There is a living culture of well-being across all corners of Lebanon where conscious living not only is hip but more and more is a way of life beyond fads that rhymes as a mode of thinking about living in the midst of prevailing social and economic uncertainty. The masses turn to nature practice, integral healing, and community action as the cutting edge of body and mind resilience during periods of prolonged uncertainty.
All over the country, nature retreats, meditation camps, and yoga classes are providing the Lebanese expats and citizens with a chance to stay present with themselves and nature. The retreats are largely in Lebanese mountains and beaches and provide beautiful landscapes as well as serene environments to stay present and heal. The courses include typically breathing, meditations, and wakefulness exercises that help people to dispose of stress and clarity.
Popularity of well-being retreats reflects wider cultural shift towards slower, more reflective life and reassertion of values for Lebanon’s natural world. Users generally deploy discourse of city life emphasis on fast-paced havens in order to distinguish such places, emphasizing balance with nature and integrated-wholistically conceived vision of well-being.
Apart from such weekend excursions, urban centers like Beirut have also witnessed the establishment of wellness cafes, lounges, as well as co-living communities. The buildings are constructed with a purpose to present whole foods, which are ordinarily locally and organically produced, in specially allocated sections designed to be relaxing. Natural light, foliage, and serene ambiance are some of the components that capture the tranquility of rural life, an everyday refuge for a city dweller from worry and contemplation.
Wellness activities at the community level are on the rise. Farmers’ markets are becoming an event venue where one can attend and purchase fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables, but also a venue where one can interact and have human contact. Markets are providing a new nutrition culture in that consumers are utilizing diet as a building block to foundation to obtain wellness. Urban-consumer rural-producer relationships also allow for social relationship as well as sustainability.
Backpacking and recreation clubs are also joining the nature and health coalition. In bringing individuals to Lebanon’s diverse landscape and developing physical fitness with respect for national heritage, these clubs are promoting frequent outdoor recreation by promoting shared experience on playing fields and trails that combine movement and learning of heritage.
In addition to this, health and well-being festivals are also gaining popularity as a public sphere of discourse and a pedagogical outlet. Festivals consist of workshops, panel discussions, and exhibitions of holistic well-being, ecologically conscious living, mental well-being, and nutritional issues. Their aim is to increase the awareness level of people towards the relationship of the mind, body, and spirit and induce sustainable behavioral change among the participants.
At the national level, Lebanon is embracing wellness as lifestyle more and more. Self-care, harmony in society, and sensitivity to nature define a new way of living for culture to live more responsibly. As more and more individuals embrace behaviors better suited to individual well-being and community strength, wellness no longer remains an individualistic endeavor, but just as much a community solution to the issue of an ever-changing world.
This sort of culture of actual freedom and truth is still encouraged by the geography of Lebanon, with physical as well as metaphysical space to develop. Wellness culture as counterdiscourse to subvert was once utilized as an empowerment strategy—the facilitation of a sense of belongingness, value, and a reconstructed existence.
