I took this photo of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton’s typewriter at her turn-of-the-century home in Lenox, Massachusetts, just down the fern-riddled road from our restorative Purist retreat at Canyon Ranch Lenox. It was one of many typewriters Wharton used to create The House of Mirth, The Buccaneers and her most celebrated masterpiece, The Age of Innocence. Seeing this relic reminded me of my lifelong romance with the written word. Born before word processors and computers, I vividly recall the mechanical manual typewriter I used in high school—my preferred medium for self-expression. I often miss the long, heavy throws of those type bars. Typing back then required deliberate thinking, deep focus and a tactile connection to the process. Because mistakes were so difficult to correct, I had to slow down and think carefully before striking a key.
Having a quiet moment inside the stone foundation of The Mount, Wharton’s Berkshire estate, I realized that this deliberate pacing is the ultimate key to well-being. Slowing down—thinking more carefully about what thoughts fill our minds, what words leave our mouths and what actions emanate from our bodies—is the figurative typing required to take care of ourselves. Just as Wharton designed her estate to rise robustly from a solid rock outcropping, optimal health requires building an equally intentional, grounded foundation, as well as protecting, maintaining and stabilizing it.
A body under chronic stress loses its binding strength. Stress directly obstructs the interconnected masonry of our anatomy. When we pause to strategize how to clean out and balance our bodies, we set a plan to strike at the nagging root of illness: stress. Stress acts as a massive bottleneck, obstructing our vital pathways. It jams the central nervous system regulating the brain and spinal cord. It blocks the lymphatic system managing water and waste, and disrupts the digestive tract breaking down fuel. It stalls our metabolic engine, compromises our circulatory heart health, and dulls our muscular and subtle energy systems.
Here at Purist, we look to both Western medicine philosophies and holistic and Eastern traditions like clearing chakras and meridians to systematically unblock these paths. All of these systems are designed to operate in perfect harmony through exercise, targeted nutrition, deep hydration and restorative sleep. And whether we are resting in the Berkshires or taking a swim in the beautiful Atlantic Ocean in our backyard here on the East End, managing our bodily systems allows us to properly care for both our internal and external landscapes.
By striking our keys more intentionally, we connect more deeply to our own nature and the natural world. The reward is that we can better care for all those we love—and ultimately radiate that healing energy out into the wider world beyond.
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