Why You Need A Wellness Sabbatical

Imagine taking three weeks or more to immerse yourself in a beautiful setting in Bali, Mexico or… Each day you participate in physical activity and movement throughout the day, eat delicious and healthy meals prepared for you and partake in relaxing and stress-reducing treatments. Does this sound too good to be true? What if you could still remain working during this time and that in fact by taking this experience you learn how to balance work and your wellness? This is in fact what a wellness sabbatical does.

What is a Wellness Sabbatical?

A sabbatical is usually time dedicated to a project, and in the case of a wellness sabbatical the project is an immersion into your health and well-being. A Wellness sabbatical is a 3 week (or longer) extended stay at a destination focused on a healthy lifestyle. A key component of a wellness sabbatical is that some connectivity to work is retained throughout the stay. For instance, in and around activities and education sessions, you may dedicate some time each day to work. Wellness destinations provide connectivity, and access to technology. They may even supply work spaces, and support the ability for you to connect to a meeting or conference call.

The concept behind a wellness sabbatical

In today’s pace, we are always on, and working longer hours as a result. Busy-ness became a status a symbol and with it, our time to recharge got shorter and shorter. Spas adapted and developed express services in response to peoples decreased time to relax and renew. Resorts and Destination spas have become places of long weekend and short stays, rather than a week long experience. For many people, their health and happiness are not where they should be or whether they want them to be.

And this was before the global pandemic. COVID-19 has only exacerbated everything as we try to balance work and kids’ online learning. Add to that the shutdowns where we lost access to some of the very places and things we used to do in order to recharge.

The wellness sabbatical is designed to counter the effect of today’s modern living, both pre and post-COVID-19. The wellness sabbatical is designed specifically to help strike a balance between work, wellness and life. Even in the midst of the pandemic a wellness “stay-battical” rather than a wellness sabbatical is on the rise.

What are the Benefits of a Wellness Sabbatical

Its been estimated that 75% of all doctors visits have as their root cause, stress. Stress is a underlying condition for many chronic and preventable diseases. And burnout was officially recognized as a health issue by the World Health Organization in 201X. Being able to hit pause and make wellbeing part of your life is priceless.
Another benefit is the extended stay helps to ensure new wellness habits stick. It usually takes 21 days for a new habit to become wired as a routine in on brains. And spending 3 weeks in an environment supportive to new habits allow them to take hold. This is different than many other wellness trips including destinations spas where after a week, you are back to your normal routine before your new habits have had sufficient time to set.

And of course, being able to finally reach a wellness or fitness goal is another benefit. 21 days spent in the right environment and you might finally lose those last 10 pounds, or shave that time off your mileage, or finally be able to meditate.

You can finally crack the code on longevity. The Blue Zones, researched by Dan B. shares the secrets to longevity. One of them is the right environment, one that is supportive to healthy habits is critical. Spending 3 weeks or longer in such an environment will help you to identify what needs to change in your environment back home to support your longevity.

What to Expect on a Wellness Sabbatical

As stated earlier, a wellness sabbatical is of extended duration. The programming should be flexible but specific enough to meet your specific needs. Generally, it will include the following:

Designed with evidence-based science
In a beautiful and natural setting
Treatments and Activities
- Physical activities
- Healthy food
- Stress reducing treatments
- Meditations
- Quality sleep
Wellness education sessions
Interspersed treatments, sessions and work
Social interactions
Planned outings
Fun!

2020 and Beyond

As we begin to see that we will be working remotely for the foreseeable future sets in people are starting to rethink where they work from. Many are choosing to work from the beach or mountains. They seek healthier locations to work from or seek nature and a wellness in their surroundings. For others it’s the rise of the wellness “stay-bbatical” to help them recommit to their well-being.

As the world opens up again, some countries are even offering long-term work visas for people to work from paradise. Longer stays, especially if required to quarantine upon entry will be more of the norm. All these trends support and are part of the wellness sabbatical concept.

Beyond 2021

As we truly most past the global pandemic wellness sabbaticals will become more popular. Wellness will be more important than ever, especially keeping our immune systems healthy. Stress can lower our immune’s defense and the stress reducing programming in a wellness sabbatical, along with immune boosting foods, and sleep will be important.

The necessity of working from home during the pandemic will give way to the idea that we are ultimately able to work from anywhere. This will marry well with what makes a wellness sabbatical so unique, which is the ability to stay connected during the sabbatical. The ideal balance of work and wellness pursuits.

In addition, workplaces will be more cognizant of the importance of the health and well-being of their employees. Leaders will increasingly be expected to look out for not only their well-being, but that of their teams. Wellness will be a component of leadership development. 25% of Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For already offer sabbaticals to employees and wellness sabbaticals will just become another option to support workplace wellness.