Whether it’s a birthday celebration for a close friend, a co-worker you want to ensure knows how much you appreciate them, or one of those occasions where gift-giving is the norm, these health and wellness gifts won’t end up in the back of a cupboard - or even worse, in the bin.
We’ve rounded up the best wellness gifts for 2023 so that you can surprise and delight your friends and family with your good taste!
1. An aromatherapy massage
A good aromatherapy massage is the perfect holistic wellness gift for someone who’s tough to buy for. People are more stressed than ever before, and the emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual struggles we undertake each day take their toll.
A full-body aromatherapy massage is an incredibly effective way to reduce stress and it can be tailored to suit exactly what the receiver needs. What makes this one of the best wellness gifts is that the essential oils the masseuse uses can be chosen to target specific issues.
Frankincense oil relaxes, geranium rejuvenates, chamomile calms, rosemary energises, and eucalyptus is an excellent decongestant. Oils like these are blended with high-quality carrier oils that are wonderful for the skin, making it the kind of wellness gift that works within and without!
2. A diffuser
An essential oil diffuser is just what your stressed-out sister, brother with a broken heart, frustrated friend, confused coworker, or too-serious significant other really needs. There are numerous benefits to using a diffuser, and all one has to do to receive them is inhale.
After a long day of work at home or at the office, getting the household chores done, and making sure all the members of the household are fed and happy, an aromatherapy diffuser can really help with relaxing. With the right oils, you can gift a delightful-smelling method to calm thoughts, release tension, uplift outlooks, energise, and manifest some peace. For example, peppermint, spearmint, sweet orange, ylang ylang, and lemon oils can all help to improve focus.
Let whoever’s receiving the essential oil diffuser know how much different oils can do and this will be the gift that attains legendary status.
3. Essential oils
If the person you’re shopping for already has an aromatherapy diffuser, or you want to maximise your gift, essential oils are another excellent option.
Giving them as a gift is always appreciated as diffusers are so inherently useful. And who knows? You may also be lucky enough to help someone you care about gain a new perspective on the possibilities of natural health care.
Essential oils can be used in an aromatherapy diffuser to promote better sleep, happiness, holistic wellness, and natural pain relief. Once properly diluted, they can be used in beauty treatments and for massage therapy too.
Not only can your friend or family member benefit from the many healing and restorative properties of essential oils on their own, they may also be able to amplify the benefits when oils are combined. Expertly mixed essential oil blends are specially formulated to provide the maximum benefit for a specific purpose, such as enhanced sleep, deeper relaxation, or more energy.
Whether you choose individual essential oils or a blend, this health and wellness gift is practical and purposeful. Even if the person you’re buying a gift for already has essential oils, you can’t go wrong with a few more. You can’t have too much of a good thing!
4. Lounge socks
Who doesn't love having warm, comfortable feet?
A good pair of lounge or slipper socks is one of the best wellness gifts ever because they’ll be useful all year round. You also don’t have to worry about slipping and sliding all over the place because of the non-slip grips on the bottom.
They won’t be a very stressful purchase either, because generally, they’re one-size-fits-all. This health and wellness gift will ensure that whoever receives them thinks of you every time they put them on.
There are loads of options when it comes to what these types of socks are made of. You can choose from various hues and different prints, and even add a little something extra, like a pompom or two.
Whoever this gift is for, you’ll be able to find the perfect pair to suit their personality.
5. Pillow/linen/room mist
A quick spritz of an essential oil mist can do a lot. It could rev you up and prepare you for a busy day or night, calm you down when you’ve just returned from work or a night out, and set the perfect tone for an enjoyable night in.
Select a mist according to the receiver’s needs. Maybe a little relaxation is in order, or perhaps your loved one needs to optimise their energy levels. A good mist can do whatever you need it to and makes the perfect holistic wellness gift.
6. Silk sleep mask
As much as we need sleep to rest and recover our brains and muscles, we need it for our skin’s health, and emotional regulation too. Our blood flow increases to the skin while we sleep, collagen is rebuilt, and UV damage is repaired. This is when our levels of melatonin surge and this antioxidant is vital for both our mental health and the state of our skin.
If you know someone who lives in an urban area, chances are that they’ll be exposed to artificial light no matter what they do. It doesn’t matter how closely they shut the blinds, close the curtains, or fasten the door latch, light creeps in.
Total darkness is necessary for optimum melatonin production and good sleep and the only way to ensure that nowadays is with a high-quality sleep mask, a brilliant holistic wellness gift.
7. A smartwatch
The kind of technology we take for granted these days is astonishing, something even the most forward-thinking minds of yesteryear would have had a hard time imagining. Nowhere is this more evident than in the evolution of smartwatches.
This is one of the best wellness gifts because it’s capable of enhancing so much of our day-to-day lives. Gone are the days when a timepiece simply displayed the time of day.
Contemporary features include heart rate tracking, historical reports on your sleeping patterns and more, the option to listen to music, track how many calories you’ve burned, and monitor how many steps you’ve taken.
Like a diffuser, giving the gift of a smartwatch is much more than just a single item.
8. A weighted blanket
Do you know someone who has trouble getting a good night’s sleep? Stress makes our hearts beat faster, and two of the suggested ways to combat this when we’re trying to sleep are to concentrate on slowing our breathing and clearing our minds. This can be more difficult to do than it sounds, however.
Along with an essential oil diffuser, a fabulous gift idea for someone who suffers from sleep disorders is a weighted blanket.
The gentle pressure a weighted blanket puts on the body can calm us down because it activates our parasympathetic nervous systems. One of the tasks this process accomplishes is slowing our heart rate down. This makes this wellness gift perfect for people who suffer from a range of ailments, including ADHD, anxiety, autism, insomnia, and sleep apnea.
The pressure therapy a weighted blanket provides works to give us the kind of contented feeling that is commonly associated with being held, hugged, stroked, or swaddled.
9. A yoga mat
If there’s someone you need to buy a gift for but they already have an aromatherapy diffuser, smartwatch, stack of essential oils, oil mists, and a weighted blanket, a yoga mat may be what they need to complete their wellness collection.
Giving a yoga practitioner a high quality mat is like offering a cyclist a top-of-the-range bicycle or giving a premium pair of running shoes to a jogger. Mats are where yogis spend the majority of their time, so making sure it’s what they need will give a lot more than may meet the eye.
A good yoga mat prevents yogis from skidding and slipping while they’re doing their asanas. Giving one as a gift will tell them that you know how much their passion means to them and that you value what it does for their mental and emotional well-being.
It’s the thought that counts
Wellness gifts in 2023 are all about encouraging the overall health of the people we care about. This makes them far more valuable than jewellery or new shoes. There’s a lot of room in this category too, so finding the perfect gift to enhance the lives of the ones that matter most to you isn’t nearly the chore you may fear.
Use this guide to find a gift that keeps giving and spoil your loved ones with something they’ll use!
