Richard Turen
Although I have never personally experienced any sense of anxiety or unhappiness from clients I'm sending around our planet, I do hear from others who toil in our industry that travel can at times be stressful.
We work in an industry where, for liability and other reasons, we have to be aware of late-breaking news. Bombs are dropping, drones are hitting targets and a major hub of both flights and international business is, for all practical purposes, closed. A simple plane connection can involve a half-day of waiting, often without answers.
This can, I suppose, cause some of us to feel that we are just not reaching the levels of relaxation and happiness we truly deserve in our professional lives.
I have learned that there are times when we must seek answers from experts in the field. In terms of "happiness," that would clearly be the residents of Finland.
For the eighth straight year, Finland has topped the United Nations survey of the Happiest Countries in the World.
For much of recorded history, scientists and philosophers have pondered the meaning of happiness. In the U.N. happiness survey, particular weight has been given to healthcare standards, general public safety, average income and life expectancy. Also included in the annual survey are the levels of official corruption and genuine generosity.
The Finns have always been rather modest about their happiness victories. But clearly, Finland's tourist board itself is not relaxing when it comes to getting the word out about the country's sense of life in balance.
In a world that is sorely in need of more of it, Visit Finland is ready and willing to share its happiness secrets with six couples selected from online applications. The initiative, "Chill Like a Finn," includes seven days, all expenses paid in the country with outdoor activities, hiking, swimming in lakes and restoring "balance" as defined by the Finnish lifestyle.
This pursuit of true happiness will include time in the Finnish Lakeland, relaxing in lagoons and sections of quiet forest. Afternoons may include time for the sauna, reading good fiction, swinging in a hammock and enjoying a candlelight dinner by a roaring fire.
The Finns define their happiness in terms of balance with the elements. The tourist board is eager to demonstrate that there is something called restorative travel that involves a slower pace than most of us experience in daily life.
Hopefully, those winners will return from their "Northern summer" with lessons the rest of us can absorb.
• • •
In Japan, meanwhile, there is a somewhat different approach to dealing with daily stress and the eternal search for happiness.
Our clients can now explore a new trend that originated at a funeral home in Chiba Prefecture, a trend that is spreading throughout Japan and involves a ritual of 30-minute relaxation sessions in which participants lie inside a well-cushioned burial coffin in a quiet, dim space in a funeral parlor or a "relaxation salon."
This practice seems to tap into Japanese cultural practices involving death, ritual and a sense of awareness. This is all seen as a tool for living more intentionally, and the practice provides for meditation, reflection and help with the processing of issues of mortality.
This "mortality meditation" is said to help achieve a level of inner calm when facing life's most stressful moments.
There are no statistics yet on how many in Japan's travel industry are using this practice to cope with stress and achieve some level of happiness. But my guess is that it may be substantial.
Your Tokyo hotel concierge or tour operator can now request appointments.
For beginners, I am told, it may be more relaxing to request an open lid.