Today the Global Wellness Summit kicked off in Mexico City. 450 Wellness Thought Leaders from around the globe gathered to share ideas, learn new information, examine possibilities and do their part in planning a better way forward for the health and wellbeing of humanity.
What an exciting city to visit. The day started with a tour of some of the city. There are 151 Museums here, second only to London in the number of museums in one city. Mexico City is also the 6th richest city in the world.
As we drove in last night in our Uber, I got a sense that traffic lights have a different meaning here. Green means go but be careful. Amber doesn't appear to have a meaning. And Red means 'You can go if you really want to go'.
The city has a wonderful buzz to it; up-beat and positive. The people seem to be living their lives. Of course this is a first impression, but it was a powerful first impression.
Mexico City's Angel of Independence
But this morning when I got up and went out for a run, and then later as we went on our tour, something dawned on me. People in this city do not appear to be driven by time. In Australia and the US, we put time on everything. Schedules, duration, travel, deadlines and goals seem to be all based on time and dominated by it.
Here, it seems that time is not so important. And when I look around at some of the astonishing architecture, there is no doubting that the job got done. Was it done quickly> Maybe not, but it got done. Maybe I can learn something from this.
This conference used to be the International Spa Industry conference. Over the past few years it has been evolving and now, for the first time, it has established itself as the Global Wellness Summit. There are people here from the Spa Industry, but there are also healers, educators, scientists, service providers, corporate and workplace health leaders and a variety of innovators and change agents.
It is an exciting group of people.
I was really excited by one session this afternoon where it was revealed how one huger international organisation is shifting its focus in their program delivery away from sole attention on the physical body into a more complete focus on all the elements that make up that person. It is an exciting shift and they have an adventure ahead as it all unfolds, but I can really feel how the world is moving away from worrying about the body looks to placing genuine attention on what makes a person feel deeply happy and good about themselves.
For the next few days I am going to write about the learning, insights and revelations I experience at this wonderful conference.
The organisers from The Global Wellness Institute in Miami have done a wonderful job in bringing this all together. I am excited about the possibilities ahead.
But one final word. This afternoon I heard the best word I have heard for a long time. Kyla Downing from Weight Watchers International referred to herself as a "Possibilitarian". How cool is that word?