From indigenous rituals and empowerment retreats to a yoga festival—renew, restore, and reconnect to your best self.
By Michelle Williams
It’s no wonder wellness vacations have increased in popularity. Today’s fast-paced lifestyle keeps us in constant fight mode, exposing us to toxins, noise, and electromagnetic radiation, among other nuisances. Travel is an act of letting go, and an opportunity to renew, and invigorate one’s system—mind, body, and spirit.
With its pristine natural environment, Belize is fast becoming a haven for restoration and healing. From isolated cayes to wildlife-rich waters, and rainforests packed with natural remedies, it’s the ideal destination to reset your system while communing with nature. Opportunities for a wellness vacation incorporate the latest trends from around the world, while combining natural resources, and unique remedies. Spas, a yoga festival, and detox retreats are just a few of the transformative experiences you’ll find here that will open up your heart, mind, and soul, and nurture your personal growth and healing.
The spa experience
Resort spas and wellness centers around the country offer treatments inspired from ancient Maya wellness rituals, and from around the world. Natural holistic alternatives such as tropical fruit facials, body wraps, and body scrubs are replacing chemical peels and invasive treatments. Pure and plant-sourced products are combined with traditional recipes for deeply nourishing, long-lasting beauty. Nearly every treatment is freshly prepared from raw ingredients to provide your skin with a nutrient-rich food. Cucumbers are sliced to create hydrating facial masks, salt crystals are blended with local virgin coconut oil for body scrubs, aloe vera and lime are combined for the revitalizing bath rituals, and raw Belizean chocolate is warmed for body masks.
Spa menus include deeply relaxing healing massages, and detox and stress relieving therapies such as Reiki, reflexology, Thai Vedic Yoga bodywork, Ayurvedic consulting and walking massages, ear candling and cupping therapies, pre– and postnatal care, traditional Chinese acupuncture, and laser acupuncture. All of these synchronize intuitive body and energy work to identify, balance, and heal. Traditional Hatha and Astana, power yoga, restorative, Yin yoga, and aerial Yoga attract visitors and locals alike. Outdoor yoga options include SUP yoga, sunset or sunrise beach yoga, and classes set in Belize’s lush rainforests or on ancient Maya temples.
Wellness activities
Belize boasts year round activities involving movement, creative expression, and self-awareness. Participants are taught to recognize that optimal wellness comes from embracing and respecting the body, mind, and spirit. This creative form of personal and spiritual growth promotes a deeper connection with the inner core, empowering participants with new ways to balance their external life choices and to experience newfound trust, freedom, and joy.
Divorce Coaching and Yoga Retreats: For this latest and much needed trend in wellness vacations—hosted this year in San Pedro—local internationally certified divorce coaches and yoga teachers incorporate yoga, meditation, and mindful living, as well as minimalism.
Empowering Women’s Health Yoga Retreats: Embracing the feminine and connecting women to their bodies through yoga is at the crux of these retreats. This is done by reconciling the two principles of understanding and feeling, with practices to help every woman harmonize their relationship with their bodies, cycles, and habitual patterns. Specially designed menus incorporate veganism and macrobiotic cooking, with daily doses of ancient Belizean herbal tonics.
Detox Retreats: Caffeine, alcohol, and preservatives, as well stress, anxiety, and negative thought patterns are major toxins. Detox retreats allow the physical and emotional body to rest. Belize’s remote locations, such as private islands escapes or rainforest getaways, offer visitors a chance to rest and rejuvenate. Detox retreats are offered at a vegan resort in Corozal, a spa resort in Placencia, and a yoga retreat location on Ambergris Caye.
The Belize International Yoga Festival (BIYF): The first of its kind in Belize and the region, BIYF is a signature fundraising event for the nonprofit Rhythm of Change Belize. Held the first weekend of December, this family event brings together yoga and meditation practitioners and aspirants, vegan and vegetarians, and the general public from around to world for soulful moments of wellness, healing, relaxation, and reflection. The third edition of BIYF will be held on December 1, 2018, at Harbour View Greens in Belize City. For more information, visit www.yogahealsbelize.com
Wherever you travel in Belize, these wellness activities, retreats, and treatments, combined with our pristine outdoors and vibrant cultures, will renew, restore, and reconnect you to your best self.
