Great MindsMind over matter? These groundbreaking therapies are

making brains the new brawn.

From top: Mind training combines with holistic practices at REVĪVŌ Bali.

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For all of our hard work on our physical selves—we want to look thinner, stronger, younger, �tter—we have a bad habit of neglecting our most powerful body part: our brains. At no time in

history have human brains been more preoccupied and under more pressure to perform than today. Busy work lives, hectic social lives, nonstop emails, and ceaseless screen time are taxing the muscle like never before. As humans evolve to live longer (some research predicts the average life expectancy will rocket to 125 years by 2070) we also face the inevitable question not only of what we are going to look like but also of what we’re going to think like as we age.

Picking up the occasional crossword puzzle or reading �e New Yorker from cover to cover can help, but until recently, there’s been few known

tools that keep our minds as lithe as our bodies. “�e brain has been overlooked for so long,” says Dr. Richard Carmona, chief of health innovations at Canyon Ranch, 17th Surgeon General of the United States, and author of 30 Days to a Better Brain: A Groundbreaking Program for Improving Your Memory, Concentration, Mood, and Overall Well-Being. “We pump our biceps and triceps and work on our cores, but the computer that controls all that has largely been ignored.”

While there’s no Soul Cycle for the mind or an Equinox for anxiety (yet), there is a new cabal of wellness retreats and resorts aiming right at that big space between your ears, o�ering new ways to rewire, reboot, and reinvigorate your brain. Check in at one of these mind-enhancing properties and you’ll check out clearer, calmer, and smarter (you might even lose a few pounds in the process).

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SHA WELLNESS CLINIC

Last year, the ultra-modern retreat in Alicante, Spain, known for its macrobiotic diet plans and demanding fitness programs expanded its offerings to give clients’ minds a makeover too.

Led by Dr. Bruno Ribeiro, SHA’s brain treatments are as cutting edge as it gets, using the dual power of NASA technology and Harvard research to whip your head into shape in record time via a state-of-the-art helmet that sends low-intensity electrical currents and infrared-light wavelengths to various parts of the brain. Called Brain Photobiomodulation, it jump-starts lazy parts of the mind to improve everything from memory and concentration to hormone regulation. For those parts that are on overdrive (you know, the ones that make you stressed and anxious), currents can also decrease negative activity.

The painless, noninvasive treatment is backed by hundreds of clinical studies and has been used to treat brain injuries and other trauma. In healthy individuals, it can improve cognitive function, enhance learning capabilities, and boost mood. It’s like a massage for your mind, working out the kinks that are slowing you down and getting you in peak form for your next big challenge. shawellnessclinic.com

A series of brain-health weeks called Boost Your Brain Power is built on the concept of “neuroplasticity”—the ability of the brain to change continuously throughout an individual’s life. The program’s workshops, lectures, and activities focus on four pillars known to optimize and enhance cognitive ability: sleep, nutrition, social relationships, and physical activity.

If it seems fairly uncomplicated, that’s because, well, it is. Sleep, for instance, is a vital component to maintaining neuroplasticity. “It’s so important because it’s when most of the storing and manufacturing in your brain takes place,” says Dr. Richard Carmona, Canyon Ranch’s chief of health innovations.

To help guests optimize their sleep habits, Canyon Ranch dispatches its sleep medicine specialist for one-on-one clinics and guidance. The same goes for the other pillars: Nutritionists, personal trainers, psychologists, and other experts are all part of guests’ tailored “brain gyms.” It’s a crash course for the mind and the body that Carmona expects will become more common as neuroplasticity catches on. “Soon we’ll see these kinds of programs in classrooms and doctors’ offices to optimize our brains and, ultimately, our lives.” canyonranch.com

This Koh Samui, Bali, resort has a reputation among devout yogis for its dozens of retreats throughout the year, hosted by celebrity health gurus and meditation masters. Now, the property is bringing sci-fi technology to its lo-fi beachfront setting with its Brain Health Upgrade Program.

