R&B soul singer Erykah Badu is branching out from the music world and exploring her passion for health and wellness. She is set to curate a wellness festival. The Dallas native is putting together Merasa: 7 Days of Regeneration, which will take place from June 1 to 8th at the Desa Potato Head, a beachfront resort in Seminyak, Bali.
The five-star resort prides itself on sustainability and wellness programming, maintaining beautiful outdoor spaces and green-designed art installations.
Badu’s program at Merasa, “Good Times, Do Good,” is meant to “help participants enrich body and soul by sharing new approaches to wellness and self-care.” The program includes everything from panel discussions, films, writing, and poetry to music performances, yoga and mindfulness classes, and energy and crystal workshops.
The program will combine traditional and modern Indonesian and Western wellness modules. Badu will host a talk and morning session to head the week of music and arts.
The “Didn’t Cha Know” singer wants “to create a healing vibration.” She recalled how she got into wellness from a very young age. She said, “As a nine-year-old enrolled in a summer dance program. Creativity and wellness are intertwined, and you have to feel well to create.”
Badu called Bali “one of the best places to breathe and heal.”
“Bali has some sort of vortex, an energetic pull. We have an opportunity to share remedies and tools with so many people there. I am so excited to be part of a community that feels the way I do about life and lifting.”
Badu is a certified Reiki instructor and a mother of three, and she said, “Everything they saw was part of me instilling wellness.” She said that she defines wellness as outdoor time when they can connect with nature and be active. A place “where you’re sitting with yourself being quiet [eating] the right kinds of healthy food” is best.
“I have to practice a thing for 10 or 20 years until I trust it. Now is a very good time for me to bring my best work out of me and share it,” Badu explained.
