5 Unique Wellness Practices From Other Cultures Worth Trying in 2026

Stephen King once wrote that sooner or later, everything old is new again. Wellness has proven that more than most fields. Practices that were considered fringe or foreign in the U.S. a generation ago are now showing up in hospitals, corporate wellness programs, and your neighbor’s morning routine. Some never died out elsewhere in the world — they just took a while to arrive here. Here are five worth paying serious attention to right now.

Key Takeaways

• Qigong, practiced in China for over 2,500 years, showed benefits in 97% of clinical studies reviewed — and Harvard Medical School dedicated a 2025 white paper to its role in modern healthcare
• Mindful eating is now incorporated into national dietary guidelines in Canada and Germany — the U.S. is catching up slowly
• The global herbal medicine market hit $215 billion in 2024 and is growing at over 7% annually as plant medicine goes mainstream
• Transcendental Meditation is one of the most peer-reviewed meditation techniques in existence, with strong consistent evidence for stress and blood pressure reduction
• A 2025 randomized controlled trial found earthing mats significantly reduced insomnia, daytime sleepiness and stress compared to controls over 31 days

1. Qigong — Ancient Chinese Practice, Surprisingly Solid Modern Science

Qigong (pronounced “chee-kung”) has been practiced in China for at least 2,500 years. Breathing techniques, gentle flowing movements, mental focus — the whole system is built around cultivating and balancing what Traditional Chinese Medicine calls “chi,” or life force energy. That description tends to make Western audiences skeptical. Which is understandable, and also increasingly hard to justify given what the research now shows.

The evidence base is substantial. A comprehensive bibliometric analysis found beneficial results in 97% of clinical studies on Qigong reviewed — across conditions including hypertension, chronic back pain, diabetes, depression, insomnia, and knee osteoarthritis. A 2025 study tracking participants through a three-month online Qigong course found significant improvements across physical, psychological, social and environmental quality-of-life domains. In April 2025, Harvard Medical School’s Osher Center published a major white paper endorsing Tai Chi and Qigong as whole-person health interventions — the kind of institutional recognition that moves things quickly from “alternative” to “complementary.” If you want to understand how gentle movement practices reduce cortisol, OGP’s breakdown is a solid starting point alongside Qigong research.

Qigong is genuinely accessible to everyone. Elderly practitioners do it in parks across Beijing and Shanghai every morning. Teenagers are learning it on YouTube. It requires no equipment, no particular fitness level, and can be done in a living room in ten minutes. The question isn’t really whether it works at this point. It’s why more people in cities like Chicago, Seattle and Melbourne aren’t doing it yet.

Expert Tip: Start with Ba Duan Jin — the “Eight Brocades” — which is the most-studied Qigong form in clinical research and one of the most beginner-friendly. Free instructional videos are widely available and the full sequence takes under fifteen minutes. — Recommended by the VA’s 2024 Evidence Map of Tai Chi and Qigong

2. Mindful Eating — The Practice That Sounds Obvious Until You Actually Try It

Here’s an uncomfortable question: when did you last eat a meal without looking at a screen? Not a quick glance. Completely screen-free, sitting at a table, paying attention to what you were actually tasting.

For most people in the U.S., the honest answer is hard to remember. Which is exactly the problem mindful eating addresses. The practice — rooted in Buddhist awareness traditions and deeply embedded in Japanese food culture, where the principle of eating until 80% full has been standard for centuries — is now backed by a meaningful body of clinical research. A 2024 meta-analysis of 14 randomized controlled trials found mindful eating interventions produced statistically significant reductions in body weight and blood glucose levels, with results holding at 12-month follow-up. A 2025 review in SEEJPH found mindful eating activates the parasympathetic nervous system during meals, directly improving digestion and reducing the stress-driven eating patterns that lead to poor food choices. OGP has a practical guide on how to start eating more mindfully that’s worth bookmarking alongside the research.

Canada and Germany have already incorporated mindful eating into their national dietary guidelines. The U.S. is catching up slowly. It doesn’t require a class or a program. Eat without your phone. Chew more slowly. Notice what you’re tasting. Start there.

What Is the Easiest Global Wellness Practice to Start Today?

Earthing. Walk outside and take your shoes off. That’s genuinely it. No equipment, no learning curve, no subscription fee. The argument for why this matters is coming — but the practice itself has a lower barrier to entry than anything else on this list, which is worth flagging upfront before getting into the more involved options.

3. Herbalism — Plant Medicine Is Going Mainstream Whether Conventional Medicine Likes It or Not

The global herbal medicine market was valued at $215 billion in 2024. U.S. retail sales of herbal dietary supplements alone hit a record $13.2 billion that same year — up 5.4% from 2023, according to the American Botanical Council’s 2024 Herb Market Report. For comparison, the entire U.S. gym industry generates roughly $35 billion annually. Herbalism isn’t fringe. It’s a massive industry growing faster than conventional fitness.

The tradition has roots on every continent. Chinese herbalism, African plant medicine, early American indigenous botanical knowledge, Ayurvedic practice from India — virtually every culture developed sophisticated systems for using plants therapeutically long before pharmaceutical companies existed. In many countries, herbs are still the first line of treatment, with Western medicine reserved for cases where plant-based approaches prove insufficient. The U.S. went the opposite direction and is only now finding its way back. OGP has covered ten popular herbs worth starting with if you’re new to plant medicine, and for those who want to grow their own, there’s a thorough guide to medicinal herbs you can grow in pots even without a garden.

