Travel for Wellness with Intuitive Healer Dana Childs

Wellness and mindfulness healing are a part of the journey at The Spa at Four Seasons Resort and Residences Jackson Hole, whose partners include Dana Childs, a globally recognized, multi-talented intuitive energy healer, author and educator. According to Dana, travel is the perfect opportunity for this type of transformative experience.

Explains Dana, “We love a vacation because it provides us with time away from our busy days to move slower and connect more deeply with ourselves. Instead of just taking time out of your daily routine, how much magic could happen if you made a conscious effort to use the time to connect to your own self?”

Dana shares five simple practices to help you align with ease during vacation:

• Start your day with a conscious intention. When you wake up, before you get out of bed, decide what you’d like to be consciously in tune with for the day. It may be your own needs, nature, or maybe a partner or child’s feelings. Set that intent and allow it to drive your focus throughout the day. Give yourself a few times, maybe at meals, to bring your awareness back to your intention and see how you are (or are not) staying tuned into it.
  
• Give yourself five minutes of silence. Turn off the background noise. Silence the phone. Ask your family to join in with the silence or at least allow you to have it. Maybe you sit outside or on the couch; most important is to sit in attendance with yourself. In the silence, take stock of how your physical body feels and what emotions are present. Aim to stay out of thought. Sit in silence with yourself for five minutes. It’s a powerful way to come into the present moment.
• Connect with nature. We are nature, and we’re deeply nurtured by connecting with it. Give yourself time outdoors to appreciate it. Take your shoes off and bury your feet in the forest carpet or dip your toes in the cold stream water. Reach out your hand to touch the trunk of the aspen or grace the roughness of the pine. Or kneel to smell the scent of the blooming wildflowers. Allow yourself to feel the aliveness all around you. Allow your senses to open to nature.
• Focus on your needs. So often we get pulled out of alignment or trip into resentment because we spend time trying to make someone else happy. Be sure to focus on your needs and speak them. What would you delight in eating? Do you need a hike to get your blood pumping and your heart singing? Are you yearning for a massage to ease some aches in your body? Do you need a little alone time? As you recognize your own needs, speak them to those on vacation with you and see if there’s a way your needs can be met. Even if the specifics aren’t met, you’ve honoured yourself by connecting to your need and voicing it.
• Play! Plan some activities or outings that feel like pure fun. Maybe you book a treatment at the spa or bring a board game to play with the family. Perhaps you add a little hide and seek into the mix or play “I Spy” in nature. Choose an activity that makes you feel like joyful and excited. Indulge your inner child.