I’ve only recently begun to understand the power of my words, manifestation, and how to define my future with clear intention. In early October 2019, I stood up from my desk after a frustrating call with client and huffed, “I need a week in South Korea”. To my surprise, within a week I was contacted by the Korean Tourism office about a possible campaign highlighting their wellness properties. Yes, yes, yes!How could one say no to a week of wellness activities in a country that I fell in love with only a year before? But this trip would be quite different from my visit to Seoul in 2018. No fashion week runways, no tasting menu accompanied by wine pairings from South Korea’s best sommelier, no dancing until dawn. In fact, I’d be waking up with the dawn to enjoy wellness experiences like nature hikes, spa treatments, and meditation exercises meant to cure anything that ailed you.While en route to my wellness tour in South Korea, I thought back to a presentation that I had heard over a year ago on the other side of the world. At ILTM in Cannes, Anna Bjurstam, founding member of Global Wellness Summit, discussed wellness travel, its growth, and offered a name for that transformative thing that can happen while on a wellness tour. This transformative thing, which Anna termed a “wellness gateway”, typically occurs while we’re on a relaxing vacation, health retreat, or nature excursion far from the demands of our daily lives.

My wellness gateway in South Korea began at Vista WalkerHill, a luxury hotel nestled in the Achasan mountains just outside the bustling city center of Seoul. With panoramic views of the Han River, I enjoyed an invigorating foot spa, some much-needed laps after a long flight, a couple of vigorous hikes to the hills nearby, and my favorite – a private soak in a cypress hot tub under the light of a full moon. Time to define my future with clear intention!Our next destination led us a few hours outside of Seoul, the perfect setting to escape from the fast pace of urban life. A stop at Museum SAN, the name a homage to Space, Art, and Nature, beckoned me into a dome that was designed to represent both a womb and a tomb. As the meditation music melded with the tinkle of tiny raindrops, I felt worlds away from any stress.Museum SAN was the perfect transition to our wifi-free mountain retreat at Healience Resort. As we ventured further into the Wonju mountain range, I couldn’t help but marvel at the magnificence of the tall trees in all of their fall glory. Who knew that the next morning these same trees would lead me to happy tears, a pleasant side effect of this forest bathing experience amongst the statuesque Korean pines. More meditation and mindful eating followed in this resort designed to help you go within. Into that endless well of wellness inside of you. But how to tap into that source? Our tour guide had the perfect answer: a visit to Jeju Island, home of South Korea’s first health and wellness resort, WE Hotel. WE, standing for “water energy”, is appropriately named after the healing properties of the high grade mineral water used in all of their treatments.

But treatment is an understatement to what I experienced at this wellness resort. A crystal sound bath was first on the agenda. As I relaxed on the floor, intense sound waves reverberated through my body. Earlier in the week, each of the tour participants had to choose a word to describe the mood after our forest bathing among the powerful pines. “Release”, I said. It seemed to envelop my feelings at that moment, and where I was at in my life overall. Ready to release the past, partial relationships, and previous disappointments. It was time.Tears flowed endlessly. My body shook. This symphony of sound waves moved through every cell, clearing the chaos. It was as if I was both orchestrating it and a participant, as I watched a translucent figure rise up and out of my body. Pain leaving. 

A water massage awaited. Submerging into the soft touch of the water, I followed my therapist’s lead as he held me like a baby, pushing and pulling my body through the warm pool. After a delicate dance of therapeutic poses that left every limb loose, he lifted my cushy corpse up and out of the glowing water, leaving behind any remnant of discomfort. He held me up for what seemed like an eternity, but was really only a magical moment suspended in time. Offering me up to some higher plane, the gateway to my inner well.

Wellness never felt so complete! Of course this release didn’t happen like the flip of a switch. Harboring pain in different areas of my body, mind, and spirit had been a gradual process which required an even more paced and tender approach to the healing that was taking place on this wellness tour in South Korea.Renewed with an assured aura and attitude, I now felt like stress would just slide off and out of me. As our wellness tour closed at the mega-spa in Paradise City Seoul, full of over a dozen treatment pools, stone therapies, water slides, and endless options for both relaxation and fun, I thought about how I could continue along my wellness path back home.On my return flight home, I realized that we are our best healers. Once we discover our inner wellness source, which exists in all of us, the opportunities for healing are endless. And it’s exactly what modern medicine doesn’t want us to know. Pharmaceuticals, prescription pills, and addictive drugs, whether it is in our food or prescribed by a doctor, all prevent us from becoming our own holistic healers. Whether it’s Coca-cola, codeine, or cocaine, it is designed to prevent you from becoming your best self.

Find those opportunities to tap your inner well. Go on a nature hike this weekend, book a spa vacation to Seoul, or download a meditation app. Foster those moments for wellness. Open up the gateway.