WORDS: DEBBIE HATHWAY :: PHOTOS: SUPPLIED
Consumers who prioritise wellness are looking to the metaverse for ways to improve health and transform fitness.
Medical and wellness experiences for the wellness metaverse are a rising trend, duly highlighted in a report following the Global Wellness Summit 2022. “From virtual reality and augmented reality to merged reality and haptics, the coming wellness metaverse will create vast opportunities for each sector of the $4.4 trillion global wellness economy,” the report states.
A follow-up blog by Susie Ellis, CEO of the Global Wellness Institute, the leading research and educational resource for the global wellness industry, notes that no wellness sector will be as transformed by the metaverse as fitness – from workouts as virtual multimedia events to an explosion of gamified models that pay you to move. “It is telling that the first acquisition Meta (formerly Facebook) made was to buy Supernatural, a virtual reality platform for high-intensity workouts set in [supernatural] worlds. The metaverse and fitness have unique synergies, where lifelike, super-immersive worlds (that blend music, extraordinary visuals, wearables, star practitioners, etc.) can ramp up people’s engagement with movement in new ways.”
According to Ellis, by June 2022, some companies were introducing a move-to-earn concept that pays people in various ways to exercise. Fitcoin, Walken and STEPN are among the new platforms that reward participants in cryptocurrency – something that would motivate 81% of Americans to exercise in the metaverse, according to a recent FitRated study.
FIRST FUTURISTIC SENSORY REALITY WELLNESS POD FOR SA
“The metaverse will change how humans live, work, play, socialise, travel, heal, shop, and entertain themselves. What computer programming did for the digitisation of society and economy in recent decades is what sensory reality will do for understanding and optimising the mental states of human beings,” says Fred Galstaun, director of Sensiks, the Netherlands-based developers of Sensiks Sensory Reality Pods. “Sensory reality allows for a range of multisensory real-life and fantasy-based experiences to be replicated in superb detail, with the body’s five senses activated simultaneously. Multisensory digitisation of experiences will help bridge the gap between reality and simulation.”
SA’s first wellness sensory reality device, U.WELL x Sensiks Express Wellness Pod, will be showcased at a pop-up location at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town until 31 May 2023, when this and several larger sensory reality pods will move to a futuristic AI-enabled wellness facility.
“We are so excited to launch this futuristic technology in SA, and to work alongside the world’s best wellness and medical experts as we roll out the U.WELL offerings. U.WELL intends to integrate the best in medical practice and technology to provide solutions that shift the focus from treating existing diseases, typically late in their progression, to preventing disease before it sets in,” says Chalandra Naidoo, CIO and Programme Officer for U.WELL, a subsidiary of the Universal Wellness Group (UNVRSL), a pioneer in the move away from reactive wellness to proactive WellCare.
U.WELL V&A Waterfront will be the first of a string of multi-disciplinary wellness hubs in Africa that, in collaboration with genetic testing laboratories and through the use of the U.WELL x Sensiks Sensory Wellness Pods, will create DNA-driven WellCare plans to provide healthcare practitioners and patients with uniquely personalised treatment strategies and enable a more precise, predictable and preventive approach to healthcare.
SET TO BE SA’S PHYGITAL “HARLEY STREET” OF HEALTH AND WELLNESS
The U.WELL x Sensiks Express Wellness Pod offers a safe and calming space for the mind and body through various sensory experiences. These experiences include synchronised visuals, audio, fragrances, airflow, heat fluctuations, haptics, and vibrations, with over 2 000 therapeutic multisensory reality experiences available for relaxation, burnout prevention, anxiety reduction, mindfulness, guided meditation, pain relief, education, and entertainment. Customised content can also be created to meet individual needs.
To direct their emotional state, interactive biofeedback sensors assess and align users’ biometrics, such as heart rate, HRV, GSR, respiration, and facial expressions.
Sensory reality pods have been utilised by prestigious corporate clients, including Barclays Bank, KLM and Lufthansa airlines, the Dutch Ministry of Defence, the NHS in the UK, and many others, and have shown significant positive impacts in the treatment of mental health disorders, stress reduction and burnout prevention, PTSD, addiction, anxiety, neonatal illnesses, muscular-skeletal disorders, and more.
Cognitive distraction as a pain and anxiety management strategy is well established, and immersion in sensory reality can distract from physical and mental adversities. Sensory reality, along with virtual and augmented reality, is poised to become a part of our everyday lives, particularly in healthcare.
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM A U.WELL X SENSIKS EXPRESS WELLNESS POD EXPERIENCE
- An introduction to WellCare and integrated holistic health and lifestyle practice by a U.WELL x Sensiks ambassador
- A brief downtime session with infrared therapy and guided “time to breathe” in U.WELL’s pop-up relaxation room
- A wellness session in the U.WELL x Sensiks Express Wellness Pod
- The complete experience takes 45 minutes.
For further information and bookings,
email podbookings@unvrslgrp.com
