How do you define “well”? What constitutes wellness? “Wellmania” takes us into the lucrative business of the wellness/mindfulness industry and asks what it is we’re really seeking when we step away from the everyday “to seek spirituality in a yoga class, or community on a retreat, or purification through a diet?”
Brigid Delaney begins her book telling us of the self-gratifying lifestyle that constituted her twenties and thirties. She ate and drank herself stupid most nights and seemingly ate whatever was offered. “I went in face-first, eating Americana – baked sweet potato covered in marshmallows and coated in Splenda, with hunks of cola-basted baked turkey for Thanksgiving.” After a number of meals similar to this, numerous drinks and a dash of cocaine, it’s time to change the habits that were fun and frivolous in her twenties and thirties, and shape up for her forties.
Fortuitously Brigid receives an email offering her an assignment back in Australia. Quicker than you can say Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi, she’s booked her ticket for sunny Sydney. The assignment – a 101 day program involving fasting and detox.
“Wellmania” is written in three parts – Clean, Lean and Serene. “Clean” deals with the 101 day fast/detox. This part is fascinating in journaling the ramifications of such a fast. Clears the mind and, at some stages, clears everything else as well. However, it did bring into play how much food and drink plays into our social settings. Some of Brigid Delaney’s anecdotes of her cravings, and how she dealt with them, are both funny and gutwrenching.
“Lean” delves into the realms of yoga. Attendance at yoga retreats here and overseas is becoming as regular as eating. Find an inspirational place, lay your mat, preferably overlooking the ocean, mountains, or some other picturesque setting, and bend that body. “Yoga opens you up. Channels within you that you didn’t know you had (the body within the body) make themselves felt. These channels force you to open and make you feel more loose and alive.” Reading the pros and cons of yoga was intriguing and the interviews with the yoga instructors were enlightening and frightening!
“Serene” enters the world of religious and silent retreats, meditation, back to Ubud for a yoga retreat and finally a retreat called Path of Love. In a 24/7 news-centric world, can we really step aside to be serene, seek peace or are our devices permanently grafted to us?
This book will resonate with anyone over the obsession of being plugged in 24/7. We often decry that we’re too busy, stressed or just plain tired to do what we’d actually enjoy doing. By letting go and learning that it’s ok to take time out and smell the proverbial roses, Brigid Delaney found that serenity, like work and exercise, is something vital once incorporated into our daily lives.
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