Wellness Body Mind Spirit Expo in Brown Deer focusing on wellbeing amid pandemic fatigue
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The Wellness Body Mind Spirit Expo on Sunday offered a variety of exhibits, demonstrations, and presentations to community members which focused on a variety of topics like nutrition, stress management, fitness, and more.
The event took place in Brown Deer at the Four Points by Sheraton. Dr. Joanne Flanagan has provided this expo to the community for the past 10 years.
"It's about wellness for your body, your mind, and your spirit. Also your home, your environment, your surroundings, and I try to get people here that can help others have a better life. I have a psychiatrist here, I've got chiropractors, acupuncture, natural cosmetics, organic CBD, oils, organic pharmaceutical products, basement products, air purifiers and things to make your whole environment healthy," said Flanagan.
Flanagan is a psychologist and is an expert on electromagnetic stress through her Equilibrex pendant business.
"Everything around us is toxic, the air we breathe, the food we eat. We have the electromagnetic radiation everywhere with the wifi, cellphones, microwaves, hairdryers, and so all of this drains your energy and weakens your body and your immune system. It's important to keep our bodies healthy and balanced in order to stay focused on happiness and having a healthy life," said Flanagan.
Flanagan's goal with the expo is to bring a wealth of education and resources to improve your wellbeing.
"We have life coaches, we have meditation people, we have Reiki masters, a lot of different avenues in order to stay focused on happiness and not depression. Vitamins and nutrients are important also to keep your body healthy enough so you don't get depressed and keep your immune system balance," said Flanagan.
Vendors and businesses at this event like Aruna Tummala, the owner of Trinergy, says she has noted how the health pandemic has affected the wellbeing of many people.
"There's a lot of uncertainty that is going on so especially with the uncertainty, it increases our anxiety, we feel disempowered and we don't know what to do. Our anxiety and depression has gone up, even in children and teenagers and adults everywhere. There's also been an economic impact upon this and unfortunately all of these psychological effects then impact our immune system and brings our immunity down. The health of the immune system is important not only for protection against pathogens, but also for our mental wellbeing," said Tummala.
Tummala is a holistic psychiatrist and board certified in psychiatry and integrative medicine. She was educating people on the services and resources her business offers at the expo.
"What we have been offering is holistic, a pathway for mental and physical progress. The three main things that we do is remove chronic inflammation, we reduce toxicity, and we enhance the nutritional status and we do that with diet and lifestyle changes. We teach people about what is the right kind of diet both for mind as well as for your immune system," said Tummala.
The event also featured home enhancement products, psychics, palmistry, life coaches, beauty, skin and body care products, crystals, jewelry and more, with the goal for people to find healing and new ways to improve their wellbeing.
For first time attendee's, this opens their eyes and mind to a variety of ways to heal and focus on wellbeing, but for other's who have been coming to this expo for years, like Margo Dawson, they say this has made a difference and have learned a lot along the way.
"I think this is amazing. There's so much that we don't know about ourselves that the information that they have here is so informational and every spot that you go to you're going to learn something. I participated in this expo three years ago and when I came it was just so informational. I did a meditation and a psychic reading," said Dawson.
Flanagan said throughout the years she has hosted the expo, she has noted the difference it has had on people.
"They just have a new breath of life. They have people that have helped them focus on what's important in life," said Flanagan.
If you missed the expo, it will be back again on April 17. To learn more about the expo, click here.