Spas and VR: Modern Wellness Experiences for Women Over 50

Imagine escaping a world besieged and withdrawing for a time of relaxation and rejuvenation. In the midst of world war 3, a woman over 50 can hibernate and refresh mentally using modern technology. With the use of VR, you can find yourself submerged in a distant location or world.

I recently was faced with the difficult decision of picking from one of 10 fabulous destinations for an instant escape. So many of these locations were on my bucket list for places to visit, but I managed to narrow it down to a spot admiring the Northern Lights.

There was no board a plane full of germs and recycled air. I just sat back, relaxed and within minutes was gazing across the snowy hills and ice-covered sea, up at the lights that shone so bright! I breathed deeply and exhaled slowly, following the melodic instructions of a distant narrator. It felt so good to be swept away and lost in this world that felt so real!

Local meets Global

VR offers us the opportunity of a break from city life without the ordeal and inconvenience of airports and travel stress. A range of VR experiences promises to immerse us in faraway, exotic worlds. It offers a quick escape for searching themself or that little bit of alone time.

For a long time, technology has been viewed as disrupting a balanced and healthy life. VR now offers an easy technology spa experience improving our mental state and well-being. Visuals help relax our brain in a serene location and the noise-canceling headphones cut out any noise from the outside world.

Essential oils and aromatherapy add a further dimension to the treatment and relaxation. It increases the number of senses immersed in the experience and really assisted in my state of relaxation. With VR, I can get into a calm restful state of mind right by my office and other stressful environments. It is easy to take a 30-minute break close to the office at the spa down the road.

VR can be used with a high-end massage chair, taking the VR escape one step further. These chairs can provide subtle cues like heating, wind, and scents to transport you to their virtual location. VR can be used for things that are completely passive. There are many diverse applications for it in the wellness industry.

Medical uses of VR

While virtual reality has obvious uses in the spa industry, it also has a place in dental and medical fields. A meta-analysis published this year found that VR compares favorably to existing treatments for anxiety, eating, and weight disorders. In addition to pain management, VR can offer long-term effects that generalize to the real world.

“According to neuroscience, to regulate and control the body in the world effectively, the brain creates an embodied simulation of the body in the world used to represent and predict actions, concepts, and emotions,” said the report, published in Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking. VR works in a similar way: the virtual reality experience tries to predict the sensory consequences of an individual’s movements, providing him or her the same scene she would see in the real world.

The report concludes that by simulating the external world as well as the internal one, it is possible to reverse engineer the psychosomatic processes that connect the mind and body.