Wellness Retreats
The term “Wellness” is sometimes bandied about by marketers seeking to make a quick buck. How do you sort through the hype about wellness retreats to find what you are looking for? Read on to find out.
Knowing the Terms
Many hotels are using marketing and services to attract guests. Typically, a wellness hotel is a luxury hotel offering a spa and a fitness center. A health retreat has a program of therapies and activities, designed for various types of guests, and lead by experts in the health and wellness field. The retreat is a more personalized experience that directly targets your goals and includes activities like exercise, relaxation, and specialized food plans. The hotel experience is aimed at a larger number of participants and the services tend to be more generalized. Eating, for example, will be at your choice of a variety of restaurants, not on a meal plan tailored to you.
According to Tania Ho, founder of Museflower Retreat & Spa Chaina Rai, in Thailand, “a wellness retreat is about getting away from the stresses, responsibilities and mad rush of daily life and letting the mind quiet down from its daily routine. … A wellness retreat provides a much needed … space in our busy lives, to finally slow down, to relax and be with ourselves.”
Activities on Retreats
Activities on a typical wellness retreat include yoga, exercise, meditation, detoxification of the body and lectures about topics that promote health. Having some free time incorporated into the schedule is also important, and ensures that you don’t bring the rush of the daily world to your retreat schedule. A retreat is a few days or a week, and that is a short period of time to try to break the habit of needing to be busy every moment. Preparing yourself mentally to have down time helps break the need-to-be-busy habit. This gives you time to have some unplanned moments in order to process thoughts and feelings.
Google the term “wellness retreat” and you’ll find a variety of adventures in the US or abroad. Here’s one list to get you started.
The important thing to remember is that at the end of this retreat you leave feeling refreshed and renewed. Giving some thought to what activities (or non-activities) will leave you refreshed is a good start for the planning your wellness retreat. And then, let go of the outcome and let the retreat bring you the lessons you need to learn.
About the author
