Whether you’re a total wellness convert, or simply flirt on the fringes of longevity and wellbeing, we can all agree that eating right, exercising, getting enough sleep and mastering stress are essential to maintaining good overall health.
At times, there’s nothing more attractive than early morning yoga and a fresh salad to start your day right. At other times, simply maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be an overwhelming challenge, incompatible with the realities of daily life.
At GOCO Hospitality, we try to bridge the gap between our switched-on lifestyles and living in a way that exudes wellness. If properly adapted to our daily routines, healthy living doesn’t need to be grandiose and is simple to achieve.
In reality, whether it’s a guest in a wellness hotel or a member of our team in our Bangkok office, so much of the healthy living message GOCO Hospitality promotes is made up of the small things people do throughout the day. Some so small, many may not even realise they’re practising wellness at all.
Here is a list of wellness hacks we know are easy to implement and significant in results, at both an individual level and for developers looking to improve their guest’s access to wellness amenities.
Enjoy Water
Water is the lifeblood of our existence. For those fortunate enough to have free-flow access to clean water, drinking enough water a day is often seen as an inconvenient necessity rather than a beneficial practice.
From alkaline water that is said to reduce free radicals in the body to plain, regular tap water, starting the day with a re-hydrating glass of water and continuing the trend throughout the day is one of the best ways you can stay healthy, both in mind and in body. Hydrating first thing also helps aid digestion, enhances your skin health and boosts your energy, some argue as much as a cup of coffee.
For hotels, providing fresh mineral water or on-tap alkaline water in-room or in strategic spaces around a property is the first step in encouraging water drinking among guests. Forget two small water bottles in the minibar, provide a refillable bottle that can be topped up anytime, anywhere.
Connect with Nature
Many of us have little to zero interaction with any significant natural element in our average working day in our city-centric lives. Trips to the park at weekends or holidays at the beach feel great not because you’re taking a break, but because you’re surrounded by nature.
Biophilia is the ideas that as humans are still animals at heart, we seek connections with nature and other forms of life. In other words, our modern lifestyles have sped ahead of our innate needs and inherent connection to the natural world.
To balance this negative change in our lives, which is on the whole unavoidable, GOCO Hospitality focuses our expertise on creating innovative biophilic design solutions for our clients, harnessing this affinity to nature in the spaces we spend most of our time. On a personal level, bringing nature inside or bridging the gap between human-made and nature helps create spaces with more natural light and better air quality while also making us happier, helping us recharge and even become more productive.
Ditch the Toxins
Conventional living seems to increase the number of chemicals and toxins in all that we do. Household cleaning products are often full of harmful chemical ingredients, and the food and drinks we consume often are riddled with residual chemicals and pesticides.
Switching as many things as possible to a healthy, bio-friendly alternative is a simple and easy way to reduce your exposure to environmental toxins. The same goes for skincare and personal care products. GOCO Hospitality partners with some of the leading global spa product lines, almost all of which promote concepts of healthy, non-toxic ingredients and philosophies. As the skin is our largest organ, reducing the toxic burden on the body by switching to more natural alternatives can pay dividends for personal wellbeing and overall health.
There are a million reasons why organic food is better for your health and another million social reasons on top of that. Eating healthy, organic foods (ideally locally sourced food where possible) is simply better for your health, the environment and the labour it takes to produce the food in the first place. At GOCO Hospitality, we provide a healthy macrobiotic lunch to our team every day to ensure they eat the best food and are fit for the day ahead.
Adopt Mini-Wellness Practices
In addition to the more significant examples of wellness living tips listed above, there are many mini-wellness practices you can do to boost your wellbeing without much effort at all. Mini-wellness practices mix up your regular routine in a way that can become your everyday routine without noticing – such as taking the stairs instead of an elevator, walking home from the bus stop before your house, stand up and take a stroll every 30 minutes while at work, bask in the sunlight on your lunch break, be kind and practice gratefulness, and simply doing things you enjoy.
From big steps to little changes, incorporating wellness into your daily life is easier than it seems. As the hospitality industry looks towards wellness in more significant ways, the demand for wellness-centric facilities and amenities will also increase.
In conclusion, practising as much or as little that is comfortable is key – as we all know that putting too much pressure on yourself can have a negative effect on personal wellbeing. Practice the wellness in ways you enjoy and transform your spaces into centres of wellbeing where possible, and you’ll notice a change to your overall health and wellbeing in no time.
