Seoul Wellness Week – Time to take care of yourself
Festival name | Seoul Wellness Week |
period | October 7, 2023 – October 8, 2023 |
location | Seoul Forest (273 Ttukseom-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul) |
fee | free |
home page | www.seoulwellnessweek.co.kr |
I went to ‘Seoul Wellness Week’ held at Seoul Forest Family Yard for two days from Saturday, October 7th to Sunday, October 8th. This festival was held with the theme of ‘Find Your Wellness’ and aimed to allow people to experience their own wellness through yoga, meditation, etc. I visited on October 8th. It started drizzling just before I arrived, so I hesitated whether to go back, but fortunately, the rain stopped quickly.
I was wondering what wellness means. Wellness is a compound word of well-being, happiness, and fitness, and it means ‘integrated health that is in harmony not only with the body and mind but also with the social sphere.’ Now, it is an era where we take care of wellness beyond well-being.
Seoul Forest prepared various programs for this kind of wellness. On the main stage, there was a group yoga flash mob, yoga class by Johnson Christopher Byron, and Harim’s African wellness travel concert. In addition to the main stage, you could participate in yoga and meditation lectures, healing experience classes, etc. on the Body Stage, Soul Stage, and Mind Stage.
I didn’t participate in the program, but I saw many people taking yoga classes. People doing yoga on yoga mats on the grass looked peaceful and healthy.
Looking at the leaflets handed out at the entrance, I could see at a glance where the festival was being held, the booth locations, and the program schedule. All the programs were free. There was also a stamp relay going on, so I diligently collected stamps.
The stamp relay was a place where you could receive one stamp from each category at booths divided into four categories: Medicine & Health, Food & Nutrition, Beauty & Fashion, and Mindfulness & Sleep. It is said that a total of 50 company booths participated in this festival. I think it was an even more enriching festival because each booth operated an individual experience program.
This is what the event looked like. Even though it rained a little bit in the middle, there were still quite a few people. Since Seoul Forest is so big, it didn’t feel crowded even though there were a lot of people, which was nice. Of course, there were a lot of people gathered around the yoga class area and the popular booths.
After collecting all the stamps, I waited in line to receive my souvenir. I was able to open the raffle ticket and check the souvenir.
Here are the paper chair and key ring I received as souvenirs. I was looking forward to receiving the souvenirs through a raffle, but I was a little disappointed (haha). No matter what I did, I never got to use the paper chair. The key ring was from a first-come-first-served event, unrelated to the stamp relay, but it’s cute, so I keep it with me.
It was a short time to figure out what my own wellness was, but I was able to have a rare time of healing my body and mind in Seoul Forest, located in the city center, on a cool autumn day. I think it was a beneficial time to take care of my own health, even if only for a little while.