Wellness? "The better than Zero Theory"

What is wellness?

Most of us think about wellness as equated with ‘health’, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), Wellness is: ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease.

The notion of wellness may be extended further to include not only physical, mental and social dimensions but also, emotional, cultural, spiritual, educational, occupational, financial, environmental, ethical and existential dimensions.

 As a holistic concept, wellness assumes that if any one of these dimensions is deficient then complete wellness cannot be achieved.

I personally tend to see Wellness from a connection to my world point of view, meaning: Spiritually, socially, physically, and mentally.

I always try to balance all of them whenever possible, I went to the extent of making excel sheets and planning activates to bring all of them at balance, I was aware that most of the times I was gravitating more towards the URGENT and ignoring the IMPORTANT, or the need to plan & execute activities that can bring balance or wellness into my life.

 It was a process of learning, contentious improvement and adaptability, it was hard, but at the end, it was DONE.

 Now I have developed the habits of a healthy lifestyle, which means health & Wellness.

Is our world collapsing? 

New disease & viruses that we never heard of before, stress, violence, and so many disasters. Is the world coming to an end? , Is he trying to tell us something?

Even the distribution of resources, some countries are suffering on a daily basis just to stay alive, and others have an upper scale lifestyle to the extent that they commit suicide due to the extreme boredom of life and lack of meaning!

Pollution everywhere and it’s increasing, as people are totally ignorant of the poisons they are consuming in their food, which is normally communicated in the nutritional facts with a terminology that you can’t even pronounce!

Obesity is increasing, and it seems to be the common problem for the highest majority of people,

We talk about it over lunch, TV, and social media and we make jokes about it as well !

Overwhelming and conflicting information chasing us everywhere about what we should eat and what is good for our health and most of it are commercial ads and not backed up by science.

 Unqualified personalities are acting as Health coaches, injecting wrong information & myths about achieving a healthy body & perfect health with the least amount of effort possible!

And when you don't achieve your goals you think that there must be something wrong with you, and you go ahead and try another fad or a quick fix diet and you fail again. “yes you are right so annoying” :)

Even the climate is acting in a very unusual way, no one understands what is going on, but for sure we all know by now that this is the natural response of all the harm we have done to our planet since we came here a while ago.

So what the Spa industry is doing about Wellness?

In the old days, the Spa word was associated with luxury, pampering, wealthy, baby boomers, etc.

Today is another world; The Spa has taken many shapes, styles, categories to serve different purposes.

People now travel overseas to have a Spa break, or a Spa retreat or a Wellness Journey, Which is our subject to discuss here.

So many Spa brands have sensed the need to develop a Wellness concept to meet the current needs for life-changing experiences, which can be easily offered in a hotel or resort environment.

When combing all the elements you have within your hotel /Resort such as:

Accommodation: sea or lagoon view, Mountain View, or even desert view.

Recreation=Beach & pool, Gym, fitness classes.

F&B: Healthy menus, Vegan menus, Gluten free items. Healthy cooking classes.

Spa: Water facilities, Wellness treatments, Yoga, meditation, and more.

Imagine you combine all those elements to design a transformational Wellness journey customized to your guests, and today with the technology and ease of communication you can easily get all the information you require to know about your guest prior check-in through email or online survey, and you will be able to prepare their customized program in advance.

When it comes to pricing, there are always options, and fantastic value compared to price.

You just need to check online reviews and ensure you are actually getting what you are paying for and online reviews most of the time never lie :)

So which Wellness concept is Right?

There are so many different Wellness theories and I personally believe that they have all come from the same root or foundation, everything around us is made up of energy, and we are energy.

When you start from this point and focus on how you can bring your energy which is the most important point as you can’t change the world unless you start by yourself, you need to ask this question:

 “how can I have positive energy?”, Get the answer and work backwards.

For me it’s very simple, no matter what theory I believe that works or make sense, I just monitor my feelings, So when it comes to wellness I do whatever makes me happy, if it’s a fitness time, meal time or even vacation time, I just do whatever make me smile and never ever look at my watch or attempt to keep track of time “This is my Theory” of wellness, I love Ayurveda, Zen, Chinese medicine, but I didn’t apply any of them exclusively, I’ve taken what I like or in another word “practical” to apply on my daily life consistently and just kept on improving and refining my own life concept, or Afrah’s concept.

You can make your own Wellness concept too, the most important is that you don’t fool yourself, don’t try to follow a healthy lifestyle 5 days a week, or 11 months a year.

Life has rules and if you try to break them or cheat them, you will be only breaking yourself and cheating yourself. 

Mr. World, Thank you for your call 

I can say with confidence that people all over the world have come to realize what they have done to their own world, We have forgotten our nature and tried so hard to break free from nature, moving from the field of farming to the industrial field, and slowly to the human free world full of machines, and very soon a driver free- car all over the world, the first one have been tested already and it was successful! I was not excited at all by this news.

 However, I see something positive here, do you mean instead of me driving my car at least 2 hours daily to work, I can now utilize this time reading or maybe planning my day or looking over my notes or even meditating? :)

If I look at the situation we are in, in a positive way, I can say yes even if the world is going crazy we still can run or walk in the street, we can swim in the sea, we can jump rope, we can mediate and all this can happen for free by the way, so don’t tell me I can’t afford a Gym membership. So it’s YOUR choice.

I go to the gym 4 times a week because I like training with weights, and I like to build my body “muscles” which keep my body functional, young and healthy.

I do make cardio after each workout at least 45 mints, most of my workouts are in a fasted state to burn more fats.

Don’t think I was born this way, It took me years to bond and grow love with the Gym as I prefer to be outside, However, this option is not so practical in where I live, “Dubai”. J Yes it’s hot most of the year :)

Where to start? “The better than Zero Theory”

I personally believe, something is better than nothing, if I wake-up feeling lazy or have no time for a 90 minutes workout, I’ll do 45 minutes, but at least I didn’t accept the Zero J

Simplify your life and breakdown everything that seems huge to you, if your goal is to lose 10 kg, Please don’t set a goal of losing them in 1 month when you have gained them over 2 years or more.

Take a step and the rest of the way will unfold in the right time, be sure that as long as you are on the right track you will reach your destination. That's for sure guaranteed :)