I wear many hats: mom, partner, daughter, yoga teacher, Oana who does retreats in Bali, Oana who does spas. I guess I'm the sum of these things and what's underneath.
I'm someone who has simplified everything I do so that I can do as much of what I enjoy and have larger pieces of myself satisfied by what is going on around me. I think of myself as super creative, especially when it comes to work, playful, relaxed most of the time.
Oana's work and life have a lot in common, they intertwine, they are facets of wellness in every aspect of her life, whether it's spas, yoga, Bali or just living. She practices what she preaches. She does what she loves and most importantly, she doesn't compromise on who she is.
She took up yoga in sixth grade with Radu Cunescu, a man who lived yoga, not just practiced. He died in a car accident. Then Oana stopped practicing for a while. Then, over time, whenever she needed support, she turned to yoga. She realized it was her thing: Yoga is a way of living, of feeling, I infuse everything I do with it. So she made it a routine and today she teaches in a bright studio in the center of Brasov.
In 2002, after finishing college, he decided to go on a cruise: "My city was too small, I wanted to earn money faster, I dreamed of seeing the world on fast-forward and cruise ships seemed the perfect opportunity". He knew 5 foreign languages.
At first he worked in the shop. Then she told them she wanted to change departments. They offered her two alternatives: International Hostess or a job as Spa Manager. Even if she didn't have the know-how in the field, Oana corresponded exactly to the profile they were looking for: young, ambitious, workaholic, with some experience but not enough to be molded, passionate about wellness, with leadership qualities.
As yoga had long since become a constant in her life and she loved everything to do with wellness, with the recklessness and confidence you have when you are very young, she took the job, even though she had no spa experience at all.
He trained in Genoa and became the youngest manager in the fleet. He learned in that year as in many others: how to manage an international team and motivate them, how to react when someone steals, how to capitalize on selling time, how to manage, how to promote, what goes on land and what goes on the boat, who the customers are and how to make them feel that he is addressing each one in a sea of people.
Leaving Romania was a culture shock for me, a lesson in humility. I remember the first year, I was so childish, naive, impractical. What traveling teaches you, you don't learn in every school. Working with people from so many different cultures was defining for me.
Since then he has never stopped working in spas and wellness. The cruise ship phase came to an end in 2006, when he went to Spain to take charge of Fairplay Spa in Andalusia as spa director. In the same year he also wrote a book dedicated to spas where he educates point by point on all aspects of spa operations.
Then she came back to Romania and worked at Hilton Sibiu as spa manager, but she also took care of the soft opening and opening of The SPA at Hilton Sibiu.
From her experience at Hilton, she learned how to discipline herself when entering a project and how not to take personally things that happen, such as products stuck in customs, therapists quitting when you're at your most loved, or losing a segment of clients due to unfair competition.
I met Oana in 2011, very shortly after I launched wellandia.eu. Oana noticed it and suggested that we meet. She told me that she really liked the idea, but that the site is not complete if it doesn't give professionals a reason to read it every day. He started to write weekly articles dedicated exclusively to spa managers and investors, which greatly increased the value of wellandia.eu through quality information, written by a specialist.
Her initiative was later continued by other internationally experienced spa consultants who returned to the country. Today there are over 200 articles on the site dedicated exclusively to professionals in the field. This has opened the doors to many other projects that we are doing today for the SPA Business community in Romania, including the Spa Business Networking Events at which Oana has been a speaker every year.
Over the years, Oana has developed several projects abroad:
In Romania:
This year opened Up the River Healing Spa at Hotel Lebadain the biosphere of the Danube Delta, a marvelous spa, with the cabins on the Danube shore.
He loves his create the concepts right for the places - and she believes this has made the spas she has developed success stories: Subsume brands red thread of spas and I do everything from A to Z, from spa design, flow creation, shopping lists, hiring. Thus, I made the first spa with ancient Romanian products and recipes at Tisa, with therapies inspired by the historically narrated preferences of Queen Mary, the first crowned head to advertise Pond's cosmetics-cream, the first Wine Spa or the urban spa at Kronwell, where I first brought Voya and Aromatherapy Associates. I take a lot of time researching, reading information I could use, from the history of the place to various geographic specifics.
When it comes to starting a new spa project, he likes the beginning best: "Exciting, new page, work to define the concept, the menu, the target customers". But he also loves opening day - "the moment when everything takes direction and sense, it has already been audited, checked, therapists are nervous but ready".
I am motivated by people's reactions: the spa guests who come out grateful after therapies, the people who come to yoga practice and regain their strength to give new meaning to the things they do, the happiness of those who come with us to Bali and want to come back.
That people come to me for spa consultancy because they have seen one project or another, as I don't have a presentation website at the moment. Basically, my business card is recommending people I've worked with, which is the best form of recommendation.
When I became a mom. It's extremely hard because it means giving up big chunks of yourself, unselfishly. It seems to me that we don't have that traditional community that helps you through the rites of passage, that we are no longer part of a tribe, that children are no longer raised by the whole village, as the saying goes.
The most beautiful thing in the world happens to me every time I rest my eyes on my son, Marley. I know, I know, clichebut it is. It's what consumes me the most and turns me on the most.
