Walks | Inspired Health by Rachel Grunwell

January 20, 2023

Tips to Manage Stress

Tips to Manage Stress

By wellness expert Rachel Grunwell – co-leader of the Polynesian Spa’s Mindful Moments Retreats, yoga + meditation teacher & author of Balance: Food, Health + Happiness.

Make uplifting your wellbeing the goal for 2023 , doing it one tiny step at a time. Your wellbeing is your true wealth.

You could work on how you move, eat, sleep – or how you manage stress.

The latter is a common issue for most people. So, you are not alone. Here are some tips to manage stress. I hope one resonates and helps you.

Do joyful things because they are mood-lifting and uplifting for your soul.

Joyful activities are also a great distraction from your never endling to-do-list. As researcher Brene Brown, when we are in a state of joy colours are brighter, exercise feels easier and smiling happens involuntarily. We also don’t lose ourselves; We become more truly ourselves. Consider something you love to do that makes you feel joyful and do it regularly.

- Find calm in a way that resonates with you.

For me, yoga and meditation put me in a calm, happy, grounded state. I feel more myself and “in balance”. But yoga isn’t for everyone. It’s all about finding “your thing”. For you, it might be a walk in nature that helps you to feel calm.

Nature Nurtures: Rotorua’s majestic Redwoods Forest in incredible. You’ll feel calm as you walk through this special, quiet, beautiful and peaceful place.

For others, they might find calm by doing tai chi or having a hot bath at night in candle-light. One sure way to feel calmer and happier is patting your dog or cat if you have one. This releases feel-good hormones in your body like oxytocin.

- Talk to yourself like you would talk to your best friend or a child.

Self-talk can be toxic when we talk to ourselves. It takes practice to change the way we think and talk sometimes. The next time you feel frustrated at yourself, stop, pause and remind yourself that you deserve thoughts that are loving and kind – just like everyone else. Remind yourself that you are doing your best and deserve to be happy.

- Book a retreat where you can learn lots of de-stress skills like diaphragmatic breathing, meditation, mindfulness and where you will experience time in nature.

The Polynesian Spa’s Mindful Moments Retreat is a perfect weekend-long getaway that’s affordable. You’ll get pampered here with a massage included in the retreat fee and indulge in nourishing food with our sumptuous lunches (provided on both days of the weekend). The goodie bag is what everyone really raves about though! It’s worth $350 and includes lots of incredible beauty products as well as my book, Balance; Food, Health + Happiness. The book includes wisdom from 30 global experts including psychologists, neuroscientists, nutritionists, emotional intelligence experts, and happiness researchers + 30 nourishing recipes. Retreat-goers spend time in nature (biophilia, or forest bathing) in the majestic Redwoods Forest. Yoga is included and you’ll learn incredible meditation and mindfulness skills from the spa’s highly experienced manager, and meditation teacher, Helena Keenan.

Here are some pictures to tempt you:

Here’s an example of the goodie bag. It’s different every time but always includes beauty products, a Balance book and a bag.

Here I’m in a private pool, but there are 28 lake-side pools to choose from on site – of different temperatures. Some are acidic and great for muscle aches and pains, while there are also other pools where they are alkaline and these leave your skin silky smooth.

The pools are bliss…

Rachel and Helena are experienced wellness experts who love to share research-backed tools on how to uplift your wellbeing.

Here are the retreat dates for the Mindful Moments Retreats in 2023:

Saturday, 20th May – Sunday, 21st May 2023

Saturday, 19th August – Sunday, 20th August 2023

Saturday, 18th November – Sunday, 19th November 2023

$689 per person

To find out what’s included and to book check out the Polynesian Spa website. Click HERE

https://www.polynesianspa.co.nz/mindful-moments-retreat/

October 25, 2019

3 De-Stress Tips for Busy Executives to Sleep Well and Perform Well

by Rachel Grunwell
Life can be busy and we can hold onto a lot of stress. So, it’s important to take time to pause , unwind and to re-set. If you don’t take time for self-care, then you can wind up facing “burn out”. If this stress carries on for too long, it can snowball.

Too much stress can lead to poor sleep and poor concentration. It can then spiral into things like anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts.

Stress chemicals can stay in your brain and body if not addressed. Worse still, your sensitivity to stress can increase if it continues to accumulate. So the trick is to embrace calming strategies into your life so you can perform at your best.

Stress can be scary. It results in chemicals throughout your body and brain. This includes adrenalin, noradrenaline, serotonin, histamine, corticotrophin-releasing hormone and acetylcholine. These chemicals activate the fight-or-flight response in the body so it gets into ready-to-run mode. This in turn impacts on you being able to have clear, logical thinking, your digestion working optimally (ie the ability to lose weight is hard!) to not being able to function well in your work or life…

I’m a qualified coach, and yoga + meditation teacher. I co-lead the Mindful Moments retreats at the Polynesian Spa in Rotorua. Here, clients get to tap into an amazing weekend getaway. They learn diverse strategies to de-stress. So there’s bound to be one technique that resonates to fit into your every day life back home. On the edge of Lake Rotorua, it’s a blissful setting. Clients also get a chance to dip into the relaxing and rejuvenating waters of the 28 pools on site. The pools are of varying temperatures. This alone will calm your body, mind and soul. The retreat also includes mindfulness and meditation training. A spa treat treatment is part of the weekend too. There’s a walk in nature in the Redwoods Forest, nourishing lunches, and restorative yin yoga. Lastly, there’s a wellness workshop where retreat-goers learn lots of science-backed wellness strategies from my book Balance, which includes 30 global experts on how to live healthier and happier. I promise you’ll leave this retreat empowered with more knowledge and how to kick-start your own health journey and goals.

