By Staff Reports
(Hawaii)– As a seasoned journalist in the travel and wellness space, Annie Daly became increasingly fascinated by the intersection of the two topics. Annie’s quest to search for the natural, inherent aspects of well-being brought her to Jamaica, Norway, Hawaii, Japan, India, and Brazil, where she interviewed over 100 people to reveal the practices, customs, and ideologies people around the globe have used for generations. The result is DESTINATION WELLNESS: Global Secrets for Better Living Wherever You Are (Chronicle Prism; May 4, 2021; $22.95)–part travel memoir, part personal journey, and part wellness guide.
Annie’s journey is both a much-needed break from the commercialized wellness industry, and a glimpse into some powerful wellness principles around the world that you can incorporate into your everyday life. Annie acknowledges the privilege her ethnicity and background give her to be able to travel, and treats each culture with thoughtful care, recognizing that we often can’t apply Western thinking to Eastern practices. To get to the core of some of these cultural aspects, Annie interviewed Chronixx, a popular Rastafari reggae star from Jamaica, cultural preservationists in Hawaii, a traditional Japanese tea ceremony instructor, an Ayurvedic practitioner in India, the owner of a farm commune in Brazil, and others. Within each section of the book, Annie also shares captivating pictures she took on her travels, and gives readers the history and context behind each ideology, such as the history of Rastafari and Ital (plant-based, homegrown nutrition) in Jamaica, the philosophy of friluftsliv or “the free air life” in Norway, the true meaning of aloha in Hawaii, the symbolism of ryokans or free guest houses of Japan, the cultural relevance of celebration in Brazil, and more.
Within these pages, you’ll also learn about all sorts of other ways that wellness is embedded into other cultures. In India, for example, the Ayurvedic concept of dinacharya teaches us that the point of having a daily routine is not necessarily to boost productivity, as American cultures may suggest, but to keep your overall well-being in check. Many Hawaiians believe that healthy living in the present is ultimately about honoring your past. Knowing where you come from will help you better know yourself, thus leading to greater wellness in the long run. Brazilian culture is so focused on the importance of family and friends that they believe you can only be well if your loved ones are well, too. This idea is so prevalent within Brazilian culture that they have an entire word, saudade, for the feeling you get when you miss your loved ones and you don’t feel whole as a result.
DESTINATION WELLNESS also explores many other ideas, such as:
- Wellness is not a commodity. It’s a lifestyle and a mindset.
- It’s also not about adding — it’s about subtracting.
- The wellness philosophies that work best are often the simple, timeless ones: change your relationship to food, get outside when you can, connect to your roots, be present, stay balanced, and lean into your social connections.
- Self-care was originally created by and for Black people during the civil rights movement, but now many things labeled as self-care are really only self-soothing.
- True well-being is not something you can buy. It’s about tapping into what you have already, and what’s already inside of you.
- Our connection to both the past and the present is key to our well-being.
DESTINATION WELLNESS invites you to view the world through a different lens and decide what being well means to you. With candid photography, lesser-known-history sidebars, and guidance on how to incorporate these often ancient and always timeless practices into your own lifestyle, it is a captivating, culturally immersive read that empowers readers to seek out better health wherever they live, and wherever they are.
ABOUT ANNIE DALY
Annie Daly is a fourth-generation journalist who has worked at and written for a variety of wellness and travel publications, including SELF, AFAR, BuzzFeed,
Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, and Cosmopolitan. Her specialties are travel and wellness, and how and where those two intersect.
She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband.
Website: anniedaly.com
Instagram: @anniemdaly
Twitter: @anniemdaly