrow’s influence when it comes to trends in the wellness space (Crystals! Moon dusts! Yoga?), the event offered a glimpse into what the future of the industry might look like.
Ahead, these are three main wellness trends from the summit that you’ll want to know about for the year ahead.
1
Ear Seeding
As Refinery29 noted in an article documenting the summit, the lines to access ear seeds “snaked through the venue.” Ear seeds fall under a practice called "auriculotherapy," otherwise known as ear acupressure. So what are they exactly?
"Tiny pellets, called ear seeds, come already attached to skin-colored adhesive surgical tape, and are applied to precisely located points on the outer ear," Davida Mitchell, L.Ac., a doctor of acupuncture and oriental medicine, told Shape. "Ear seeds are usually actual seeds from the vaccaria plant or tiny metal beads."
Women's Health reports that the practice is supposed to help with things like anxiety, but that depends on how comfortable you are hanging out with seeds taped to your ear.
2
Psychedelics
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Paltrow was asked what she thought the next big thing in wellness would be. Her answer: "I think how psychedelics affect health and mental health and addiction will come more into the mainstream."
Though she said she’d never personally used psychedelics, she added that “there’s undeniably some link between being in that state and being connected to some other universal cosmic something."
At the summit this past weekend, Refinery29 noted that Paltrow said, "Don't worry, there's no acid in your gift bag," as a joking reference to her previous comments.
But keeping in line with her prediction, the summit featured a panel on psychedelic medicine hosted by Dr. Will Siu and Dr. Alex Belser. The doctors described the benefits of treatments like prescriptions of ketamine to help patients with depression (which follows on the heels of news about a chemical cousin of ketamine receiving FDA approval), and microdosing other psychedelics for perceived benefits.
3
Sleep
It's no surprise that sleep is key to achieving peak wellness. Fittingly, one of the summit's most popular activities, Women's Wear Daily noted, confirmed this with a branded "sleep sanctuary" area created in partnership with the bedding company Buffy. The station featured a communal bed with the brand's comforters. Obviously, sleep is kind of a big deal, but the emphasis at In Goop Health signals that we're still going to be talking about our nighttime routines for months to come.
4
For Goop followers and wellness megafans alike, another summit will be hosted this May in Los Angeles, with a London summit happening sometime later this year. Both events are sure to dispel even more predictions and interesting takes on upcoming health trends.
