Wellness Travel: My Stay at CIVANA Resort

Preparing for the Leap of Faith at CIVANA

For years, wellness travel was often associated with spa vacations, yoga retreats and perhaps a green juice or two. I happen to enjoy all three, but my interest in wellness travel goes much deeper.

Before becoming a travel advisor, I spent more than a decade working as a licensed acupuncturist in behavioral healthcare. My work included helping people explore the connection between physical and emotional well-being through practices such as breathwork, nutrition, stress management and healthy lifestyle choices. Today, that background influences the way I think about travel. 

My background didn't disappear when I changed careers. Today, as a travel advisor with a growing focus on wellness travel, it influences how I think about the experiences I recommend to my clients.

I experienced this firsthand during a three day stay at CIVANA Wellness Resort & Spa in Carefree, Arizona. CIVANA offers an extensive schedule of wellness experiences, from yoga, fitness and outdoor activities to mindfulness, personal growth, nutrition and an expansive spa. What stayed with me most, however, wasn't the number of activities available. It was how intentionally those experiences were designed. CIVANA gives guests the freedom to create a wellness experience that feels entirely their own.

Some of my favorite classes during my vacation involved journaling and self-reflection, including an intention burning ceremony. We identified thoughts or patterns no longer serving us, wrote them down and watched them burn away.

But, one of my most memorable CIVANA experiences was appropriately called the Leap of Faith. It involved climbing to the top of a very tall telephone pole, standing on top of it, and jumping off! If that doesn't immediately sound like wellness to you, I understand. 

The physical challenge was only part of it. Our wellness guides asked us to consider what the jump might represent. A new opportunity we were afraid to pursue? A self-limiting belief we could leave behind? A place where we needed to trust ourselves enough to take the next step?

Standing at the top, I was terrified. My heart was pounding, and I had already convinced myself I couldn't do it. Then my wellness guide reminded me to slow down and breathe. So I did. I became present with what I was feeling, remembered why I had climbed up there, and I jumped!

There isn't one right way to experience travel designed to promote well-being. At its core, wellness travel is travel designed to support your physical, mental or emotional well-being, whether wellness is the purpose of the entire trip or simply one meaningful part of it.

For one traveler, a wellness vacation might mean a dedicated wellness resort focused on nutrition, fitness, sleep, stress, mindfulness or personal growth. Another might want an exceptional spa, daily yoga and healthy dining within a traditional vacation. Someone else may feel most restored hiking, disconnecting from technology or simply having several days when very little is expected of them. Either way, it's about discovering new practices that help you feel better long after the trip is over.

When planning a meaningful wellness vacation, I ask each of my clients an important question: How do you want to feel when you come home? Rested? Stronger? More connected? Inspired? Adventurous? Completely unplugged? Maybe you simply need to have fun, be spontaneous and make as few decisions as humanly possible.

Those answers matter because the right wellness experience isn't necessarily the resort with the longest spa menu or the most fitness classes. It's the experience that gives you more of what you need and less of what you don't.

My healthcare background, travel experience and personal interest in physical and emotional well-being give me a unique perspective on these trips. Wellness can be physical, emotional, social and deeply personal. Sometimes the right travel experience can become a catalyst for change, whether you bring home a new practice, a different perspective or simply a greater awareness of what makes you feel better.

And apparently, sometimes that happens while standing on top of a giant telephone pole wondering why on earth you agreed to climb it just to jump off!