21st Century chaos – are you being affected?
We’re delighted to present this article from guest author – Neil Whyte, Co director of Natures Paradise Health Retreat and Spa. Neil’s extensive experience offers insight into how to deal with modern day stress.
Our most popular retreat at ‘Natures Paradise Health retreat and Spa’ is our ‘Stress free retreat’ which is a clear indicator of the 21st century challenges.
People are increasingly stressed. This appears odd in many ways as we have so many more conveniences now than any other century which apparently has made our lives ‘easier’ along with many other advancements in technology. Shouldn’t we be happier?
We often hear the term ‘time poor’ mentioned by many of our guests. However, everyone had the same number of hours per day throughout history, and again with all the conveniences, why do we have people ‘time poor’? It has been said by many that the city of New York moves faster which in turn creates a ‘hectic pace’. However New York moves no faster than anywhere else on planet Earth. This is all just personal ‘perception’.
Our professional opinion is that there is no such thing as being ‘time poor’. There is however, an issue with how you manage your own time along with how you react and behave to life’s circumstances and challenges.
People who live in populations who are the healthiest and longest (Blue Zones) have plenty of relaxation and minimal stress. They also often live in an environment that makes their lives easier and far more natural. This is in far contrast to the city life in which the vast majority of people live.
There are many ways in which we can manage stress and strive to greater contentment. However, we have had a growing problem in the 21st century in that more and more people are becoming disconnected from nature and themselves as a human being. We have more and more chaos – not knowing how to balance our lives in a rather artificial world. Human’s enjoy social connections, natural food, natural movement, sunshine, nature etc. However, the modern world has gradually thrusted the complete opposite upon humanity making it increasingly difficult to be ‘human’. We are sitting way too much inviting sedentary living; we eat copious amounts of junk food and insufficient plant food; we stay indoors too much with insufficient Vitamin D from the sun; we are spending a lot of time on digital devices; we are isolating ourselves more and more, including ultimately placing ourselves in retirement villages and nursing homes.
We believe that every person needs to invest two things into their ‘wellness lifestyle’ to improve a healthy life balance – time and money. The latter only needs to be a small amount but others may spend more.
The ‘time’ factor includes dedicating time along with conscious effort in those elements of wellness that make you happy and content. This might be going for walks, joining a friendship group, learning new healthy recipes and more. The ‘money’ factor is investing in improving personal wellness and knowledge which may include investing in joining a health club, books, courses, retreats, home exercise equipment, massage etc.
Most people today are not investing enough time or enough money into their personal wellness. Therefore the result is what we see in the community with high rates of obesity/overweight, cancer, type 2 diabetes, High blood pressure, Heart disease etc. The vast majority of these diseases are preventable or at the very least should be delayed as they are all too often occurring too early in people’s lives.
When guests come to our health retreat (since 2013) we like to think we can support them during this current 21st century chaos and reconnect again as a human being. Our retreats are not ‘group retreats’ but rather one on one intensive and more personalised with highly trained professionals in their own specialist fields including Human movement, meditation, naturopath, massage, etc.
To a healthy balanced lifestyle.
Neil Whyte
Co director – Natures Paradise health retreat and spa.
Details of the Natures Paradise Retreats
Dates: Personalised retreats offered all year round
Address: Purpose-built Adult’s Health Retreat, 2621 Weir Village Rd, Mundaring 6073, Western Australia, just 45 minutes from Perth
Email: info@naturesparadise.com.au
Website: https://www.naturesparadise.com.au/
About Neil
You’ll find a range of retreats on our Retreat Me Happy website offered by some amazing experts in the industry.
Author: The Retreat Lady
Sarah Willmott, founder of Retreat Me Happy is passionate about making Retreats accessible to everyone. She specialises in helping Retreats reach a wider audience by creating this online platform. By day Sarah sends care packages to help people feel better (she owns Feel Better Box) and by night she builds this website to help you find your perfect retreat.
