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“If we really want to make an impact as an industry, we
have to...dig into how we can deliver wellness in the spas
that the majority of spa-goers are familiar with—the
friendly neighborhood day spa.”
few places left where you can go to have a moment of calm.
I think of spas as “a vacation for the mind.” We offer time
and space where people can escape from technology and
enjoy a moment of silence. Deborah Szekely, in her remarks at
this year’s ISPA Conference said: “We all need time for intentional silence.” This time can be used for contemplation,
personal reflection, or mindfulness meditation. Or perhaps,
just to give the mind a break from a world that is characterized by a torrent of never-ending information to be processed.
We can nudge our clients toward a healthier
lifestyle. Let’s be realistic. We can’t provide the same trans-
Here’s what I came up with—three things that we can do
in any spa to enhance well-being:
We can make people feel good. Spas do something
that no other healing institution in our society does: provide
healing that feels good. There is no other health institution
that people look forward to visiting or enjoy their time at like
they do at the spa.
The research shows that positive emotions, in the right
dose, are good for our health. They expand our hearts and
minds, opening us up to new experiences and helping us to
learn and grow. They help us to build stronger social networks
(also linked to health and longevity) and encourage us to participate in healthier lifestyle behaviors. These positive
emotions buffer us from stress, helping us to react to stressors
less often, less strongly, and to recover more quickly.
Most of us, when we think about wellness, say “spas are
about more than just making people feel good.” But making
people feel good is important—and we do that pretty well.
We can provide a time and a space for mindfulness. I believe that mindfulness will be the big wellness trend
of the next decade. In a world of increasing urbanization,
increasing speed and increasing technology, spas are one of the
formative experience in one hour, which the destination