Do women really need a 'wellness week'?

The idea has been created by Spabreaks.com, alongside charity Willow, to “highlight and encourage discussion around issues affecting women’s physical and emotional wellbeing, with the aim of encouraging women to prioritise their health by taking a little time each day to do something for themselves.”

Of course, we all need to look after our health. I just can’t help but feel that an entire week dedicated to women’s wellness is, well, a bit vague.

As much as I enjoyed my massage, surely women struggling with physical and emotional health issues need more than a spa weekend to rejuvenate them? And shouldn't the emphasis be on long-term wellness, rather than just one week?

“Women's wellness is vital,” says Akcelina Cvijetic, a life coach, nutritional therapist and hypnotherapist, who counts celebrities like Goldie Hawn among her clients.

“When we take care of our health needs, we feel more emotionally and physically resilient.  This makes us more resourceful and better equipped to manage life's challenges. Having women's wellness week is a great opportunity for women to raise their level of awareness and address their wellness needs.”

But what exactly does that mean? It’s all very well encouraging women to be more self-aware and resilient, but on a practical note, what should we be working on?

“Improved sleep, nourishing foods, energising exercise, quality me-time, effective stress management, hormonal balance and emotional support,” says Cvijetic, adding: “Hence why we need a week.”

A lot more work, then, than just lying down and being pummeled. But, judging by the women I know, are already so time-poor that having to dedicate hours to trying to improve our diets, sleep patterns, exercise and hormonal balance (however you go about doing that) just seems like more emotional labour to add to the ever-growing list.

This, however, is exactly why people like Cvijetic and Alix Hubble, founder of women’s health coaching company Chick Fit, are so on board with the idea of Women’s Wellness Week.

“The fact is that women still tend to pick up the lion’s share of work around the home - whether or not they have children,” says Hubble, who works with women “coping with jobs, home admin, and also having to deal with childcare issues that allow them to go out and work. As a result they are stressed, they are on-the-go constantly, and often that means they’re not really looking after themselves properly, and even when they do, there is a certain amount of guilt associated with taking time out.”

To her, “encouraging women to make their own wellness a priority, surely has to be a vital part of ensuring that society as a whole operates at it’s best” an - to sceptics like me - she says: “I think that wellness can be interpreted in different ways. A lot of people think it’s all about massages and spas, but actually, I think it’s more about finding ways to slow down a little bit.

“For me, it’s just as much about cutting back on all the things you say 'yes' to and making sure you have clear time in your diary where you can just do the simple things like go for a walk, read a book, enjoy a coffee with friends. It’s about not asking so much of yourself all the time, cutting yourself a little bit of slack, and looking for ways to gradually improve your life, health and wellbeing - rather than expecting yourself to change overnight and do everything at once.”

This cutting down on a to-do list rather than adding to it, is the sort of wellness I could get on board with. I statt to wonder whether, much like mindfulness was dismissed as ‘new-age nonsense’ before its many mental health benefits were understood (to the point where it is now taught in British schools to children), people like me are stopping stressed-out women from getting the permission they need to take time out.

Up to half a million people in the UK suffer from work-related stress, depression or anxiety, costing the economy £2.4 billion a year, and one in four people experience a mental health problem each year. Women are twice as likely to have anxiety disorders – though suicide rates are highest among young men.

If Wellness Week can encourage some of these people to seek help, or even just get some head space to improve their mental health, then perhaps it’s not such a bad thing after all. And as Desiree Ashton, head of client delivery at The Wellbeing Project points out, perhaps men should have their own week, too.

“As important as this is for women, it’s equally important for men,” she stresses. “Sadly, in today’s 24/7 world, we’re often too busy ‘doing’ to give enough time to understanding what ‘being’ means for us.  Taking time out to recalibrate is an act of self-care that we can all benefit from.”

I knew it would be impossible to write about wellness without coming across the term "self-care", which has gone from being a millennial synonym to a way of life, with endless TED talks hailing its benefits.

It, too, can sound like another justification for mani-pedis and overpriced green juice, but, as the experts repeatedly explain, it’s so much more. Katie Bressack, a women’s wellness expert in LA, says self-care is a major component of wellness.

“It can be as simple of taking a five minute walk, which is just as important as eating healthy foods and keeping stress levels down. It all helps to keep our hormones balanced which helps with our energy levels, cravings and our confidence. Spas and luxury are amazing, of course, but you can easily make small fundamental changes that add up to a healthy lifestyle, and supplement with self-care when you have the time and means to do so.”

Put like that, self-care sounds more like a reminder to check up on your general health, and Bressack says that’s exactly it. Women should use wellness week to make sure they’re meeting their basic needs – a message that, really, it's tough to argue with.

Wellness might be framed on Instagram as a consequence of drinking cold-pressed juice and doing high-intensity gym workouts, but really it’s just a 21^st century’s way of discussing our physical and emotional health, and making sure we avoid burnout.

“The main thing,” adds Bressack, “is to try and make your health and wellness just as much of a priority as everything else in your life, because the truth is that you can always make more money, more friends, and so on, but if you neglect your health, there is no replacement.”

Women’s Wellness Week is from 18 – 22 September