From mental health to IV drips—what wellness tourism looks like now

If I had to give myself a wellness treat five years ago, I would have checked into a quick three-day spacation, emerged somewhat de-stressed and plunged right back into work. While that mini break definitely still has merit, I know now that if I truly want to be healthy, I need to set at least seven to fourteen days aside (possibly even twenty eight!), and commit to changing some deeply ingrained lifestyle habits to stay in a state of continuous well-being.

Wellness has changed dramatically in the last ten years, moving consciously into the area of preventive health that now includes mental health too. The fact came home to me when Ananda In The Himalayas, which is regularly on the list of the world’s best spas (yes, the one that Oprah went to) sent me their Visiting Master’s programme. It featured Jacopo Valli, a Jungian somatic-analytic psychotherapist skilled in dealing with the subconscious and unconscious manifestations of disease. Ananda In The Himalayas’s GM, Nikhil Kapur, says this is one of the changes he has seen in wellness travel. “As lifestyle diseases increase, we find awareness of health and wellness has grown exponentially. People want to work on their physical bodies, but a huge shift has happened in terms of willingness to work on mental health. People want to work on detoxing both their bodies and minds.”

This isn’t just about offering sessions in meditation, mindfulness and stress management alone. “People are now demanding an integrative solution to improve their health and general well-being,” says Alejandro Bataller, vice president, Sha Wellness Clinic. “Mental health has been a big focus of ours for years. How we manage stress and anxiety is definitely part of our health programme.” Situated in Alicante, Spain, Sha Wellness Clinic is known for its highly personalised Sha 360 method, which blends modern medicine, nutrition, cognitive stimulation and healing. From holistic to integrative, well-being to active health management, the priorities are now on state-of-the-art facilities, a multi-disciplinary approach that looks to both the East and West, and natural surroundings that accelerate the healing process. The gut, a perennial cornerstone in Ayurveda’s approach to overall health (as anyone who has done a fourteen-day Panchakarma will vouch for) has become the prime central point thanks to an overwhelming interest in the microbiome. Dr Cijith Sreedhar from Kerala’s Prakriti Shakti says microbiome health needs to be managed holistically. “We call it the DREMMER approach,” he explains. “Diet, Rest, Exercise, Mind, Microbes, Environment, and Rhythm.” Raw food, plant-based cuisines, fasting and cleanses are part of managing gut health and boosting immunity.

The Modern Mayr method, which you can experience at Viva Mayr in the Austrian Alps, is making waves among the fashionable set—Sonam Kapoor Ahuja, Anil Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra have all made their way there. The approach at Viva Mayr is medical—the diagnostic standards were set by Dr FX Mayr, who understood that signs of disease or imbalance showed up in posture, skin and gut condition much before the actual symptoms or disease, and could be controlled at that stage. Viva Mayr’s Dr Sepp says, “Dr Mayr focused on how to make the individual gastrointestinal system work as undisturbed as possible. Modern Mayr medicine fuses both traditional knowledge with the most recent diagnostic and therapeutic know-how. We think it is possible to find a strategy and sustainable cure for almost all of modern civilisation’s health problems.” Expect to have sessions on how to chew your food (at least forty times) and if necessary, have an IV drip of targeted vitamins and nutrients while at the centre. According to Dr Sepp, “If you can learn the art of chewing and make this an enjoyable habit, you will feed yourself right, never overdo it and [will be] very unlikely to consume anything that does not agree with your personal health.”

At Atmantan Wellness Centre on the banks of Mulshi Lake a few hours away from Mumbai, the philosophy is not just an absence of disease, but a presence of vitality and meaning in everyday life. Besides longer wellness stays, Atmantan Wellness Centre hosts several movement and functional fitness workshops—a recent one had Bollywood’s ace trainer Yasmin Karachiwala holding a three-day Pilates retreat for practitioners who wanted to work on their form in unpolluted surroundings. Increasing movement and exercise are an integral part of wellness, so don’t expect to spend your days relaxing in bed. Centres now offer different schools of yoga, Pilates, boot camp-style treks or even a power boxing workout, depending on what your body will benefit by.

Today’s wellness traveller is certainly spoiled for choice and destinations. Mind, body, soul, movement, food and inner work can all come together better in unpolluted natural surroundings. New Zealand, the Göcek islands in Turkey, Portugal’s Douro Valley, the Al Hajar mountains in Oman and the Austrian Alps are becoming popular for their clean air and pristine natural surroundings. Old favourites like Ananda In The Himalayas (located in Tehri Garhwal), Fivelements in Ubud, Bali, and Chiva-Som International Health Resort in Hua Hin, Thailand, continue to recalibrate their offerings to match the expectations of their discerning guests. The emphasis is on more individual customisation than ever before, and on lasting lifestyle changes. But will the mix-and-match approach really heal us? “The huge amount of available information [on wellness] is leaving most of us confused,” says Dr Sepp. So it is important to have the correct guidance that works on you individually beyond trends. “People are clearly looking for transformative experience, and not merely pampering ones,” emphasises Bataller. “They understand that they need to live a less stressful life to achieve the best version of themselves, on a continuous basis, to reset themselves.”

Also read:

How to live a more healthful life—tips from a wellness professional

The wellness trends that will be huge in 2019 according to Pinterest

The best wellness retreats and spas to head to for a break from city life