This past Saturday, I celebrated Global Wellness Day with a host of other Sarasotans at an event hosted at VUE’s neighboring Westin Hotel. The awareness day for living well, which began in 2012, is celebrated internationally on June 8 each year. This year, an event at the Westin highlighted local vendors in the business of being well.

Wellness in Sarasota

We started the day with yoga, provided by downtown’s own Pineapple Yoga Studio. You may know them for, in addition to their wonderful classes, their extensive local support for Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s research. Their Burns Court-located studio recently added a cycling room, so now there are multiple ways to enjoy Living Well at Pineapple Yoga!

Yoga was just the first of many activities planned for the day. Subsequent events included meditation, tai chi, cycling sessions, and seminars on everything from numerology to bio-energetic cooking and personal growth.

Other Wellness Vendors

Throughout the day, guests to the event were welcomed into the Vendors area, where we were able to visit with many other wellness providers from our area. While I didn’t see them all, I met with a number of the vendors and was blown away by how far we have come in investing in wellness.

I visited Mark Alan Massage Therapy, which is located within Integrated Healing Arts on Main St. Mark Alan specializes in holistic massage, more than just providing a relaxing rubdown. Here, you can enjoy relaxation, rejuvenation, and pain relief by stretching and range of motion sessions, traditional massage, neuromuscular techniques, and reflexology, just to name a few.

I also stopped by the Brain Wave Center where they had on display a brainwave scanner. The doctors at the Brain Wave Centeruse the scans to analyze unhealthy brain wave patterns. By retraining brainwaves–which is safe, non-invasive, and drug-free–they are able to treat depression, memory issues, stress, and ADHD just to name a few.

Dr. Stinger, a local practitioner of natural and alternative medicine, was also at the fair. He uses non-traditional methods to treat the spectrum of health conditions. I enjoyed our conversation so much, I will likely pay him a visit the next time I am in need! It certainly made me open to the idea of natural solutions to medical issues.

I really liked getting to know so many local vendors and practitioners of health & wellness. Events like this in Sarasota keep our area vibrant, diverse, and exciting!