Does reading every article on the newest health product that supposedly unlocks longevity give you hives? Does every mention of alternative medicines and fitness breakthroughs leave you in a cold sweat? Then you, my friend, are a wellness skeptic.
Don’t worry, I’m not here to judge. I’m one too. I appreciate fitness and nutrition and mindfulness as much as the next person, but wellness can often seem so consumerist, as if some newfangled product can make us immortal or undo all our bad habits and lifestyles.
Don’t get me wrong. I understand the global appeal. We’re all feeling worn down and could use a pick-me-up. But often, engaging with some wellness trends while travelling can feel like you’re being sold a bill of goods that reality has no hopes of accounting for. Being an experienced traveller, I’ve come up with a few mental tricks to approach wellness. They should help you navigate the ubiquity of wellness without catching the fever for yourself.
1. Be specific: The first way I got over my allergic reaction to wellness was to banish the word “wellness” from my usual vocabulary altogether. Not every relaxing or healthy experience you have while travelling needs to be categorized in an effort to make it fit into a neat box. Exercise, meditation, spiritual practices, and connection with nature can all count as wellness, but don’t need to be defined as such. Rather, you can simply take your travels as they come, and enjoy the experiences presented to you, whether a massage, a meditation, or, yes, a healthy meal.
2. Be honest: Everyone loves a good massage. Whatever kind of traveller you label yourself as, there’s nothing wrong with hitting up the spa or enjoying some R and R. Travel is meant to be relaxing. It’s meant to help your wellbeing and fitness (hence, the portmanteau “wellness”). Sometimes relaxation is simply relaxation, a visit to a spa a nice break from routine, a massage only a means of loosening the tensions in your back, no more. You don’t need to eat algae or sign up for a detox program to prove you get it, that you want to unwind and feel better.
3. Be yourself: Follow your interests and get in touch with yourself when travelling. I take a cue from Zen meditation. In Japan, I once visited Shinshoji Zen Museum and Gardens outside Onomichi, where I spent a couple hours with the abbot of the monastery. He taught me some Zen meditation techniques but never spent even a moment discussing their health or longevity benefits. He simply taught me to relax and focus on a point in front of me, to regulate my breath, to feel the za-zen, breathing in, exhaling out, letting my body cue my mind to rest through focus. It was invigorating and the time flew by quicker than the snap of his stick on my back. (Seriously.)
Get out of your own head. Stop worrying about labels or what the world outside says you ought to care about. You do you. That’s all that ultimately matters.
You might say that Aren was destined to become a globetrotter after his family took him to Germany two times before he was four. If that wasn’t enough, a term spent in Sweden as a young teenager and a trek across Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand confirmed that destiny. An independent writer, director, and film critic, Aren has travelled across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. His favourite travel experience was visiting the major cities of Japan’s largest island, Honshu, but his love for food, drink, and film will take him anywhere that boasts great art and culture.
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