Us Northerners know how to wind down.
The gyms may be closed, but that isn’t stopping us Mancunians. Looking after ourselves has never been more crucial than during lockdown, meaning we’ve needed to dig out the little rituals that make us feel happy more often than ever before.
And according to a study conducted by Spaseekers, Manchester has been doing just that – as our city has been named the ‘most zen’ in the UK. Creating a ‘zen scale’, the spa break booking site observed five factors during the study, including interest in home workout videos, searches for home yoga, Google data on home spa treatments, interest in at-home meditation and searches for skincare routines.
Coming out on top for searches for skincare routines and an interest in at-home meditation, Manchester beat the rest of the country by five points overall, beating Newcastle and Liverpool with our high zen power. Not only that, but we had a high score in comparison to other cities for home workouts, meaning Mancs have been keeping in shape while the gyms are closed.
The study, which took place during the first lockdown, read: “Thanks to high scores across the board, it’s the city where people are searching for the best ways to look after themselves at home, with at home meditation and skincare as the city’s top priority with scores of 15. Manchester’s inhabitants clearly want to clear their minds as much as their skin.”
Ranking closely behind, Newcastle lead the group as the city most interested in home workouts and yoga, with Liverpool coming out on top as the city most interested in home spa treatments.