exponentially responsible for our health
and the way we age. In other words, the
way you age is very much up to you.
Some of my favorite studies on aging
are coming out of the exciting work of
Dan Buettner and his Blue Zone research.
He has looked closely at the areas around
the world with the highest populations of
centenarians and derived the nine core
lifestyle characteristics all these cultures
and people share. Beside healthy plant-
based diets and lots of physical activity,
one of the very top and essential lifestyle
behaviors they all engage in is relaxation.
These cultures have lifestyles that promote
a calm and peaceful pace of living.
Relaxation time is a cultural norm that is
highly valued and widely practiced.
Many people in Western cultures don’t
even know how to relax. They think
watching TV is relaxing, but television
viewing stimulates our brains and is often
filled with stressful content and images. It
seems no one in our modern culture
knows how to just do nothing. For our
health and longevity, we need to learn to
stop, breath and be.
Someone should create an industry
focused on creating a calm environment
that guides people in the art and practice
of relaxation. Oh wait, they did. It is the
spa industry!
Spas teach and provide a sacred space
for the longevity lifestyle practice of relax-
ation. Spas are uniquely positioned and
qualified to reduce stress, induce relax-
ation and, thus, enhance longevity. Spas
are an essential part of the lifestyle
medicine movement.
What spas can do
The task at hand for the spa community is
twofold: teach people what stress is on a
physiological level and guide people in the
art and lifestyle practice of relaxation.
According to the 2016 ISPA Consumer
Snapshot Study, the number one reason
millennials cite for visiting spas is stress
reduction. Spas are in the business of
stress reduction and promoting relaxation,
so the perfect opportunity exists to
rebrand the benefits of many spa services
as lifestyle medicine and a key practice in a
longevity lifestyle.
It is essential for spa staff to have a
strong working knowledge of both stress
physiology and relaxation physiology so
they can not only articulate it to clients,
but also educate and inspire spa clients on
how to maximize their visit. Every
massage should include an educational
component about how to engage your
mind, not only your body, in attaining a
deep state of physiological relaxation. It
should be standard practice to guide every
client in how to maximize the health
benefits of their services by paying
attention to their inner dialog and directing
it to enhance a calm mind/body state.
The spa industry has had many renais-
sances, and an exciting one is upon us
again. The science of healthy aging and
longevity is clear. Managing and
decreasing stress consistently and effec-
tively will improve multiple markers for
health, and is directly correlated to greater
life expectancies.
Spas offer essential lifestyle medicine.
The spa industry should capitalize on the
profound added value their services offer
clients’ health. Sixty percent of every
doctor’s office visit has a stress-related
component associated with it, most of
which go unaddressed by physicians. It is
the spa environment, culture and ethos
that is ideally positioned in our modern
world to create this haven of relaxation.
Certainly, we don’t have a corner on the
market, but we do have a large share of
the pie. We need to feel confident in our
ability as an industry to recognize the
deeper value of our services and we need
to help our clients recognize it, too. n
December 2017
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