COVID-19 has drastically shifted the focus on health from treatment to prevention. The younger generation is trying to prevent getting sick by maintaining good physical and mental health conditions and to find happiness on the way. It became more important to find one’s own “healthy pleasure” in everyday life. “Healthy pleasure” refers to managing a good health condition while also having fun. Previous concepts of staying healthy required giving up pleasure, however, the MZ generation denies old tradition and seeks pleasure on the way to pursue health. There are many categories in the healthy pleasure trend and the three most popular trends are: food, exercise, and mental wellness.
Vegan Food
The first part of healthy pleasure is food. Due to global warming, the MZ generation is more concerned about the environment and its effect on their lives. Meat production is highly associated with deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, and because of the minimal environmental impact, veganism is a growing global trend. Moreover, vegan food is considered by many people to be healthier, because it contains less fat and cholesterol compared to a traditional diet that contains meat. This trend leads to a larger consumption of vegan substitutes. Nowadays, many people are looking for vegan meat, yogurt and other vegan alternatives. Food companies produce those alternatives as close to the original as ever because the MZ generation does not want to give up the pleasure of having meat and dairy products.
Exercising
The second part of healthy pleasure is exercising. Physical fitness used to require a lot of dedication, time and effort. These days, on the other hand, as home workouts have emerged, exercising has become less time-consuming and more fun. One can learn any exercise at home on YouTube or other online personal training courses. To make fitness fun, exercise games such as <Just Dance> and <Ring Fit>, which are Nintendo’s fitness games, are good for working out at home. If one seeks professional help, there are plenty of online personal training courses. For example, on <My Dano>, a virtual personal training service, professional fitness coaches train its users and give feedback based on each user’s lifestyle. Fitness gadgets such as smart watches can also be used to keep track of burned calories in daily lives.
Mental Wellness
The third part of healthy pleasure is mental wellness. Anxiety and fatigue caused by COVID-19 has greatly impacted society across the world. Maintaining a good mental state has become one of the most important issues. Meditation and being absent-minded are the solutions that the MZ generation found to cope with the current situation. They burn incense while meditating, or go camping and do “bul-meong” or “mul-meong”, which means to space out while looking directly at fire or water. These activities help them keep calm and relieve stress.
The MZ generation is always in pursuit of happiness, and it is also applied to maintaining good mental health hygiene. How about choosing one healthy pleasure activity from this article and trying it out today?
By Yeon Min-seon, Guest Reporter