This year’s Global Wellness Day theme announced

This year's Global Wellness Day

Global Wellness Day (GWD) is a day dedicated to living well. Having first started in 2012 in Turkey, it's grown to be a bit of a thing. With changing annual themes that focus on different aspects of living well, the not-for-profit day is a wellness movement designed to bring people together.

This year, event organiser Belgin Aksoy is inviting the world to embrace nature and wellness on Saturday 8th June, under the theme #MagentaNature. It comes following last year's theme #DanceMagenta, which focused on a set of actions centred around dance.

European Spa Magazine says: "#MagentaNature symbolises reconnection with nature, inviting individuals to embrace the transformative power of harmonising with the elements around them."

Focusing on four pillars, actioned by supporters and volunteers, it's intended to be a transformative action plan that connects us to nature in different ways, recognising its inextricable to our health and vice versa. Participants are invited to choose from a variety of activities to celebrate the day, based on those pillars, including:

• Eat natural: focusing on the nourishing elements of natural ingredients.
• Be in nature: Taking the time to step into the calm of the garden, a forest or park and observe its impact on you.
• Protect nature: Take up the mantle of looking after the world around us with sustainable practices in everyday life.
• Be in nature (spiritual): Connect with the natural world through mindfulness, meditation and sitting in the stillness of a natural setting.

Nature and wellbeing

The healing powers of nature are not news to us in themselves. However, as we all become evermore aware of our role when it comes to protecting the environment, and in turn the impact that the natural world has on our wellbeing, more people are asking what they can do to develop a symbiotic relationship with nature.

The 16th-century German-Swiss physician, Paracelsus, once said: “The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician.” Meanwhile, in 2009, a team of Dutch researchers found a lower incidence of 15 diseases amongst those in living environments with more green space in a 1km radius. The relationship was strongest for anxiety disorder and depression.

With that in mind, it's notable that many of us live increasing distances from nature. In 1950 around 30% of the world’s population lived in urban areas. By 2018, that number was 55%, and, by 2050, it will be 68%, according to the United Nations. Broadly speaking, we tend to be less connected to nature than we might once have been.

However, there are ways to get back to it. From parks and gardens to our own window box planters, 'ecotherapy', or 'nature therapy' can be anything from forest bathing to grounding and earthing. In case the term is new to you, the National Institutes of Health, says:

"Earthing (also known as grounding) refers to contact with the Earth's surface electrons by walking barefoot outside or sitting, working, or sleeping indoors connected to conductive systems, some of them patented, that transfer the energy from the ground into the body."

Whether you simply enjoy being in nature or swear by its benefits, this year's Global Wellness Day is all about celebrating, exploring, learning and enjoying what the earth has to offer, and from spa gardens to spa treatments, we're all in.