Why Women Are Quitting Solo Wellness in 2026 — And What We've Known Since 2009

By Violette de Ayala, Founder of FemCity

Solo wellness is losing its grip. After years of cold plunges, mouth tape, and optimization culture pushing people toward isolated self-improvement, new 2026 wellness research is pointing in the opposite direction: women specifically are moving away from solitary self-care and toward shared, in-person, community-based wellness.

What the 2026 Research Says

Multiple wellness reports published in late 2025 and 2026 converge on the same finding. According to Forbes, movement specialist Sarah Aspinall notes that "after years of remote work, self-improvement in isolation, and hyper-digital living, people are realizing that true wellness depends on connection," adding that women in particular are "craving spaces where they can belong, be seen, and move together — a counterbalance to the individualism and optimization culture of the past decade."

This isn't a minor shift in preference. It's a documented reversal of the last decade's wellness culture, which prized tracking, biohacking, and individual discipline above almost everything else. The new data suggests that model burned people out — women especially — and that connection, not another app or supplement, is what actually sustains healthy habits over time.

Why This Matters for Women Specifically

Wellness in isolation asks a person to carry everything alone: the discipline, the accountability, the emotional weight of a hard season, the follow-through. For many women already managing careers, businesses, households, and caregiving, adding a solitary wellness practice on top of an already solo-feeling life isn't sustainable. It's just one more thing to manage by yourself.

Community-based wellness flips that equation. When women process, move, and grow alongside other women, the emotional labor gets distributed. Accountability becomes mutual instead of self-imposed. And healing — the kind that actually sticks — tends to happen faster in rooms with other people than it does in isolation.

We Were Doing This Before It Had a Name

I started FemCity in 2009, long before "community wellness" was a trend piece or a line item in a wellness forecast. There was no research behind the decision at the time — just a conviction that women grow differently when they're not doing it alone. Sixteen years later, the data is finally catching up to something FemCity members have been living all along: healing, growth, and ambition were never meant to be solo sports.

This is also the thinking behind our in-person retreats, including our upcoming Canyon Ranch retreat on September 18, 2026, and a second retreat planned for May 2026 — both built around the idea that rest and growth land differently when you're doing them in community rather than alone.

The Takeaway

If 2026's wellness research is right — and every indicator suggests it is — the future of self-care isn't more optimization. It's more connection. For women specifically, that means fewer solo rituals and more shared ones: retreats, peer circles, mentorship, and communities built around showing up for each other, not just for yourself.

FemCity is a global membership community for women in business, built on the belief that growth happens faster — and healing happens more fully — in community. Learn more about upcoming events, including our Canyon Ranch retreats, at femcity.com.