Wellness travel trends for 2020 reflect an increasing awareness about health issues and offer a chance to take time out and rebalance in pretty spectacular locations where it would be hard not to heal. From helping women navigate through the menopause to changing our diet, wellness travel trends focus on improving key aspects of our health and wellbeing and that can only be a good thing.

5 Top Wellness Travel Trends for 2020

1. #Mumcation
‘Mumcation’ can be a slightly annoying word but the concept is taking root and now even has its own hashtag. Common sense says that mums need time to recharge and psychology professor Dr Nava Silton made it official in an interview with Fox5NY (2-minute video). A healthy break without children can be essential to a mother’s wellbeing and therefore good for the children too. Whether just indulging in child-free time to read, walk and sleep or immersion in holistic therapies, Mum’s get to focus on themselves free from the day-to-day responsibilities of parenting and ideally return relaxed and refreshed for family life again.

2. Menopause Relief
At long last, there’s a greater awareness and new openness about discussing this old-as-the-hills process women go through. New retreats specifically aimed at helping women with health issues including the menopause, hormonal imbalance and weight gain are gaining momentum. Remember also that meditation, yoga, tai chi and mindfulness can help alleviate symptoms. Hopefully in the future, retreats offering support for menopausal women will be as common as going to a spa for a massage or facial.

3. Sugar ‘Detox’
The harmful effects of consuming too much sugar have been known for many years but there’s a growing awareness about its effects, like bloating, IBS, headaches, lack of energy and weight gain. You can read more about it in our blog on Easy tips for going sugar-free. The new debate also features in our blog on Sugar or fat, which is worse?
If you would like a bit more help reducing or even eliminating sugar from your diet, there’s a range of healthy and detoxifying holidays designed to make it easier to kick the ‘sugar habit’. Detoxing here doesn’t mean going without food just ridding the body of sugar and the cravings that accompany it. If you’re going to go cold turkey why not do it in amazing surroundings nourished by health experts, healthy organic foods and holistic treatments?

4. Sound Therapy
Sound therapy works through the healing power of sound vibration and frequencies. It follows the understanding that all of us have our own natural frequencies (including heartbeat, and other neurological and chemical body functions). When we are exposed to the external frequencies of singing bowls, gongs, tuning forks etc, the natural healing of both the body and mind can begin. For a deeper discussion including my personal experience of this, read our recent blog on sound therapy.

5. Colour Therapy
Similar to sound, light is a frequency; and the various colours in its spectrum have different frequencies. Colour therapy works through the healing power of light vibration and frequencies. It works on the theory that our energy centres, or chakras, throughout our body are activated and rebalanced by colours.
Colour therapy, also known as chromatherapy, has been practised since ancient times. Now an increasing understanding of the benefits of colour therapy is gaining momentum. Some yoga studios steep their classes in colour, sound and even scent, and a new hotel in St Louis, Missouri even has rooms entirely in one colour to channel specific moods, for example, red for passion, yellow for happiness and so on.

Many of the wellness travel trends for 2020 are achievable and sustainable practices, which you can find in our retreats.

Here’s to a happy and healthy year ahead!

Jo Fernandez is a leading UK travel journalist, with much of her career spent working for the London Evening Standard where she was Travel Editor until 2015. Now a freelance travel journalist and copywriter, she lives in Essex and has one daughter. As a travel expert, she still enjoys jetting off to write travel pieces, with favourite destinations including Mexico, Croatia and, of course, Essex.

The post 5 Top Wellness Travel Trends 2020 appeared first on Neals Yard Holidays Blog.

I recently experienced something I had previously been cynical about – sound therapy. And for those who’ve never heard of it, this healing form of sound bath doesn’t involve being bathed in water but in sound or vibrational waves. As I lay on the mat, the therapist played different notes on a series of crystal bowls that are tuned to resonate when hit with certain instruments.
Twenty-five minutes later as the therapist gently ‘woke’ me I opened my eyes. The effect was like a cross between a nap and meditation. My friend claimed I slept as I was tired, however, I felt different, less foggy than usual and she noted my eyeballs were brighter. I felt that for the first time I’d reached a meditative state.

Sound therapy works on the basis that sound can have a profound effect on our neurological and other bodily functions as they have different pulses or rhythms and energy frequencies, e.g. our heart beats to the rhythms of three. Sound therapists use sound frequencies to interact with these in order to enhance and rebalance the body’s energy whether with gongs, drums, bells, bowls, tuning forks or the human voice. See video on sound bath therapy by CBS New York:

Sound therapy is said to help not only physical illness but also to help balance the emotions and quieten a busy mind. Most people feel calm and relaxed following treatment, and also gently energised, often for several days after. Himalayan or Tibetan singing bowls have been used throughout Asia for thousands of years in prayer and meditation.

Nada Brahma: The World Is Sound is a seminal book by Joachim-Ernst Berendt and a fascinating exploration of the importance of music, sound, and vibration for spiritual development. Nada Brahma essentially means that the universe was created from the energy of sound – it’s only the sound that exists in the beginning. Through the book, jazz maestro Berendt explores the musical traditions of diverse cultures around the world, concluding that hearing is at the heart of a more spiritual experience of consciousness. His discussion involving physics, mathematics, myth, and sexuality is also practical, offering readers a variety of techniques for developing the ear as an organ of spiritual perception.

The holistic practice of repeating a mantra or the rhythmic speaking or singing of a word or sound is believed to calm the mind and clear negativity to help create tranquillity and mental purity. Chanting starts loudly, gradually becoming quieter and ends almost silently. This resonates with the energies of the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of our body, to restore inner peace and awaken our latent healing energies.

In this engaging and informative video below, spiritual guru, yogi and author Sadhguru chants the Nada Brahma chant and explains how this resounded across a beautiful glacial lake he visited at Kanti Sarovar in India and also explains its meaning:

Meanwhile, if you feel intrigued to experience it yourself, then you can come on one of the retreats offering sound healing:

Aluna Healings’ Devon retreat is surrounded by woodland, waterfalls and sacred sites in the Dartmoor countryside and holds regular Anima sound healing concerts for an “immersion into sacred space and sonic healing with beautiful, meditative music, Tibetan and Crystal Bowls and sound healing frequencies.”

Aluna Healings’ Scottish retreat offers the same sound healing concerts but in a magical venue encircled by ancient woodland overlooking Loch Torridon in Wester Ross, the Scottish Highlands.

Mellulah Yoga offers a variety of activities and workshops at a tranquil location in rural Dorset including sound healing meditation. Preparations to receive the healing vibrations of the gong begin with breath, mantra and relaxation exercises.

For a deeper exploration of sound therapy, a good place to start is the British Academy of Sound Therapy.

Wishing you good vibrations!

Jo Fernandez is a leading UK travel journalist, with much of her career spent working for the London Evening Standard where she was Travel Editor until 2015. Now a freelance travel journalist and copywriter, she lives in Essex and has one daughter. As a travel expert, she still enjoys jetting off to write travel pieces, with favourite destinations including Mexico, Croatia and, of course, Essex.

The post Sound Therapy: What can it do for you? appeared first on Neals Yard Holidays Blog.