Make the moment last.
Guests have long described Miraval as transformative. New research helps illuminate the impact.
As wellness travelers, we always wonder: how long will this last? Is this moment of peace, this warmth, just a temporary balm? Or have I begun something real and lasting? And everyday wellness approaches, like apps, do help, but the same questions remain.
To deepen our understanding of guest impact, we collaborated with Humin, an independent global nonprofit at the forefront of wellbeing science, to measure how a Miraval stay may shape stress, mindfulness, and connection both in the moment and over time.
A recent survey captured impressions from 176 guests before, directly after, and 2 months after their stay at Miraval.
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Mindfulness is the very heart of the Miraval brand. It always has been. It’s also at the core of all true wellness, and just about every spiritual tradition.
And yet, as many of us know all too well, mindfulness is easy to understand, and so hard to maintain. Miraval resorts help guests build a firm base for their mindfulness practice, with deeper roots.
Miraval guests reported improvement in three key domains of mindfulness:
- Non reactivity to inner experience: Guests were able to gently and compassionately observe their inner states, without reacting to try to change or control them – or getting carried away.
- Acting with awareness: Guests felt more intentional, and clear, about actions they took while immersed at Miraval (and beyond, into their daily lives).
- Describing experience: Guests were better able to articulate what they were going through.
Gains were larger for guests who felt authentic connections to Miraval staff.
The epidemic of loneliness is real. Plenty of research bears this out. Most of us don’t need data to know how disconnected we can feel. Miraval resorts can help.
Surveyed guests reported a sense of community while on-property. In particular:
- 95% felt a sense of community.
- 41% felt a very strong sense of community.
- Over 70% reported making new friends or having a meaningful shared experience with others.
Naturally we would say the more time you spend with us, the deeper the benefit.
We asked guests to self-report stress levels*, and found that guests saw 30% reduction in stress for each additional night stay:
- 14.3% lower stress after 4 nights
- 17.6% lower stress after 5 nights
- 20.9% lower stress after 6 nights
Some guests say 3 days at Miraval is better than a week at other resorts.
Self-efficacy is a person’s belief in their own abilities and capacity to achieve goals and command a sense of purpose. Miraval’s guests frequently described realizations such as, “I need to slow down and breathe, set up boundaries to manage stress, and I can do hard things” and “I re-grounded on what’s important and learned to give myself more grace.”
Guests at Miraval Arizona showed particularly strong strides in empowered self-efficacy when they:
- Felt a stronger sense of community
- Took more paid classes
- Had a private 1:1 session with a specialist
Higher job satisfaction. In the weeks following their stay, guests reported greater satisfaction with their jobs
This suggests that guests were able to reframe, reapproach, or reenergize their work through mindfulness and other practices at Miraval resorts.
Healing our sense of peace and purpose in the work we do every day is fundamental to lasting wellbeing. We are grateful that we’ve had this impact in the lives of so many Miraval guests.
Open new pathways. It’s powerful.
- Trying new experiences generates big moments of growth. That’s why we offer such a broad spectrum of classes, experiences, and practices.
- Guests who engaged in these categories of offerings saw larger inprovements in stress reduction and overall wellbeing:
- Creative expression
- Meditation
- Equine experiences
- Outdoor adventure
- Creative expression
* Study findings are based on an independent, longitudinal research study conducted by Humin using its Healthy Minds Scientific Framework focused on Awareness, Connection, Insight, and Purpose and standardized measures, including the NIH-recognized Perceived Stress Scale. Full methodology and detailed results are available at humin.org.
