The morning session of day two of the Global Wellness Summit 2015, began with a moment’s silence for the Paris atrocities of the previous day. Conference MC Giselle Fernandez read a poem she’d composed to commemorate the dead and injured.

Amy McDonald of Under a Tree then led a session with Martin Boudreau, president of Cirque de Soleil, and Ivan Chavez of Mexican entertainment company Grupo Vidante.

Cirque de Soleil is a diversified global entertainment business with a wide range of interests from the well-known shows to hotels and restaurants, entertainment design and fabrication. The company has just been bought out by TPG Capital and Chinese conglomerate Fosun in a deal that valued it at about US$1.5bn.

Delegates were excited to hear that Cirque is developing its business in new directions. Boudreau said “Cirque de Soleil will be getting into more immersive experiences.” He explained that “Partners want access to our creative teams and we work closely with them to develop whatever they are working on for the entertainment world.”

Chavez is Cirque’s partners in Mexico and the two explained how they came to work together. Cirque targeted Mexico because its shows were constantly on national TV, but few people in Mexico had seen them, leading to pent up demand.

His company owns and operates hotels and resorts, and are also developers and builders of homes and roads. They’ve built and operate an international airport.

Cirque du Soleil was created 30 years ago and has shows touring in more than 50 countries and 350 cities around the world, it sells 50m tickets a year. The first two permanent bases for the company were in Las Vegas and Orlando, but the world was surprised when Mexico became the third, and it was all down to the vision of Chavez’s father, said Boudreau.

McDonald asked Boudreau what Cirque de Soleil is doing to build a well world. “The performers are the most obvious aspect,” he said. “We have over a thousand performers who need to be in great shape. Some have to perform up to 475 times per year, so they need to be extremely fit. We give them access to very good training, goodtouring condition and health professionals, he concluded.

"But wellness is not just physical,” he said, “it’s about your state of mind. When it comes to our performances, we aim to transport our guests into another world where they can dream, laugh and cry: the vision and mission of Cirque de Soleil is to move people by touching them deeply.

“When you have the opportunity to touch people emotionally, you need to do something with it, he said, “Every week we get testimonies from people who have seen our shows and who are writing to us saying thank you because you inspired me to change something in my life – whether it’s to quit smoking, get out of a relationship in which they were no longer happy or deal with a drug addition. For us it’s a sign we're achieving our mission,” he said.

Delegates heard that Cirque du Soleil has always given 1 per cent of its revenues to charitable work in the community and that this has now resulted in many millions of dollars being donated. The company has set up Cirque du Monde, a social programme that aims to build self esteem in young people who have difficulties via a circus.

Chavez – who employs 15,000 people – talked about what drives people to feel good about themselves: tourism is the biggest employer of young people in Mexico and it enables those from poor backgrounds to find work which makes them feel better about themselves. “The number one responsibility we have is to make sure our employees are well looked after,” he said.

The company has free transport, a high-level in-house restaurant for staff and wooded walkways in nature.

Grupo Vidante has a foundation which runs after school clubs for children from low income families, where they can have nutritious snacks and are given the chance to try a range of stimulating arts-based activities.

The company is committed to developing the global profile of Mexico and as part of this it funded the cost of hosting the opening scenes from the new James Bond film, Spectre. This will have no immediate benefit to the company, but Chavez said it puts Mexico on another platform globally, as one billion people will see the film. “These four minutes are putting Mexico in people’s minds,” he said.

Cirque de Soleil is also committed to promoting Mexico. Boudreau broke the news to the GWS delegtes that the company’s next global show – which will go on the road for at least 15 years – will be inspired by the culture of Mexico and its history – the name of the show will be announced in 10 days: “We want to use our communication platform to tell a positive story of Mexico to the world,” he said.

The company also created the Cirque du Monde initiative to support homeless youths and to give them skills to rebuild their lives.

Alfredo Carvajal, president of Delos, then introduced a session on bullying and introduced Esther Oldak – head of educational development of sustainable intelligence at the Thomas Jefferson Institute of Mexico. This school, which has six campuses in Mexico City, was co-founded by Jeanene Bluhm.

Carvajal said: “When I visited, I was amazed to see zero bullying in the school; students love their teachers and they are able to have a very strong dialogue with their educators – being vocal about how they feel.”

Fifty per cent of a child’s education takes place in their home so parents of pupils at the Thomas Jefferson Institute must adhere to the rules and take care of their children’s education.

Oldak explained that she is in charge of eliminating bullying in these schools. She demonstrated the techniques taught to children at the Institute to help them deal with behavioural issues by inviting a group of children on-stage.

In this delightful session, the children gave one to one life coaching sessions – using role play – to leading spa and wellness industry figures.

At the conclusion of the child:adult coaching, she said “We have seen here that children can teach adults. These children have taught executives the life lessons they have learned at the Institute, because as CEOs, we forget the basics. We’re so caught up with success that we don’t realise that someone that isn’t happy cannot be successful.

“These children are the future leaders, so by teaching them wellness techniques, they can see how to be well and happy. The most important part of reaching a goal is being on the right path and these children are going to teach you how to enjoy the path to success and be happy.

The children’s lessons to the adults included:

If you get angry, take a break, hit a pillow and breathe

Speak clearly in an assertive way

Fill your 'happiness bag' by giving

Be thankful for what you have – if you say thanks you feel happy

Valuing what you have: some children have nothing to eat and you should value what you have

Trust yourself, have confidence in yourself and you can do anything

You control yourself – other people cannot control you

If your mum says you need to take a bath when she’s working, instead of watching TV, do what your mother tells you!

We’re responsible for our own happiness and we cannot blame others for our unhappiness.

The children’s five coaching skills.

Empathy
Empathy is walking in other people’s shoes - you think about how other people feel and what you have to do is to make that person feel better about a problem.

Optimism
Inner strength can help you see the silver lining in any event.
With optimism we can see the opportunities instead of the things that are wrong. We need to pursue optimism.

Goals
If you don’t have goals, you can’t do anything with your life. You need to know your destination.
To have goals you need to have a plan. Then you need to know which road to take and you need to trust yourself and imagine that you can achieve it.

If you are not successful, you need to draft another plan and keep trying until you reach your goal.

The most important part is believing in yourself and imagining you can achieve your goal.

Self control
If you don’t have control you don’t have focus.
You need to think first and then act. Express your emotions in an assertive way and speak clearly.
Thinking before acting is more important than the reverse: if you act without thinking, you mess it all up.

Gratitude
Value the things you have.
If you see street children begging, you must value that you have something to eat while they don’t.
Children can teach us the things we take for granted. they can touch their hearts in a different way. We believe the change in the world will come from the bottom up