Explore timeless wellness rituals from around the world—like forest bathing in Japan, cold water in Scandinavia, gua sha in China, and Jamu in Indonesia. Discover how these ancient practices inspire modern self-care.

What Global Rituals Teach Us About Wellness

Wellness isn’t one-size-fits-all—and that’s what makes it so interesting. Across cultures, people have built rituals rooted in nature, tradition, and intentionality.

While tech trends come and go (looking at you, infrared face masks and mushroom gummies), the old ways are still here. Sometimes they even resurface, the way cold water got a Gen Z remix via the ice bucket challenge 2.0.

At Good Jamu, we’re obsessed with these traditions. They’re not just soothing, they’re full of meaning. From icy plunges in Nordic waters to forest walks in Japan, these are the rituals that teach us how to slow down and reconnect.

Scandinavian Cold Therapy: Icy Plunges, Warm Welcomes

In Nordic countries, cold water is more than a wellness hack, it’s a cultural mainstay. Ice baths, cold plunges and sauna-cold rotations have been part of daily and social life for centuries. What people describe is:

• A jolt of alertness that is impossible to ignore

• The particular glow of getting warm again afterwards

• A rush that most people find genuinely addictive

• A sense of having done something difficult before breakfast

While Western wellness only recently discovered the thrill of the cold plunge, Scandinavia’s been chilling for generations — and doing it socially, which is the part most often left out of the trend version. Bonus: the viral “cold therapy challenge” is making a whole new audience fall in love with a very old habit.

Forest Bathing and Matcha: Japan’s Mindful Rituals

In Japan, wellness means syncing with nature. Shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing,” invites you to immerse yourself in the forest’s quiet. No actual bathing — just walking, listening, breathing, and being.

Shinrin-yoku has been studied by Japanese researchers since the 1980s, when the country’s forestry agency coined the term. What draws people to it:

• It is unstructured — there is nothing to achieve and no distance to cover

• It is one of the few activities with no screen involved

• It works in any weather, and arguably better in bad weather

And if you’d rather stay inside? The ritual of preparing matcha — sifting, whisking, sipping — offers a meditative moment. Steeped in tradition, and a genuinely absorbing thing to do with your hands.

Gua Sha: Beauty Meets Ritual in Chinese Tradition

In China, gua sha is more than just a TikTok beauty trend — it’s a centuries-old practice rooted in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Using smooth stones like jade or rose quartz, gentle strokes are worked along the skin. What keeps people doing it:

• It feels good, in the straightforward way a massage feels good

• It slows a skincare routine down to something deliberate

• The stone stays cool against the skin

• It takes five minutes and asks for your full attention

Gua sha is a good example of an ancient ritual that went viral for an understandable reason: it turns a routine into a pause.

Jamu: Indonesia’s Golden Elixir

Let’s head to Indonesia, where one of the world’s most vibrant drinking traditions is brewed: Jamu.

Made from herbs and spices like turmeric, ginger, tamarind and lemongrass, Jamu is a golden-hued drink that has been part of everyday Indonesian life for more than a thousand years. In December 2023 UNESCO added Indonesian jamu wellness culture to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

More than a drink, Jamu is a ritual of resilience, beauty and balance — most often prepared by women, and passed down through generations. The jamu gendong, the women who sell it door to door from a basket carried on the back, are still a familiar sight on Java.

At Good Jamu, we’re proud to honour this tradition with blends made for the way people live now.

What ties all these rituals together isn’t just their long history but their intention. Whether it’s a forest walk, a cup of herbal tea, a facial massage or a freezing plunge, these practices ask us to slow down and be with ourselves. That pause is the whole point, and it is the part that survives translation across every one of these cultures.

So maybe wellness isn’t about the next best thing. Maybe it’s about remembering the best things we already have.

Ready to build your own ritual? We’re here to cheer you on every herbal step of the way. Cheers, and good jamu!

Start your own ritual with Good Jamu—crafted with care, rooted in tradition, and made for your everyday flow.
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- written by Devika Gupta