The results have been tallied, and the shortlisted spas for the World Spa and Wellness Awards 2021 have been revealed and we are pleased to announce that Ms. Renate Hermes, Group Director and Wellness Coach at Duniye Spa in the Maldives, has been chosen a finalist for the highly coveted award in the individual category.
Every year, the month of June is marked as Wellness Month. Renate Hermes, Group Spa Director, planned the “Mindfulness at Work” wellness program for the staff this month, which will take place every Monday at 8:00 a.m. and will be facilitated by Renate herself.
The program is designed for the entire team, giving resort employees the option to participate in wellness programs and encourage them to adopt proactive measures for enhanced physical, mental, and emotional well-being at work.
Renate is passionate to promote and increase awareness about the benefits of a healthy team, stressing the link between employee health, employee productivity, and corporate success.
The father of modern mindfulness Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as “ the awareness that arises to paying attention on purpose in the present moment nonjudgmentally in the service of self-understanding.”
The quality and value of mindfulness lie in the moment to moment non-judgmental awareness, to strengthen feelings such as compassion, loving, kindness, self-compassion.
It seems that the term “mindfulness” is often hijacked for various diffuse concepts and trendy terminology in emerging wellness trends. Mindfulness is an ancient, time-proven way of ‘being/doing’- that has been practiced across cultures and centuries. Thanks to the profound work of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn it has found its way into modern mainstream medicine, culture and society.
When things around us seem to disintegrate, we are longing more than ever to find integration, peace and calm. We have a need to connect to our sanity, to our wholeness. We want to feel that we are ok. We are OK.
The quickest way to create a sense of calm and peace is through your body, your breath. Invite your awareness to your breath, observe any sensation you might feel right now, right here. Notice it, let it be, hold it in your awareness, observe it. Thank your breath, thank your body for the miraculous way it takes care of itself. You don’t need to think of breathing. It’s just happening. Simply becoming aware of it, helps us to appreciate it. And expanding our awareness we start to appreciate our wholeness, our integrity. We are ok, despite what is happening around us.
As Spa and Wellness professionals we work at the core of heart-to-heart connections.
We have the privilege to enhance, support and transform the well-being of our clients.
I like to invite you to explore the idea of BEING IN SYNC.
Being in sync refers to coherence between our brain and our heart. Studies of the HeartMath Institute (California, USA), point to a global shift, which is underway, and people are sensing it involves a deeper connection with their heart. This desire for more heart connection is a growing movement, one that people are drawn to by a nudge from their own intuition or conscience to listen to their hearts more and to connect with their inner guidance. The voice or feelings of the heart have been referred to in writings and teachings throughout the millennia. A shift for value-driven mindfulness is emerging.
In day-to-day spa management we align and connect our hearts and minds and connect with others, we awaken the higher mental, physical, emotional and spiritual capacities that frequently lie dormant; we start to work as heart-empowered Individuals (HMI, California).
How could executives or spa managers develop an empowered wellness team? How to create a state of “Being in Sync”?
Beyond multiple training and teaching methods, a new understanding of Coaching emerges and contributes to the transformation of individual and team potential and performance.
As wellness leaders, we have a natural inclination and need to invest in our personal & professional development as we can only give what we have. To effectively coach our employees we ideally have the first-hand experience - we need a coach for ourselves. The experience and understanding of the dynamic and power of the result and solution-focused coaching enable us to develop and set up structures in our business to facilitate individual and team coaching. We become a witness of the miraculous transformation that happens on a personal, team and business level, culminating in increased performance, happiness and satisfaction.
The miracle happens when the employee starts to see the world differently, consequently shows up differently, starts to do things differently and creates different outcomes; outcomes that seemed out of reach before.
At #DuniyeSpa we have launched an innovative group and individual coaching program, to assist our team leaders and managers to do what they thought they Can't do, but deep inside feel they CAN do.
GO - OFFLINE: offline from social media, offline from news, offline from internet surfing.
Why can being offline increase your energy and vitality? Energy flows where focus goes. If your focus is consistently directed outside, then your energy naturally flows there. Valuable mental and physical energy that could support your vitality and sense of peace is given away.
If we direct our mental focus constantly on anything else but ourselves we deprive ourselves of valuable energetic resources. Think about it: how do you feel after watching the NEWS, having browsed endless sites, followed endless social media leads etc... How much value did that give you? How much did this improve the quality of your feelings in that particular moment?
Give yourself the gift of the following challenge:
1. Pick a time of the day where you find yourself "browsing around" without a clear purpose. For example before/after work. I'm suggesting here a time which is not work-related and a time you - deep inside you know - in fact, I don’t need/want to be online now.
2. Interrupt the pattern: you feel the urge to just check the mails, just tweet, or just check it out....; change your mental focus immediately - think about something else: What could that something else be? Anything silly as a pink elephant, what you want to eat for dinner, your next workout, things to put on your bucket list, some of your dreams, a book you wanted to start to read. The point is to see something that creates more quality pleasure and a sense of satisfaction than being online in that moment.
3. Gain control: by interrupting the pattern and re-directing your focus, you start to gain control. In this control lies freedom, as you find yourself filling your time with value and things that might be close to your heart. Maybe, instead, you start reading that book that sits for so long already on your nightstand and reveals some valuable nuggets. Or you use the time and tick a few more things from your To-Do-List. All of a sudden, you realize what delicious quality moments you have added to your day.
Bottom Line: a new stream of energy, a sense of fulfilment or accomplishment may rush through you. Boosting your SELF, becoming the master of your time. Feeling in control also helps to combat a sense of overwhelm, one of the biggest stressors affecting our immune system.
It may sound silly, but try it out. Just being in control and not being controlled by the social media urge gives a great sense of freedom and energy, affecting positively & wholely body.
It's an epidemic. People everywhere are burning the candle at both ends, working long hours into the night while their family and relationships suffer. When they put more effort into relationships and obligations then they feel like they're not present and they're not able to enjoy the moment. These easy ways you can be present will change your life by making you more mindful in everyday moments.