Ranging from 3 to 10 days, it combines advanced brainwave and biofeedback therapies with traditional yoga, breathwork, nutrition, workouts, nature, and meditation. The experience begins with a red-light and near-infrared-light therapy session that delivers an instant boost. The red light brings healing to the skin while the near-infrared light targets mitochondria in cells for increased energy production and brain function. Next is Audio Visual Entertainment, a treatment that delivers pulses of lights and sound frequencies via headphones and a pair of dark eyeglasses to induce a deep meditative state, increasing cerebral blood flow and neurotransmitters, and boosting levels of serotonin and norepinephrine. The relaxing factor of both treatments is huge—and nearly instant—priming guests for EEG biofeedback meditation, which measures brainwaves in real time to show if the brain is in a calm or engaged state. samahitaretreat.com

CANYON RANCH SAMAHITA RETREAT

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WALDHOTEL BÜRGENSTOCK

For a mental health tune-up with some real medical heft, try the Body & Mind Balance package at this spa and medical center in the Swiss Alps above Lake Lucerne. It’s based on the study of psychosomatic medicine, which explores the relationships among social, psychological, and behavioral factors on the body. Dr. Verena Briner, Waldhotel’s medical director, argues that the modern demands of life have increased to such a degree that we rarely have time to cope with stress and normal emotions, such as sadness or grief, which can manifest in mental and physical ailments if left unaddressed. “For people who do not find the way out of the hamster wheel,” she says, “the body may react with exhaustion, sleeplessness, weight loss, stomach ulcers, depression, and so on.”

To treat everything from burnout to sleep conditions to depression, the program combines mental coaching, psychotherapy, relaxation techniques, and craniosacral massage, which uses gentle pressure on the skull and spinal cord to improve circulation of the fluid around the brain to relieve pain and dysfunction. Combined with physical activities—something Waldhotel’s natural surroundings excel at providing—Briner argues this protocol is a new path to a healthy lifestyle. buergenstock.ch

Sometimes to whip your brain into shape you need some tough love. That’s what you’ll get at LifeWorks, a new retreat in Montana that puts clients through four-night, Monday through Friday, brain-health bootcamps to enhance brain performance and cognitive function. The science behind the LifeWorks Brain Performance program is based on noninvasive brain mapping, a technology that measures brainwaves at 19 distinct points to determine activity—or inactivity—in zones that control behaviors and functions ranging from concentration and comprehension to anxiety and excitement. Based on analysis of this baseline brain map and additional cognitive testing, LifeWorks’ neuroscience team develops individualized plans for each of its clients combining cognitive exercises and habit coaching with yoga, outdoor activity, meditation, nutrition, and sleep analysis.

Whether the goal is to be sharper and more focused or to overcome more serious issues such as dementia or brain injury, the changes LifeWorks initiate are most significant for their lasting power. Guests leave with a customized brain report and plan to help them achieve a brain-healthy lifestyle. whylifeworks.com

When Laurie Mias set out to create a new kind of wellness retreat in Bali, she realized she was up against some serious competition. Meditation and massage are about as plentiful on the Indonesian island as sun and sand, so the French yoga instructor and wellness expert created a resort that focuses on “mind training” to transform guests’ physical, mental, and emotional selves. “If you really want to create some change, you have to transform the way you think,” Mias says. Like any kind of training, Mias says, mind training requires practice and repetition. “Everything we do is about being 100 percent present,” she explains. Of course, thinking about nothing but right now can be harder than it sounds, so REVĪVŌ’s coaches guide guests whether they’re sitting down to a meal or working out.

REVĪVŌ’s Emotional Balance & Mind Training retreat combines all of this mental work with holistic treatments, including Reiki and chakra balancing, personalized yoga, and Pranayama breathing sessions. Mias hopes that through the repetition, mind training will become a skill that guests use in their everyday lives. “Changing your mind,” she says, “is how you change your life.” revivoresorts.com

—Jackie Caradonio

LIFEWORKS MONTANA REVĪVŌ BALI

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