Why Women in Wellness Love Michigan

Whether your idea of restoration is a quiet forest trail, a sunrise on the beach, a night under the stars or something else entirely, Michigan has a range of restorative outdoor spaces. Across the state, three women have recognized the significance of spending time outside and created programs to help others pursue better well-being in the places that make Michigan extraordinary. 

Back to recess 

A walk outdoors is what inspired Melissa Coulier to create The Recess Club. On one stressful morning, she headed out with a friend and felt the difference almost immediately as her cortisol dropped and her head cleared. 

“Fresh air is so undervalued these days,” she said. “It’s the simplicity of stepping outside and what nature can do for our nervous system.” 

She started The Recess Club to remind others of the importance of play. Recess was her favorite part of the school day, and she recalled its ability to completely reset her attitude and mood. 

“We’re given so many responsibilities as adults that losing the idea to play almost seems juvenile,” she said. “We got so far away from that, even though we know innately and scientifically how valuable it is.” 

A typical gathering of The Recess Club is simple, free and open to women. These meetups center on a 3-mile walk with conversation cards on hand for anyone who finds it hard to talk to strangers and the occasional stop for breathwork along the way. Paid events include longer hiking, kayaking and backpacking trips. A Facebook group keeps members connected between outings. 

The club is open to all women, regardless of experience. 

“If you don’t feel outdoorsy enough, there are outdoorsy-enough people walking right next to you,” Coulier said. “You can borrow their confidence. You can borrow their strength.” 

Coulier highlighted the importance of getting outside, even when you feel like you don’t have enough time. People who say they’re too busy often find just the space they need when taking a break outside. 

“The mental load we carry can be so heavy that it feels like we don’t have time to fit in something else,” she said. “But when you take time for yourself, provide oxygen to the brain, move your body, lower that cortisol, all of a sudden that mental load becomes much less, and clarity comes to the forefront. Those to-do lists feel a little lighter, a little easier.” 

She has watched Recess Club outings change people. One woman joined after years of being too anxious to hike alone, convinced no one in her life shared her interests. The result of stepping outdoors with the Recess Club was a complete mental lift. 

“She said it gave her the confidence to get outside in nature again, which is something she always loved,” Coulier said. 

Not every outing goes as planned, which Coulier considers part of the point. The club once held a 5-mile hike in pouring rain. One participant stayed quiet throughout, and Coulier wondered whether she was miserable. Afterward, the woman messaged her: “That was the most beautiful, transformative experience I’ve ever had. I didn’t know my body was capable. I didn’t know my mind was capable. I’m so proud of myself.” 

Connection through volunteering 

Dr. Patty Janes has spent her career studying what Coulier describes from experience. A professor at Grand Valley State University, she founded Michigan Cares for Tourism in 2012 after a life-changing volunteer trip to post-Katrina Biloxi, Mississippi. She came home wondering whether the same thing could happen closer to home, at a state park or a lighthouse rather than a disaster site. 

Michigan Cares held its first event in 2014 at the Waterloo Recreation Area near Chelsea. The post-event surveys confirmed what she’d seen in Biloxi: Volunteers reported a stronger sense of belonging, wider professional networks, more pride and less stress. The group has since completed 70 projects, drawing more than 6,500 volunteers and contributing over $2 million in labor and supplies to sites across the state. 

“We’re still 100% volunteer and 100% give back,” Janes said. 

The model is built to connect people, not just to the places they're restoring but to one another. A volunteer from an event in the Porcupine Mountains, where the group built an accessible path to a waterfall for visitors who require physical accommodations, recently told Janes that he’s getting married there this August. It reflects something she sees often: Volunteers return to vacation at the places they helped restore. 

“They own a piece of it,” she said. “They go and show their family, ‘See this walkway? I lugged 50 pounds of stone back and forth all day long so that trail could be built.’” 

The local community is often as much a part of the experience as the work itself. At a project in Harrisville, at a lighthouse on Lake Huron, local residents turned up to help. 

“The average age was 75 or 80, and they brought their Crock-Pots,” Janes said. “They fed 200 people breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can’t not feel differently about a community when they’re engaged with you in the experience.” 

Janes has come to see the work as more urgent than ever. At an international volunteer conference in South Korea, a country with one of the world’s highest suicide rates and lowest birth rates, Janes learned the country has built 246 volunteer organizations as a deliberate response to isolation and disconnection. 

“They view volunteerism as the catalyst to helping those issues, to giving people a sense of belonging, a sense of community,” she said. “I came back and told our board, our work is more important than it’s ever been.” 

A growing body of research backs her up.  A review published during the pandemic, drawing on 158 separate volunteer studies, found consistent links between volunteering and greater well-being; other work suggests people who kept volunteering through COVID were less depressed and isolated than those who didn’t. Janes will present findings from her own long-term study this October at a conference in Croatia titled “Culture, Tourism, and Well-being: From Heritage to Healing.” 

Breathing room 

Diana Springstead considers the physiological benefits of being outdoors. She runs DSI Michigan Retreats near North Muskegon, with sessions in the woods near Snug Harbor and along the Lake Michigan shoreline. 

Her work began with outdoor yoga and expanded after COVID-19 into mindfulness and breathwork, all informed by a master’s degree in brain health. She has led private retreats for veterans living with PTSD. Much of what she teaches centers on breathwork. 

"You stimulate your vagus nerve through breathwork, which is amazing,” Springstead said. “Breathwork is really healing.” 

Slow, deliberate breathing activates the vagus nerve, which helps move the body out of a stress response. 

A session might mean breathwork, grounding exercises, sound therapy from the waves or a quiet walk through the trees. Retreats run anywhere from an hour to a full day; the group often walks in silence before circling up to share, for those who want to. The Lake Michigan shoreline near Muskegon, with its dunes and open water, is especially moving. 

"People are just in awe of the beach," she said. "It looks like an ocean. It feels alive, being by the water and the woods. The energy is just incredible. You can feel it. What we see with our eyes and what we hear with our ears, it’s really good medicine." 

Springstead designed her retreats to welcome families. Children can learn to slow down and connect, and families can camp and fish just minutes from the retreat site. Her goal for everyone is a way out of rush mode. 

"You're going to get tools for mental health for your everyday living," she said. "You've just got to know your balance." 

DSI Michigan Retreats runs from May through October. 

There are countless ways to find your footing outdoors in Michigan, and no wrong place to begin. 

You can try forest bathing in one of the state’s old-growth forests or plan a night around stargazing at a dark sky preserve. There are quirkier options, like goat yoga at Black Star Farms. You can warm up in one of Michigan’s many saunas or pick a state park close to home and start walking. Discover more ways to better well-being in Michigan's wellness retreats.  

The hardest part, as ever, is just getting out the door. After that, Michigan tends to take it from there. 

“Have the confidence to give yourself permission to invite joy back into your life as an adult,” Coulier said, “whatever that looks like.”