Wellness tourism is taking off around the world, with centers dedicated exclusively to wellness opening up to offer travelers a spectrum of health-oriented activities including fitness and sports, spa treatments, nutritious dining options, yoga, meditation, stress relief, and health education. Some already-established hotels are implementing wellness into their accommodations while other centers dedicated exclusively to wellness retreats are becoming increasingly common. If you have the means to visit a wellness facility, I highly encourage it as it can be a life-changing experience and has impacted my entire life for the better, but you don’t have to travel the world or spend a lot of money to experience wellness. Or, if you have been to a wellness facility and witnessed its wonders, the wellness activities shouldn’t end when you return home. You can implement wellness into your everyday life.
It may be difficult to stop and take time for yourself when you’re busy with your daily routine- work, errands, doctor’s appointments, etc. But wellness should not be a choice, but a requirement. Make your health a priority and it will improve your overall outlook on life. You may not have the fancy yoga studios, spas, pools, and team sports that a wellness facility offers within your own home, but it’s not hard to make the most of your resources and practice wellness every day. Here are some suggestions to start you off:
Practice Meditation
Meditation can be really difficult to stick to for newcomers. I get that. It’s hard to shut out your surroundings and focus only on yourself when there are so many things running through your mind and going on around you. Did I remember to pay that bill? I can’t forget to make dinner reservations! I need to prepare for that call this afternoon! I have to pick Johnny up from soccer practice after school. And so on and so on. However, meditation is a natural antidote for a range of mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression, and is medically-proven to reduce stress and lower blood pressure. If you start to make it a habit, it becomes easier, and there are a plethora of books and apps available to help you out.
Listen to music
According to Huffington Post, music has been shown to reduce stress, aid in memory retention, improve your immune system, motivate you to exercise, and even decrease physical pain. So plug in and unwind. Whether you take time each day to completely zone out to music or you listen to it at work, you will start to see the positive effects. Music with a slow tempo and low pitch (without loud instrumentals or lyrics) is best for reducing stress.
Visit a spa
Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, you’re probably only a few minutes away from a spa. If you can afford it, schedule monthly massages to loosen your tense muscles and focus on any problem areas. If you can’t afford a monthly spa visit, then pamper yourself at home! Simply purchase a yoga massage ball or foam roller for a diy massage. Soak in a warm bath for 20 minutes for further relaxation and stress reduction.
Exercise
Exercise seems more like a chore to most people than a fun activity and I know how difficult it can be to make it a part of one’s daily routine. Motivating yourself to get to the gym after a long day of work when you’d much rather collapse onto your couch is no easy task. But there are so many ways to implement exercise into your life, whether it’s a 15-minute YouTube workout video before work, a class at the gym, or a morning run, find something that works for you and stick to it. You may not have a fitness coach pushing you like you would at a wellness facility, but you can be your own advocate.
Connect with your surroundings
A huge draw of wellness tourism is the opportunity to escape from one’s daily life and bask in a new, distraction-free environment. Simply take a walk and breathe in the fresh air, admire the greenery and flowers, and listen to the birds.
Schedule time to relax into your day
This may seem overly-simple and obvious, but actually writing a time for relaxation into your schedule will make you more likely to do it. Writing your goals and tasks down has been proven to make them more likely to happen. Practice good time management and schedule time into your day, even it’s just a few minutes during work, to de-compress with a book or a walk around the block.
These are just some of the many ways you can implement wellness into your everyday life. Taking a wellness vacation is likely to be a transformative experience, as it was for me, but wellness can start in your own home.
