Changing things up
August 20, 2024 - Transformative travel is a loaded term, but there is truth to it if you welcome it. Our Wellness Pioneer, Anna Bjurstam, shares how curiosity leads to change that lasts beyond the travel memories.
“Transformation” is hard to define and even harder to promise. Over the years, we have been exploring how to create the right conditions for transformation to take place in both scripted and unscripted ways. According to our Wellness Pioneer, Anna Bjurstam, things will shift. You just have to remain open to it.
“We can build the stage and, to a certain extent, like a DJ at a summer festival, build the energy,” she says, “but the performance is up to you. We simply want you to leave in a better place than when you arrived, having found some kind of insight that will help you bring that experience back to your everyday life, if you’re so inclined.”
On the forefront of wellness for the past 25 years, Anna Bjurstam is herself an avatar of transformation. With a master’s in finance and a background in sports and fitness, Anna has since delved into the world of energy medicine, seamlessly combining business, spirituality, and wellness into her work.
Change the way you see yourself
Just as transformation is not passive, travel can only serve as a catalyst for you to don your butterfly wings and fly. That’s why we take great care in building unique travel experiences that have the power to make you go hmmm. It doesn’t matter how long or short your stay. For Anna, travel can promote transformation because it transcends your everyday interactions, leading to an openness to new questions and possibilities.
“We try to offer moments that lead to some form of insight. This could occur during a fire ceremony or sound healing journey, where you shortcut the thinking brain to embody an inner realization that comes from your heart. You could pick up one of our conversation cards at a communal dinner table and enter a whole new world of ideas or shift stuck thoughts or preconceptions thanks to someone you’ve only just met. Or it could come from a Wellness Screening that gives you real data about what’s going on inside you. In a short space of time, we can sow a seed with someone. In a longer space of time, we can help them build whole habits as they commit and feel the difference.”
Change the way you see others
Our wide range of wellness retreats – often unusual and unexpected – complement the beautiful surroundings and wellness lifestyle our properties promote. In a retreat setting, you can tap into the energy and vibe of the people around you, putting the “we” into “wellness” while consciously ensuring you don’t let self-care drift by planning ahead and carving out some “me time” this upcoming season.
From cathartic Sanctum adventures at Six Senses Crans-Montana in the Swiss Alps to harnessing your inner power and pleasure at Six Senses Ibiza or Growing a New Body with Dr. Alberto Villoldo at Six Senses Kaplankaya on the crystalline shores of the Aegean, connect with a new tribe who will lift you to new heights.
“What I have seen time and again is that when you come to a group setting without judgement, you automatically share stories and energies,” Anna continues. “Besides what you learn from your retreat leaders, you learn so much from each other, and that energy of learning, sharing, holding space for each other, and being vulnerable creates a shortcut from the thinking mind and offers insights you wouldn’t have had before. The theme, topic, or science may be new, but the need for community and connection is primal. That’s why our commitment to reconnect people to themselves, others, and the world around them is more relevant now than ever. This is where we can make a real difference,”
Change the way you see the world around you
Receive a blessing from monks during a butter lamp ceremony in a remote mountaintop monastery in Bhutan. See Oman or Saudi Arabia through a woman’s eyes. Volunteer your time to help a local marine or community initiative – and here we mean not just observing local but getting a sense of it and feeling a part of it. A shake-up experience can start as something simple but end up as profoundly transformative through feeling a genuine and personal connection.
Transformative travel doesn’t have to be out-of-the-ordinary (although that is our specialty). Sometimes all it takes is a new food adventure or a little bravery to overcome the fear of appearing “silly” and embrace our welcome rituals and fire ceremonies.
“The power of a transformational experience is to hold on to it once you go back to your life, so it doesn’t pass you by,” Anna concludes. “After all, it’s not transformative unless it stays with you. I find journaling can be effective. And following a group experience, check-ins with the others are helpful to discuss how we have applied what we have learned.”