In May 2025, the European Medicines Agency approved a plant-derived herbal medicine for mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease treatment. That kind of regulatory milestone doesn’t happen without a serious evidence base behind it. If you’re new to herbalism, a qualified local herbalist is worth more than any amount of internet research. Herbs are genuinely potent and some interact with prescription medications — always check with your healthcare provider before adding anything new.

4. Transcendental Meditation — The One That Actually Has Decades of Rigorous Research

Transcendental Meditation divides people. The celebrity associations — Paul McCartney, Jerry Seinfeld, Oprah, Howard Stern (make of that list what you will) — don’t help it shed the aspirational lifestyle accessory reputation it sometimes carries. Neither does the cost of official TM instruction, which runs several hundred dollars for a certified course.

Separate all of that from the research, though, and TM deserves serious consideration. It’s one of the most studied meditation techniques in existence. The method itself is simple: sit comfortably, repeat a personal mantra silently for 20 minutes, twice daily. No concentration required, no attempt to control the mind, no particular skill needed. The official TM organization describes it as effortless — and unlike most marketing claims, practitioners consistently report this one is accurate. Multiple peer-reviewed studies document reductions in cortisol, blood pressure and anxiety with regular practice. Practitioners in cities from New York to London to Sydney report that twice-daily sessions function more as mental maintenance than spiritual practice. Whether you pursue certified TM instruction or a more informal mantra-based approach, the underlying principle is the same and the barrier to entry is genuinely low.

5. Earthing — Walking Barefoot Is a Wellness Practice Now, and the Science Is More Interesting Than You’d Expect

The premise sounds like something your grandmother said. Go outside. Take your shoes off. Touch the earth with your bare feet. Feel better.

And yet. A 2025 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial found that earthing mats used for six hours daily over 31 days significantly reduced insomnia severity, daytime sleepiness and stress compared to sham mats. Sleep quality improved, total sleep time increased, and the effects held at follow-up one week after the intervention ended. A December 2024 review in the Medical Research Archives found direct contact with the earth’s electrical field regulates the autonomic nervous system, reduces muscle tension, and produces measurable changes in heart rate variability and brain wave activity.

The proposed mechanism: the earth carries a natural negative electrical charge, and direct skin contact allows the body to absorb electrons that act as natural antioxidants, countering the positive static charge that accumulates from living almost entirely on insulated surfaces. Concrete, synthetic flooring, rubber-soled footwear — modern life has essentially disconnected most people from the ground entirely. Populations in Europe and Australia have been paying attention to this for years. Barefoot walking in parks, forest bathing (shinrin-yoku) in Japan, swimming in natural water — these aren’t wellness trends. They’re returns to the contact the human body evolved within. Search for earthing or grounding practitioners near you in cities like Portland, London or Melbourne if you want a more structured approach, or just step outside and find some grass.

The Bigger Picture

What these five practices share is a refusal to separate the body from its environment, its history, or its own intelligence. Qigong works with breath and energy rather than against symptoms. Mindful eating reconnects food choices to actual hunger. Herbalism acknowledges that plants developed therapeutic compounds over millions of years of co-evolution with animal life. Transcendental Meditation treats the mind as something that regulates itself when given the right conditions. Earthing reconnects the body to a literal electrical system it evolved within.

None of these replace medical care when medical care is needed. All of them are worth integrating into a life that is trying, deliberately, to stay well.

5 Unique Wellness Practices From Other Cultures Worth Trying in 2025

Stephen King once wrote that sooner or later, everything old is new again. Wellness has proven that more than most fields. Practices that were considered fringe or foreign in the U.S. a generation ago are now showing up in hospitals, corporate wellness programs, and your neighbor’s morning routine. Some never died out elsewhere in the world — they just took a while to arrive here. Here are five worth paying serious attention to right now.

Key Takeaways

• Qigong, practiced in China for over 2,500 years, showed benefits in 97% of clinical studies reviewed — and Harvard Medical School dedicated a 2025 white paper to its role in modern healthcare
• Mindful eating is now incorporated into national dietary guidelines in Canada and Germany — the U.S. is catching up slowly
• The global herbal medicine market hit $215 billion in 2024 and is growing at over 7% annually as plant medicine goes mainstream
• Transcendental Meditation is one of the most peer-reviewed meditation techniques in existence, with strong consistent evidence for stress and blood pressure reduction
• A 2025 randomized controlled trial found earthing mats significantly reduced insomnia, daytime sleepiness and stress compared to controls over 31 days

1. Qigong — Ancient Chinese Practice, Surprisingly Solid Modern Science

Qigong (pronounced “chee-kung”) has been practiced in China for at least 2,500 years. Breathing techniques, gentle flowing movements, mental focus — the whole system is built around cultivating and balancing what Traditional Chinese Medicine calls “chi,” or life force energy. That description tends to make Western audiences skeptical. Which is understandable, and also increasingly hard to justify given what the research now shows.

The evidence base is substantial. A comprehensive bibliometric analysis found beneficial results in 97% of clinical studies on Qigong reviewed — across conditions including hypertension, chronic back pain, diabetes, depression, insomnia, and knee osteoarthritis. A