Here are 3 de-stress tips I share for busy executives on these retreats:

1. Take time to find “flow”. What I mean by this, is I encourage you to do something you love. This could be exercise, knitting, painting, playing music or going for a walk in nature, for instance. This “me time” helps you to feel calm, happy and to harness your monkey-mind.

2. Have a night time ritual to help you unwind before bed-time. And of course get the mobile phone’s blue light away from your face.

3. Practice mindfulness . This helps you to live life more in the moment and to feel happier, rather than anxious.

Find out more about the Mindful Moments retreats. The retreat dates for 20/20 are now live. Click HERE :

Rachel is the Polynesian Spa’s ambassador and co-leader of the spa’s Mindful Moments retreats. She is a wellness expert, coach, yoga + meditation teacher, and author of Balance: Food, Health + Happiness, which boasts 30 global wellness experts sharing science-backed advice on living healthier and happier. Find out more about the book HERE

January 14, 2016

The Tussock Traverse – one of NZ’s most scenic courses

Tussock Traverse

By Rachel Grunwell

It’s a New Year and so it’s time for new adventures. Training for an “adventure” is a top way to keep fit.

It can also scare you out of bed in the morning to train!

A unique event (for walkers and runners) is the Tussock Traverse, one of the most scenic courses in New Zealand (on January 30).

It’s an off-road adventure like no other.

The event showcases the eastern area of the World Heritage Tongariro National Park encompassing Tukino and the Round the Mountain and Waihohonu tracks before finishing at the majestic Chateau Tongariro in Whakapapa.

Victory Events director Jason Cameron says most Kiwis can take part in the event. “Unlike its near neighbour the Goat, the Tussock Traverse is not highly-technical and is very achievable with its range of distance options”.

He says there’s an event option for most ages and abilities (6.5km, 13km and 26km). “It’s not highly-technical; it’s achievable”.

In the 26k expect some rock hopping through a lava field before negotiating the rolling lunar like landscape with volcanic sands through native vegetation before reaching formed tracks in the last 10km.

He says at one point in the race, entrants are “dwarfed by Mt Ngauruhoe on the right whilst capturing stunning views of Mt Ruapehu out to the left”.

Project Tongariro (formerly known as Tongariro Natural History Society) is the event’s charity partner and so entrants help give back, and conserve, the area too.

craig kirkwood

Pictured: Craig Kirkwood running in the 2015 Ironman NZ event.

One participant this year will be Craig Kirkwood, 41, an elite runner and coach from Tauranga. He “runs” Craig Kirkwood Coaching. He says this event will be “a training run” for the Tarawera Ultra 100km event on February 6.

His tips for doing the Tussock Traverse (which he came second in last year): Expect the course to feel 10% longer than running on-road, take a good quality raincoat in case the weather turns and “smile” and “enjoy it!”

* For more info check out: www.tussocktraverse.co.nz

Rach 02

Rachel is the director of inspiredhealth.co.nz/

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October 4, 2014

Piha Walk

Piha Beach is only 40km from Auckland city and it’s one of the best escapes – for the stunning wild and wonderful surf and that beautiful black sand that sticks to your toes. But there’s a walk close by that’s absolutely magic too for a family stroll.
If you haven’t been before, you should check out Kitekite Falls walk in the Waitakere Ranges.

The walk kicks off at the end of Glen Esk Rd and the walk is well signposted; you can’t get lost. A colossal kauri tree stump greets you around here and my kids love to hide in it and pretend it’s a play house.

You must use special spray bottle provided here to blast your shoes to stop a lethal pathogen that is attacking our beautiful kauri trees.

On the walk you encounter a stream, bridges, beautifully-made steps including some that even spiral, and the lush bush here is an absolute escape. Feel the stress from your shoulders evaporate… The air here is just so fresh and energising. But the star of this show is the falls. You’ll stop in your tracks and “wow” will escape from your lips. You glimpse this multi-drop waterfall, that’s 40m high, first through the bush. Then minutes later the falls are near your toes and you rock-hop past it. You can swim here if you’re brave and don’t mind an ice-cold dip.

The walk takes 60-minutes all up if you take it leisurely – or shorter if your strides are strong and you’re not waiting for little ones to catch up.

By the way a doctor named this place. He felt the area reminded him of Scotland. Glen means valley (Gaelic) & Esk means water (Celtic).

ps. A great website on Piha is www.piha.co.nz which gives great ideas on things to do and info about the place.