As the owner of a wellness retreat – and a parent – fostering a deep appreciation of your body’s power and the ways you need to take care of it are key goals for me. Even before I conceived of Release, I wanted to teach the kids in our family to understand the amazing things their bodies could do, and provide them with a solid foundation for how to take care of these amazing machines they live in. By serving healthy food, and getting outside and getting moving with my family, I hoped to build a love of fitness, mindful eating, and self-care.

So I was blown away when my son, age 18, shared the following with me, when I told him I wanted to write a blog on wellness for kids:

Youth is the most important demographic for encouraging positive wellness trends, and here’s why: They are the grown-ups of the future, and not only will they pick up on adults’ ideas now, they will pass our ideas onto their own children. If they get the idea that healthy living is important, then they will likely develop lifetime healthy habits. 

In today’s day and age, it is easy for young people to become relatively inactive due to the progress of modern technology. Therefore, we must encourage them to adopt active habits to balance out the inactivity in their life. We should make children partake in strenuous physical activity a certain amount every week in order to get them to maintain a healthy physique. That way, the exercise becomes habitual and the children continue to exercise regularly throughout their lives. Release features a number of kid-friendly fitness classes that can help foster  life-long love of keeping active. 

The prevalence of junk food is a key factor in the obesity epidemic that has plagued many Americans in recent years. It is important that kids eat real food with a balance of nutrients rather than load up on the “empty calories” contained in fast food and other junk food items, such as chips and candy. Nourish Cafe at Release offers amazing options to refuel after a workout, or enjoy a healthy lunch. 

Mental health is just as important as physical health, and while physically healthy choices play a role in good mental health, it is equally as important to relax and spend some time meditating or unwinding in a sauna or Roman bath. Treat your kids to a day at Bliss at Release. Get a massage or a half-hour in the Himalayan Salt Room, meditate with your kids in the central area, or just simply spend quality family time in the sun sauna, eucalyptus steam room, Roman bath, or outside by the fire. Even occasional spa trips will encourage sound mental health and looser muscle tension, which will set your children up for success and maturity at a young age.

Teaching our children healthy habits is a lifelong gift.  As busy parents, we often have no idea if our messages are getting through.  Turns out, they do.  Modeling healthy behavior, and encouraging everyone in your family to participate in an active lifestyle will deliver a lifetime of health and wellness for your children – and isn’t that the greatest gift you can give them?