A mindset, not a kale smoothie
I’m a pretty panicky holiday planner. I pack far too much, I get to the airport far too early and then just sit in the restaurant across from my gate for two hours. I check for my passport, and 30 seconds later obsessively check again. I worry about every single thing. Holidaying can be a pretty stressful event for me. And I only find myself relaxing and unwinding towards the end of a trip, when I’ve been forced to turn off my emails, and forced to stop worrying about everything – mostly because my travel companions have told me off. The concept of a wellness holiday is a bit of an oxymoron for my personality type. Or so I thought.
What is a wellness holiday, anyway? Is it soaking in a hot spring? Is it splurging on a retreat where you’ll wake at dawn for a yoga session? Or is it that feeling you get when your feet hit the sand and you feel the sea spray on your face? Is it the feeling you get when you fall asleep in the sun, tu¯ ı¯ singing in the background? Is it found in a glass of wine and a heart-to-heart with a friend? Or is it a weekend walk in the bush?
This year is being touted as the year wellness becomes a bigger travel trend, for obvious reasons – Covid-19 has forced us all to stop and take stock of our lives and live them a bit more . . . mindfully. The pandemic has given us an opportunity to reimagine tourism, too. A chance to press the reset button and implement a style of travel that is slow, appreciative of the value and lessons travel imparts, and less about Insta moments and just ticking off the bucket list.
For the Stuff Travel team, wellness comes in many forms. It doesn’t need to break the bank. It doesn’t need to take a lot of planning. And it doesn’t need to involve yoga, massages and expensive retreats – although we certainly love those, too.
Wellness is a mindset, it’s a lifestyle and it can be achieved with any budget, and any activity that is good for the body and the brain.
Starting with Siobhan Downes’ first-timers guide to wellness on page 30 to Brook Sabin’s once-in-a-lifetime trips on page 36 and Lorna Thornber’s journey to heal a broken heart on page 40, we’re implementing an always-on focus on wellness this year. Stuff Travel’s new Wellness section (head to stuff.co.nz/travel/experiences/wellnessholidays) will inspire, inform and engage Kiwis, helping them seek mindful travel experiences, discover new forms of dealing with anxiety through travel, and new ways to reconnect with nature.
We’d love to hear what wellness means for you. Drop me a line at trupti.biradar@stuff.co.nz.