Wellness Culture Glossary: From “Biohacking” to “Winter Arc”

Modern online wellness culture has developed a language that’s all its own over the years. It could be due to the fact that there are now several generations of people all using the Internet at the same time. It could also be a natural language evolution resulting from the fact that online discussions have splintered into an untold number of micro-groups thanks to discussion sites like Reddit. Either way, though, there’s a good chance that you’re going to see some unfamiliar terms if you spend any amount of time on health-related forums or social media feeds. 

What in the world is a “menty b,” and why would anyone want to “maxx” something? We’ll explain it all in this glossary of modern wellness culture.

Biohacking

Biohacking refers to taking a holistic approach to improving health and the overall functioning of one’s body. Biohacking might involve eliminating bad habits and adopting healthy ones. It will often involve the adoption of a new exercise routine and may also include a supplement regimen. People may use devices to track their sleep during biohacking. This is an extremely broad term that can also involve a great deal of pseudoscience and expensive unproven wellness technologies.

Bed Rotting

Bed rotting is the act of spending an extended amount of time in bed without sleeping or trying to sleep. Some of the things that a person might do while bed rotting can include scrolling on the phone, reading, playing games, eating or just staring at the ceiling. Bed rotting is something that a person might do when recovering from stress, although most would agree that it’s probably unhealthy to spend too much time in this state.

Cortisol Face

Cortisol face is a term that first appeared on social media and is meant to describe a facial puffiness or roundness caused by constant pressure and stress. It isn’t a medical diagnosis, and having a puffy face doesn’t necessarily confirm that one has elevated cortisol levels.

Cozy Cardio

Cozy cardio describes an activity meant to provide light exercise without being unpleasant. Essentially, it’s a counterpoint to the idea that exercise only counts if you hate every minute of it. An example of a cozy cardio workout might be walking slowly on the treadmill while watching television or playing a game in the evening.

Doomscrolling

Doomscrolling is a tendency to use social media apps with endless scrolling to an unhealthy degree. Social media platforms are often criticized for optimizing their recommendation algorithms for doomscrolling by prioritizing content that’s designed to titillate or provoke outrage.

Dopamine Menu

A dopamine menu is a personal selection of activities that you might do when you’re in need of some motivation or stress relief. In keeping with the “menu” theme, people often divide their dopamine menu into appetizers, entrees and desserts based on how long they take or how indulgent they are. Some of the activities that might be on one’s dopamine menu include petting a dog, going for a walk, playing a video game and preparing an elaborate meal from scratch.

Functional Snack

A functional snack is a food or beverage including at least one ingredient selected for a specific health purpose. Functional snacks can include things like infused edibles, mushroom chocolates and treats with adaptogens. Any product can be a functional snack if it includes an ingredient chosen for some reason other than the fact that it simply tastes good.

Glimmer

A glimmer is the opposite of a trigger, which is a word that has entered just about everyone’s lexicon at this point. It describes any brief moment that provides a window of hope, pleasure or comfort. A smell that brings back a pleasurable memory can provide a glimmer. Other things that provide glimmers might include petting a cat, being greeted by a stranger on the street or hearing a favorite song on the radio.

Hot Girl Walk

A hot girl walk is a lengthy walk taken to improve both physical and mental conditioning. Typically, a hot girl walk is about four miles in length and lasts around an hour. Wikipedia credits TikTok as the origin of this trend. During hot girl walks, people are encouraged to think positively, avoid negative self-talk and leave their phones in their pockets. 

Maxxing

Maxxing describes the process of optimizing a certain aspect of one’s life to the fullest possible extent, often with a somewhat obsessive bent. It’s usually preceded by another word, resulting in terms such as “looksmaxxing,” “sleepmaxxing” and “cozymaxxing.” 

Looksmaxxing is probably the variation that you’ll see most often in modern wellness culture, and it describes the goal of optimizing one’s physical appearance. Looksmaxxing can involve ordinary things like grooming, having one’s clothes tailored and hiring a stylist or makeup artist. However, it can also include more extreme activities such as undergoing cosmetic surgery or performing dangerous experiments on one’s body.

Menty B

Short for “mental breakdown.” This term is typically used in a playful way and isn’t meant to be taken literally. For example, someone might say that “If my boss sends one more email copied and pasted out of ChatGPT, I’m going to have a menty b.” One might also simply use the term to inform their friends that they’re experiencing an unusual level of stress.

Soft Life

Soft life describes embracing a lifestyle that’s the exact opposite of the fast-paced grind culture. The overall goal is to eliminate unwanted stress and create more time for relaxation and enjoyment of life. Some people emphasize luxury when discussing the soft life, but that’s really not the point. The overall goal is simply to avoid an existence that becomes a non-stop hustle and focus more on making the most of everyday moments as they pass.

Winter Arc

A winter arc is basically like a new year’s resolution that’s started early and approached with a greater sense of purpose. People typically begin their winter arcs in late autumn or early winter and continue throughout the season. During one’s winter arc, they focus intensely on personal goals such as losing weight and improving productivity.