Why Multi-Sensory Wellness Is The Future
In the last few years, we’ve been pretty obsessed with experiences. Marketing departments look at their brand message and deliberate on how to turn their company’s experience into an Experience.
I’ve spent over 9 years accidentally figuring out the art of an ‘experience’. Working with big brands in London & New York has been great, but as soon as I set up Sweat & Sound (my company that creates multi-sensory, live music fitness & well-being events), I began to understand experiences and feeling-curation for the art that it is.
I’ve received countless emails from marketing teams who had injected a sweat-inducing budget into an ‘event’ for their staff/customers/press, only to find that no one turned up/ it fell flat. These calls for advice got me thinking harder about what factors really make up an experience that matters. Ultimately, I came to realise that this need for 'experiences that touch our senses' is truly universal and applies to all industries, people and cultures.
What I am most interested in is the very specific power of feelings, or the overall experience. Most prominently, the multi-sensory tools we can use to elevate our senses through the roof of our normalised notion of human existence - and into the realm of what cannot yet be explained. Let me explain…
Religious or not, there is no denying the power of spiritual experience. Entering a space of pure silence, music that sends shivers through your spine and the sight of something you so adore - picture a scene (it’ll be different for everyone). That inflation in your heart leading to eyes pricking with tears, we’ve all felt it. Now try to explain it. What exactly do you feel dizzy with?
This natural phenomenon is an integral part of our earth & existence, something so closely linked to nature we can rarely tell it apart. It is a feeling we used to feel on a regular basis, before we closed off our senses through sense replacements (technology etc).
Did you know that on average Americans spend 95% of their time indoors & for Europeans its 92%. It sounds shocking but really it isn’t. I think about my life -I am very active, but I'd say daily I’d definitely say no more than 8-10% of my time is outdoors, which is around 2 hours a day. In the winter it’s far less.
The problem is that only fifty to one hundred years ago we spent *far* more time outside. As we needed to physically be out and about to meet people, work, see family and conduct day to day life. We were seeing, smelling, hearing and reacting to things constantly - which kept our senses stimulated. There was no hiding from life.
Now, we tend to live life from home to transport to work, living out most of our day in fake light and fake air, therefore neglecting our primal senses to receive. Cutting off the use of our senses like this leads to a form of starvation - which may be a key factor in the rise of conditions such as depression, anxiety and even early onset dementia. There has been multiple studies proving the mental benefit of interacting with nature.
The reason I speak about nature so much is because: Nature is the real-world's multi-sensory experience. Companies, such as Sweat & Sound are really only recreating the beauty and majesty of what nature has provided since the beginning of time - a perfect alignment of sound, visuals, movement, scent, space and belonging.
I feel obliged to correct Descartes's 'I think, Therefore I am' with 'I Feel, Therefore I am'. One day, sooner than we realise, artificial intelligence will (and already does) ‘think’ in its own way. The *feelings* we have are what make us human.
If you cannot access nature regularly, the art of being immersed in perfect synergies is being developed by a few brands. When done correctly, the effect is hugely profound. Take our signature experience as an example: 'The Wonder Of You' - a yoga & meditation with live orchestra, set inside one of Central London's most stunning historic churches. We play on light, sound and frequency to create a majestic sense of beauty.
The key for brands is, when building experiences, do so as an 'art' rather than as a marketing ploy, and approach the curation through a lens of research and conceptual understanding. This field has endless possibilities & is a truly stunning art form.
I'd be glad to discuss this concept with anyone interested, we are working on numerous research studies this year & have a lot of incredible experiences coming up.
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By Ariana Alexander-Sefre
Founder, Sweat & Sound
If you're a journalist and would like to attend 'The Wonder Of You' on Jan 10th, please email ariana@sweatandsound.com to ask about a press spot.