“Healthy to heaven” - Middle-agers looking ahead in the context of wellness consumption

•The wellness trend is reflected in middle-agers' strategies for aging well.•Interest in wellness and related consumption is linked to life stage factors.•Wellness consumption can also be interpreted as normal self-care in the present era.•People develop a variety of wellness skills in the context of wellness consumption.•Wellness skills are partly developed to support active and enjoyable aging.

Concentrating on personal health and well-being has become a central objective for people living in wealthy societies. In an age of consumerism, the current health enthusiasm can be observed particularly in the fast-growing wellness industry, the popularity of which has increased, in particular, among mature consumers, a trend also evident in people's individual strategies for aging well. As it is generally assumed that aging people consume wellness mainly to delay signs of aging, this study focuses on this understudied phenomenon with the aim of deepening the profile of mature wellness consumers. The data consist of eight group interviews of Finnish middle-agers (50-65 years). Interviewees' (N = 41) talk about the pursuit of wellness revealed several points of connection between their current life stage and wellness consumption. As people were experiencing many aging-related changes in their lives they tended to engage in different bodily practices with a view to an “active third age.” In the context of the life stage of middle-agers, wellness as a present-day phenomenon can be interpreted as one of the social settings in which people both reflect on their personal aging experiences and seek to strengthen the “wellness skills” they feel are necessary for personal self-care and life-management especially in forthcoming years.