Not to get attached to things. In 2018 we had to give up a sort of soul child, our spa in the center of Brasov, Spa d'Or because the space wasn't ours and our contract had expired. For a while we mourned like the dead, looked for another suitable space, without success. Then I realized that all the bad was for the better, the things I did afterwards brought me great joy. I wouldn't have been able to do new things - like teach yoga - if I had continued to invest so much time in the spa.
I am so lucky to have 4 grandparents who love Marley and want to spend time with him. With the help of Iulius, my husband, who has accepted his condition as my half. Julius doesn't "help me" but does his job, just as I do mine. Small child+job means a lot of work and I sometimes feel exhausted. So I ask for a break, I ask for help.
In the pandemic, we suddenly found ourselves without anything we were doing, everything had disappeared overnight, as is the case with many people. I also had the misfortune of catching the virus and recovery was very difficult. My heart ached for myself, for everybody. I created some anchors by doing free online yoga classes and spending a lot of time at my family's cottage in the middle of nature.
What happened to me after the initial shock was good againa blessing in disguisea blessing in disguise. I spent a lot of time with my family, re-learned the joy of being alone in the house, of preparing simple meals at home, of socializing less. I still have the habit of staying at home a lot. I gained time. In addition, at the end, as it happens, there was a very nice spa project, Up the River at Lebada Hotel, which was a fast-forward project, we worked very hard, very quickly so we came out of the lethargy in which the pandemic had thrown us.
I try to keep to myself but, inevitably, there is social contact. And while some people are very cool, others are less so.
What can't I stand? The holders of absolute truth, the people who want to convince you of something by force, the volatile, the inconsistent. I don't like the fact that, anthropologists being anthropologists, people of value, educated, who would have something important, something remarkable to say are pushed to the margins of society and these big-mouthed, vulgar characters who don't read, don't listen to music, don't create anything of value have appeared. They are called content creators in today's society.
I have instead some people I like, the actress Aida Economu or my friend Alina, who have charm, consistency and constancy.
Getting together with people who have something to talk about, who have a core, having time to read and yoga, being in Bali, my home away from home, extended family.
I have to tell you that I didn't want a family and I was very recalcitrant on the subject. Well, the second - not the minute, the second - when I took Marley to my bosom I had an epiphany, I fell hopelessly in love. Another blessing in disguise. I believe that I have brought myself many small, natural moments of joy and I no longer strive for the big and the much.
From a sunrise on Vadu beach to a meal with friends at Poarta Schei 4, a restaurant jewelry from Brasov, I stop to live them. I am present in my own time.
I want to get rid of these fears, to learn to live with them, but they exist. I'm afraid for the people close to me even though no one has ever escaped alive. I'm afraid of diseases where you no longer know who you are. I am afraid of the good things in my life disappearing, of the rug being pulled out from under my feet. In yoga you learn you have to live without attachment but I can't exist without attachment since Marley.
I dream of a small organic spa next to a yoga shala. I dream of returning to a few places (India, New York, Brazil). I dream of a house with a garden. To lose 10 pounds or learn to accept them.
The trends are towards natural, organic, simplified, with a return to green spaces (shinrin-yoku, walking in the woods, immersion). Lots of immune support and metabolic studies, personalized.
A 360 in spas where to find nutrition, psychotherapeutic counseling, alternative therapies, personal development methods.
Another trend in wellness that I foresee is the revival of old traditional communities, e.g. women's support groups, doulas, shamans, healers of all kinds. Society senses how hard it is to live individualized, unsupported lives, and is looking for a return to micro, quasi-tribal structures.
Wellness programs dedicated to children learning to navigate society (anti-bullying, Forum theater, mental care, physical care, etc.). Programs for seniors (spiritual retreats, yoga, immunotherapy).
I'll answer you with a verse from Blaga that I found with a very special yoga teacher:
"Sapa, numai, sapa, sapa, sapa
Until you hit the stars in the water"
My belief is that we need to do the work with ourselves first and foremost, that we have a duty to find ourselves, to eliminate the surplus. That, with enough diligence, we will access some fantastic things. But we have to do the work, we have to dig. I apply this when I'm designing a home or the concept for a new spa, when I'm organizing a gathering of people, when I'm choosing books to read and recommending them to friends or community. My belief is that each of us is on a Journey Around the Earth and we need to give ourselves the time and space to get there. It's something that contains gentitlements, some effort, some unexpectedness, and a bit of salt on taking it seriously.
Let your daily effort be towards knowing, understanding and accepting yourself. Do this for yourself and it will be your contribution to a more compassionate and inclusive world.
Ioana Marian,
Founder wellandia.eu
Update 2025:
After 15 years of discovering the Spa & Wellness world together, despreSpa.ro has become Wellandia.
A new name, the same team, the same vision and the same values that have inspired our little virtual explorer, Wello, to always bring you reliable information - about relaxation, natural resources, movement, personalized nutrition, modern technologies and recovery - to inspire you on your journey to wellness
Founder of Wellandia (formerly despreSpa.ro) and SpaEdu
