I asked ChatGPT what wellness is. It gave me a well-rounded answer about nurturing physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. Not bad, but what does ChatGPT know about wellness? It has never been alive. Its concept of wellness is about optimal function.
But perhaps that is not too different from our desire for wellness, to live in the best and healthiest way possible. The meaning of wellness was on my mind and that of the host of speakers at the Future of Wellness Conference in Cyprus last week.
Day one was packed with masterclasses from top-tier international speakers from the worlds of business, health and wellness at the stunning Minthis Resort in Paphos. Day two was an afternoon of talks at The Warehouse by ITQuarter in Limassol by thought leaders and pioneers in the industry.
Walking into the conference I was immediately surprised by two things – how intimate it was, a group of 25 or so people and how some were barefoot. This is not going to be a conference like the others, I thought. And indeed, it was not.
The first day offered workshops on wellbeing intelligence, brain science, sustainable leadership and communication. Participants were a fascinating mix – neuroscientists, entrepreneurs, yogis and mindfulness coaches – all gathering to explore wellness from both practical and spiritual perspectives. It was this unusual mix of backgrounds that made the conference exciting to attend; a place where ideas came together.
Founder of Future of Wellness Conference and CEO at Future of Wellness Group Alena Shaidulina said that wellness for her is not about measuring health because that takes you away from your intuition. But, she recognised that some people respond to science’s approach to wellness so it’s important to include both.
It was refreshing, if a bit strange at first, to be at a professional conference with high-calibre tech talks and leadership stories but also cacao ceremonies and dance breaks between sessions. It felt like a sacred retreat, at times.
As we sat around the room on couches, poufs and chairs, the intimacy of the masterclasses made it easy to engage in conversation with the speakers. They included pioneers such as Teemu Arina, the founder and curator of the Biohacker Summit, Europe’s top conference for optimising human performance, and Tony Jamous, CEO of Oyster, a NASDAQ-listed $1 billion company.
Most of the speakers were invited masterminds from abroad. Among them were a few Cypriots as well: Professor of Developmental Psychology at the University of Cyprus Dr Kostas Fanti and tennis player Marcos Baghdatis. There were a few locals present though the participants were mainly non-Cypriots, as this was an English-language conference hoping to connect bright minds from around the globe and highlight Cyprus as a universal meeting point.
Jamous’ insights resonated, particularly his point on what it means to bring wellness into the workspace beyond team-building events. “Leading a workplace is not only about managing the workload but also cultivating a culture of care and support,” he said. “Because people who feel cared for are less likely to burn out.”
Arina said: “If you don’t make space for wellness you will have to make space for illness”. And although his approach seemed rather science-based, he surprised me by saying that it is a holistic approach to living well that will lead to health. “Longevity,” he said, “is not in a pill. It is in a lifestyle.”
Wellness is not only about living well now. It is also about taking care of the future version of you. “Remember, you are not human beings, you are definitely not human doings, you are human becomings,” Teemu said. And if our actions today mark who will be in the future, what does that look like?
The topic of wellness goes beyond the body, the mind and the work environment. Speaker Evert Verhagen, who studies migration and movement, describedthe wellness of cities, a concept that considers the rhythm of people’s lives – how they move through parks, plazas and workplaces – to create spaces people don’t want to leave.
This can be loosely related to the Blue Zones research that locates regions where people live exceptionally long lives and centenarians thrive. Currently, they include Okinawa, Sardinia, Nicoya, Ikaria and Loma Linda, identified by Dan Buettner, the co-producer behind the three-times Emmy Award-winning documentary Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones.
Remarkably, Future of Wellness Cyprus initiatives and their partner organisations are currently working on making Cyprus another designated Blue Zone spot and Buettner has been invited to attend the Future of Wellness Summit in 2025. Next year’s summit will be on a much larger-scale with big names from the global wellness field attending. Among them are expected to be representatives of the Deepak Chopra Foundation and Foundation Reserve, travelling to Cyprus exclusively for this event.
On February 3-5 a series of events diving deeper into the topic of wellness will be held in addition to a public event at the University of Nicosia on November 5. The agenda is powered by Biohacking Summit keynotes and it is expected to be a must-visit event as it aims to put Cyprus on the map as a destination for wellbeing and to bring more people and businesses to the island.
With a head full of ideas to download post-conference, I can’t help but wonder: is wellness about the self alone, or are we connected to something larger? Perhaps the summit in February will take us closer to understanding wellness as both a personal journey and collective evolution.
For more details visit https://futureofwellness.world/
