Global Wellness Day was celebrated around the world on 11 June, with people participating in the not-for-profit event through activities including yoga, Pilates, zumba, dance, happiness workshops, nutrition lectures and children’s activities.

But Belgin Aksoy, founder of the event, says she hopes next year that Global Wellness Day will have an even bigger reach, and has set a goal of the United Nations observing the event as an international day in its calendar – next year set for 10 June 2017.

She also hopes that the event will help to raise awareness of healthy living habits that people can easily implement in their lives for the rest of the year.

“As I always say, Global Wellness Day should be recognised as a day to create awareness and motivation to ensure that people make positive changes in their lives that will impact their wellbeing on the other 364 days of the year,” said Aksoy.

Global Wellness Day was celebrated this year in 3,000 locations in 100 countries and on seven continents. Some of this year’s more unusual activities included sky-diving and snorkelling in Spain, plus bungee jumping in Lebanon.

“It was great to see people holding Global Wellness Day’s traditional ‘I say yes’ paddles up in the sky and under the sea,” said Aksoy. “It is also great to know that Global Wellness Day has not only been celebrated in spas or hotels, but also in schools, hospitals, homes for the elderly, orphanages and restaurants.”

In Turkey, the home of Global Wellness Day, more than 7,000 people attended the event in Istanbul’s KucukCiftlik Park, while in Italy, hundreds of people took part in a run in Florence at the Piazza Duomo, and in Ethiopia, T-shirts were donated to low-income children.

“Our goal is to spread awareness of living well in the physical and spiritual way, and to be instrumental in developing people’s perspective of health,” said Aksoy. “Global Wellness Day is already an enormous project that has reached out to more than 250 million people around the world, and we set our hearts and our energy in spreading this movement to every corner of the world.”