Healing Cafés: Check Your Stress at the Door

No doubt there have been times in your life—hopefully few but perhaps many—when you have felt stressed, even excessively so. Stressful situations, especially if they’re intense or linger, can lead to health problems, including high blood pressure and damage to artery walls, as well as to lifestyle changes that can hurt your heart (smoking and excessive drinking, for example). Learning to manage stress through relaxation and stress management techniques such as meditation and yoga can go a long way toward preventing heart disease and also improving your well-being and quality of life. You might also want to pop into urban healing spaces, should you get the opportunity.

Designed for unwinding and de-stressing in the middle of hectic cities, such spaces offer everything from wellness workshops to massage chairs and heated beds, along with soothing music and scent diffusers. “Healing cafés” and other relaxation venues have opened all around the world, South Korea, London, New York and more, in an effort to offer a healthy dose of tranquility to city dwellers.