Celebrating two decades of holistic wellness with COMO Shambhala

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For 20 years, COMO Shambhala has broken new ground in holistic wellness at the same time as re-establishing more traditional approaches eroded by modern urban culture, including yoga, Ayurvedic medicine, and Japanese acupuncture.

To celebrate this milestone, we have produced a limited edition tote with luxury goods company, Mulberry. The canvas bag, ideal for carrying your wellness essentials, is available in two colours — light tan and navy — and is finished with leather straps and a stitched COMO Shambhala logo. Priced at US$110, it is being sold exclusively at COMO Shambhala retail outlets worldwide, and COMO Hotels and Resorts Boutiques.It is an anniversary worth celebrating. COMO Shambhala has gone from a single yoga studio, launched in Singapore in 1997, to operating in 14 locations across nine countries worldwide, in Australia, Europe, North America and Asia. Many of our full-time naturopathic doctors and therapists are practitioners in multiple modalities, including hydrotherapy and massage. In addition, we work every day of the year with visiting experts in disciplines ranging from Pilates to sports nutrition, while engaging in long-term collaborations with major names in beauty and facial care, renowned for their scientifically proven results. We have won numerous awards, developed clothing, body and hair-care product lines, spent 15 years finessing an award-winning wellness cuisine — designed to maximise personal performance, increase concentration and calibrate blood-sugar levels — and published a cookbook (The Pleasures of Eating Well: Nourishing Favourites from the COMO Shambhala Kitchen; Clearview, 2016).We also provide consultancy to hotel and resort companies, including our own sister company, COMO Hotels and Resorts. In our twentieth year, we are now actively partnering with the wider hospitality industry, with full-service management contracts to which we bring the weight of our experience, design and staff training.

But in spite of this growth, our roots haven’t changed, which is reflected in our consistent philosophy and pursuit of quality. Balance is everything to the COMO Shambhala way of life — in the relationship between old and new, between spiritual and rational, between slow thought and active living. We work to align body, mind and spirit, to encourage a life lived to its full potential. Ultimately this approach leads us to a place of calm, or shambhala, which in Buddhist texts denotes a sacred place of bliss, from which the company derives its name.

While our philosophy is clear, the journey towards balance is not always so easy. Nor is it immediate, as the pampering side of the spa industry tends to claim. You identify your goals; our inspirational experts will help you to reach them, with the mutual understanding true wellness is a lifelong pursuit that needs careful nurturing. It is a consultative rather than prescriptive approach, which also equips you with the tools and knowledge to extend the COMO Shambhala approach into your daily existence. This is the main purpose of our flagship COMO Shambhala Estate in Bali — a destination wellness ‘retreat for change’ where you can fully embrace the COMO Shambhala lifestyle.

We also appreciate that not everyone can take large chunks of time out of their schedules to allow for this 360-degree immersion. Hence our development of day spas, or as we prefer to call them, Urban Escapes. All are city properties with a uniquely high repeat clientele, in London, Miami, Bangkok and Perth, with our most comprehensive offering in Singapore where our owner, Christina Ong, first launched a yoga studio in 1997. Even now, not a single teacher joins the COMO Shambhala world without Mrs Ong’s approval. Hence why the company still retains pin-sharp vision — Mrs Ong is a committed yoga practitioner — while continuing to improve as we embrace new collaborations on this journey in holistic wellness.

Further to the Mulberry tote, COMO Shambhala will be launching a new publication in winter 2017 to celebrate this milestone year. For more, see www.comoshambhala.com.